Any guidelines to avoiding duplicate content?

[lee_vhoi_ol]

To what extent should you rewrite content? Is changing words, and how a statement is stated enough? Do you have to restructure it completely?

[dvduval]

I think the one of the best questions you can ask yourself is...
What makes the content of my site unique?
Did you devise a way to use existing content? Or did you develop your own content?

Don't think in terms of changing words. Think more in terms of creating something exciting that engages your reader to the point they want to read more, return later, and tell their friends. If you get this part right, you will be prosperous one day.

[lee_vhoi_ol]

This is sort of in relation to the post i made here...http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520209.

The content is sort of technical, and of a reference type.

[lee_vhoi_ol]

I just tried a free software called DupeFree Pro. It helps detect duplicate content. I tried testing it, using an editted article, and found a 72% match with the original. Anyone tried this yet?

[hooperman]

If you write original material, do you really need this tool?

[lee_vhoi_ol]

If you write original material, do you really need this tool?

no, you don't. but i need it for the case in my other post...http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520209.

[stymiee]

If there is duplicate content then there really is a problem. If that content is on one site then you have PR leaks on your site. If you're trying to make a second site with the same content then you're trying to game the system and are asking for trouble. Duplicate content detection is only going to get better so I say don't even bother.

[coolslko]

Well.........duplicte content may harm your site a lot so you must take care while creating ontent for your site. You can get idea from other resources on the web but you must write your content in your own words including your main keywords.

See here About Google's guidelines about duplicate content-

http://www.google.com/support/webmas...n&answer=66359

[stymiee]

Well.........duplicte content may harm your site a lot so you must take care while creating ontent for your site. You can get idea from other resources on the web but you must write your content in your own words including your main keywords.

See here About Google's guidelines about duplicate content-

http://www.google.com/support/webmas...n&answer=66359

I wouldn't say harm your site a lot. But it definitely does hurt your site. Linking to dead pages, which is what duplicate content essentially is, obviously isn't a good thing. Especially if there is a lot of them.

[lee_vhoi_ol]

Both sites are already up. It's the information that's still going to be put up. One is more general, the other is more specific and contains things that are not found in the general site. They are similar, AND they are different. Both sites are already making sales, the more specific site also contributes a lot to the sales.

Ok, I think I should consider putting the information on the main site only, and put a link from the specific site to the main site's information resources.

[JJMcClure]

I wouldn't say harm your site a lot. But it definitely does hurt your site. Linking to dead pages, which is what duplicate content essentially is, obviously isn't a good thing. Especially if there is a lot of them.

Isn't the 'hurt' that the duplicate content just doesn't get indexed? You can't actually get penalised for it right?

[lee_vhoi_ol]

there are duplicate content that will get penalized, and duplicate content that will not get penalized. I read in Matt Cutts blogs that before banning a site for outright copying of content from another site, they check it manually and make sure.

[JakeJeck]

there are duplicate content that will get penalized, and duplicate content that will not get penalized. I read in Matt Cutts blogs that before banning a site for outright copying of content from another site, they check it manually and make sure.

Is this duplicate content of the above paragraph?


Not all duplicate content gets penalized, some does and some doesn't. Matt Cutts has a post in his blog where he said that before Google bans a site for copying content they'll first do a manual check to make sure the content was copied from another website.

[stymiee]

Isn't the 'hurt' that the duplicate content just doesn't get indexed? You can't actually get penalised for it right?

Right. The other 'hurt' is the PR that you send to pages that don't exist. Basically that's PR being wasted that can instead be channeled to other pages within your site.

[lee_vhoi_ol]

Is this duplicate content of the above paragraph?


Not all duplicate content gets penalized, some does and some doesn't. Matt Cutts has a post in his blog where he said that before Google bans a site for copying content they'll first do a manual check to make sure the content was copied from another website.

interesting.

it's 46% duplicate content, on minimum length=1 using DupeFree Pro. I'm assuming Google uses more sophisticated algorithms than this free software does, so it should be more able to detect this as duplicate content.

Anyway, this is just for the fun of it. I just realized it would be easier if I should just keep one copy of the information reference I'm putting up.