9 replies to this topic

[on_way_to_fame]

Hi,

I am a wholesaler of costume and fashion jewellery and run a dropshipping program on our site, wherein we provide product information/pictures to our dropshipping customers. I was just wondering, because of product descriptions being same over several websites, can I be penalized for duplicate content and is there a way of avoiding this?

Thanks

[Jill]

There's no such thing as a duplicate content penalty.

However, if you want to avoid one or more of your sites being filtered, you'll the answer is to make them not duplicate.

[on_way_to_fame]

Interesting comment about there being no "duplicate content penalty". I am no SEO expert, but on the basis of a fair bit of reading I have done, and a quick goolge serach I have done for the term, it seems like there is a common belief, that it does exist? Any comments on this would be great.

Thanks

[Randy]

Lots of SEO Experts say there is a Penalty OWTF. Which is why some of us get a really good from time to time, because they've never actually tested any of their theories.

The so-called Duplicate Penalty is actually just a Filter. Meaning duplicates may be Filtered from showing in the SERPs, but if every other version suddenly disappeared would immediately show up because there was no Penalty. Just a filter.

[Jill]

Any comments on this would be great.

Don't believe everything you read.

[Clintorius]

Please try to use common sense for a minute.

Look at it from Googles point of view: The want to deliver unique and relevant content to a search. Showing the same content 12 times in a row is bad for them. Therefore they select wich of x numbers of copies they want to show their customers. This is their good right.

They do not care at all how you fell about it as a webmaster or where you got your copy from. They have no mission of making you a better webmaster, designer or person for that matter. Thus they do NOT give you penalties. They filter out what they like for the benefit of the searcher.

Google is not a law enforcement unit. It is a business. They think in commercial ways.

C.

[mal4mac]

When does the filter kick in? For instance, if you have an identical product description together with a unique review of roughly equal length would that be counted as a new page?

[Jill]

When does the filter kick in? For instance, if you have an identical product description together with a unique review of roughly equal length would that be counted as a new page?

It's got nothing to do with whether it's looked at as a "new" page.

They would simply choose just one of those pages to show, instead of both of them. Makes perfect sense and is exactly as it should be.

[mal4mac]

But there must be some upper limit to permitted identical test. You can certainly, to use a silly example, have identical text that's three words long! But what about thirty words? A hundred words?

[Jill]

I'm sure there is. I would simply use common sense to figure out what that might be. If you read both pages and they basically sound the same to you, chances are they do to the engines too.