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 The hoopla over duplicate content
has been going on for quite some time now, and I see it as
simply just another money making scheme by online
entrepreneurs wishing to chase down the Golden Goose.
Almost every day, my inbox is inundated with yet another
"article converter" that is guaranteed to make
my private label rights articles hit the top of the search
engines with no fear of the Google Police knocking at my
PR door, screaming "Duplicate Content!"
I oft times wonder how many of the so called gurus take
the time to really read the Google Adsense Program
Policies. And I wonder many times during my working day
just how many people open their wallets to let fly their
hard earned dollars to these people.
Here are Google's exact words, and I quote: "Do not
create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with
substantially duplicate content." What does this
really tell us? Does it tell us that the PLR sites that
sell thousands of the same articles to people who don't
have time - or are too lazy - to write their own content
are breaking Google's rules? Not hardly. Google is telling
us that we cannot create what used to be called
"mirror sites" (This is a Web site which
contains the same information that is located on another
site. If the site abc.com is the same as def.com, then it
may be disqualified from listing by search engines) in an
attempt to increase Page Rank and increase Adsense income.
Many opinions abound on the forums and elsewhere on the
web discussing duplicate content. And many netrepeneurs
have taken advantage of the misinterpretation of Google's
policies to capitalize on this. Because Google has made
this the era of content, everyone that is involved in the
online communities is scrambling for the proper answers. I
see threads that are three to five pages in length on the
more popular forums with people agonizing over their fear
of duplicate content. What a field day for the guru's! I
wonder how many thousands - perhaps millions - have been
made by people taking advantage of this fear factor?
Lets examine the facts. If there really was a duplicate
content filter then many news web sites that publish AP or
Reuters news would be banned from search engines. Many
catalogue sites would go under, because they sell the same
products, using the same promotional items as other sites.
Affiliate sites would be banned from the search engines
because people use the promotional items provided by the
site owners. And even the giant eBay would go under,
because anyone who has spent time there sees a ton of
items listed which are identical, using the same
description, same images, and same user ID. I wonder how
Copyscape.com would handle this?
What about the sites that put articles and ezines in
archive. This content ends up being displayed both in
static pages and archives as well. Penalized for duplicate
content, when the website owner wants to have his articles
available to the general public? I doubt it...
Common sense is the order of the day. If you take the time
to provide original and unique content to your site, the
site is well optimized for the search engines, and you
have relevant backlinks, then your site will do well with
no fear of penalty.
Don't use article scrapers, which mirror the exact content
of other sites, and is nothing more than a rip off. If you
buy PLR articles, try to rewrite them in your own unique
voice. If your budget will allow, hire a ghostwriter to
create articles pertinent to your particular niche. And
most of all, just use plain common sense!
Visit http://www.for-the-record.biz
for more relevant articles on duplicate content, seo, rss
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