Duplicate Content- What’s the Big Deal?

Although double the flavor makes for fantastically delicious spearmint gum (just look how happy all the twins are!), duplicate content on the internet deserves to be a serious worry for SEO’s and site owners. If the content on your site is exactly the same as the content on another- Google generally believes that one of these sources is legitimate while the other is just a duplicate. They only want one of these sources to show up in search engines so they try to devalue, in no rankings, the copied content. If Google fails at identifying and rewarding the original source (as is apt to happen at times) then each version of the content essentially splits the reward and value attributed to it by search engines, hurting the results for both. Site owners who have the one version of content on a ‘Services’ page will be splitting the rankings with their ‘About Us’ page if each have identical content. Because of this, savvy SEO’s try to focus the reward onto one page- the one they want to index higher and that drives the most conversions (purchases, phone-calls, etc.).

Google launched the rel=”canonical” coding element to address this very concern- allowing developers to point Google to the preferred version of the content. However, when Matt Cutts originally announced it, he made it clear that it worked withing domains and not across URL’s. The included video offers Matt’s thorough- over 20 min- overview of the element and it’s uses.

 
Duplicate Content on Separate URL’s

Google posted the video in February, 2009. As you saw in the video, Matt clearly outlines the limitations of the new coding element (technically, not a tag). Later, in December, 2009, Google’s Webmaster Central Blog updated their support to include recognizing rel=”canonical” element between domains. They state:

“For some sites, there are legitimate reasons to duplicate content across different websites — for instance, to migrate to a new domain name using a web server that cannot create server-side redirects. To help with issues that arise on such sites, we’re announcing our support of the cross-domain rel=”canonical” link element.”

At Gravitate, we’ve had to use the rel=”canonical” link element on sites that have duplicate content issues within a site or when they have legitimate duplicate content on multiple domains. Allowing Google to index the correct version and focus the credit to the applicable page of content.

I’d love to hear how you’ve dealt with duplicate content issues. Let me know if you can add any flavor or depth to the discussion.

1. Research and analysis

2. Actual labor including- on-page changes, content creation and link building

3. Reporting and monitoring

Of the three segments, #1- Research and analysis and #3- Reporting and monitoring are the focus of most software programs. While the middle segment, #2- Actual labor, is by far the most labor intensive and requires the most experience and expertise.

We’ve taken a look at several of the automation tools out there in the video below, to give you an overview of their services and automation features. We used a report put out by Forrester Research. If you want to read the report yourself, download the report now. Take a look and let us know what you think. Do you know of automation tools that address the actual heart of SEO, or research and reporting tools better than those discussed below? Let us know.

1. Your site is a laboratory, not a sculpture. Sometimes we’ll have a client that wants their site, or a page to be 100% perfect before it goes live. Sometimes, this is also when their old page is either hideous and SEO and visual cryptonite, or it doesn’t even exist at all. I like to get the new page live as soon as possible, then tweak it as we go.

2. Calls to action. He emphasizes the importance of these on a page.

“Too often calls to action are hidden, by a loaded page with too many graphic elements, by appearing below the fold or by a bad design choice (too small, faint color, or a button that does not look like a button). By improving the call to action and making it prominent on the page, you can sometimes boost your conversion rates drastically”

3. Testing tools:

• Google Website Optimizer
• Amadesa
• SiteSpect
• Autonomy Optimost
• Omniture Test & Target

There are more good tips, but I like these three the best. It’s important to continually be trying to make each page reach it’s maximum potential.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Generating Unique Content from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

A couple points I want to emphasize. First, manipulating the search engines with fake-unique content may pay off short term, but you are basically playing a dangerous game and your pitted against the smartest computer scientists in the world at Google, that are trying to come up with ways to stop your content-gaming. My advice is to keep the content real and relevant by generating it yourself, or with a writer that is creative and most importantly is an actual person.

Also, getting user-generated content can be very difficult and shouldn’t be the initial strategy. It’s something that usually has to grow organically- with little forced upon it. Trying to force feed it can get expensive and exhausting.  Most sites that have huge user generated content are those that started very small and naturally caught on (viral), or had the advantage of an existing large community (eBay reviews, for example) that they could leverage. Trying to anticipate and build an entire marketplace around this, can get pretty expensive. Start something cheep on the side, spend little and see if it catches on.