Is Duplicate Content So Bad?

A

aj113

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
909
Reaction score
570
I'm no expert at SEO but I've been around in IM for long enough to know the basics. I'm struggling to understand why duplicate content is such a bad thing.

If for example I have a ten page site, and nine of those ten pages have articles from ezine articles, and only the home page has original unique content, won't that be enough for search engines? Sure, I understand that the pages with the ezine articles are not likely to get visitors but wouldn't the presence of well written, keyword-rich high quality content be enough to convince the search engines that the site is genuine, non-spammy and that the niche is well covered? Then go ahead and promote the home page only?

After all, I thought this is the reason that ezine articles and sites like it exist - so that webmasters can get good quality content for their websites in exchange for an OBL?
 
Advertise on BHW
Im of the opinion that its better to spend the time or money on new, unique content that provides value instead trying to trick the engines. When you invest in content your site and seo becomes a long term thing, you might be able to rank with duplicate content but your putting yourself at risk if you want to stay ranking for a long time
 
Just because you have 1 good article, doesn't mean your site is worthy of traffic. Google will send traffic to sites that are going to offer unique and beneficial knowledge to their readers.
 
With duplicate content you just won't get good positions in Google.
 
duplicate content -> not a worthy infront of googles eyes..

lets sayyou are going to computer shop to buy a ram.. what can u do if they gave u 100 ram of same spec and same company (identical??).. u will directly step out.. :) same thing if they give you 100 diff ram of bit diff specs and diff company, offcourse you will buy one..

So for users interest google hates it.
 
OK thanks for that chaps, so now I ask - what is the point of article directories? What is their main intended function if not to provide website content?
 
aj113 said:
OK thanks for that chaps, so now I ask - what is the point of article directories? What is their main intended function if not to provide website content?
Click to expand...

I always figured they provided a source of backlinks. When I was doing SEO in 2009, I wrote several articles on ezinearticles, AC when it was still around, squidoo and hubpages (which are merging; my, things have changed). Funny thing, it actually helped me get a single sale (which got refunded, but nevertheless).

I imagine they also allow you an outlet for the use of optimized keywords, if you didn't want to limit yourself to articles on a blog.

EDIT: lol, I might add that it was for the content as well. I was looking at it from the SEO perspective.
 
aj113 said:
OK thanks for that chaps, so now I ask - what is the point of article directories? What is their main intended function if not to provide website content?
Click to expand...

They are just used to provide backlinks to your backlinks.
 
Yes, duplicate content is that bad. I've made sites before with all duplicate content and hardly any of the pages get indexed and we struggle to get traffic to that site for the new few months.

Why should Google send traffic to your website that has content you stole from someone else, when they could just send the traffic to the person you stole it from? You're not adding value by moving content around so Google doesn't reward it.
 
The duplicate content is very bad for SEO purpose on Google!

So make sure to write / have unique content that copyscape 100%!!!
 
You will only cheat yourself. Spend the money on cent ant and get shares a quality likes. Then you will see the results you want.
 
I'm not sure what's the point of article directories today, but two years ago or so, they were a decent place to get a backlinkfrom. Some of the article directories actually ranked quite high and got a ton of traffic from Goolge, so they point for the owner(s) was profit.
 
Article directories originally were exactly for the purpose you described. But backlinks would rank anything back then and the spammers turned the article directories into spam farms.

So Google devalued these types of links and banned many article directory sites, until really only a few quality ones exist today.

They are still around because their owners haven't given up yet. Many did.

Today, article marketing is for the traffic.
 
Article directories are out of rage now. Google see it as low quality now because of much spammy content in those submitted articles. In addition, Matt Cutts didn't recommend to get backlink on this kind of site.
 
Yes duplicate content will sink your site
your site in the ground or 6 feet under
dont do it on your money site
 
Just remove the duplicate content and put some fresh and unique articles otherwise you will get penalty from google.
 
It will create a huge problem for your ranking in Google SERP. Google is not a big lover of any cheating schemes including scrapping and posting duplicate content, it will affect your ranking in a bad way.
 
What about the Matthew Woodward experiment where he successfully ranked a site with (one) 1,5k unique content article + (ten) PLR articles.
 
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top