Rethinking the Mythological Duplicate Content Penalty… It’s Really the Unique Content Advantage

Let’s start with a simple and true statement:

There is no such thing as a Google duplicate content penalty.

It does not exist.  Period.  Don’t believe me?  Fine.  Believe Google.

That’s right, the fine folks at the Big G have told the world that there is no duplicate content penalty.  None.  It’s a lie.  It’s a myth.  It’s nonsense.

Nonetheless, people still believe that there is a DCP.  Just today, I read a thread at the Warrior forum in which someone asked if they’ve been hit with the dreaded DCP.

Based on everything we know, that’s a lot like asking if Bigfoot rode up to your front door last night on the back of the Loch Ness monster, used faery magic to enter your home and then conjured up the ghost of Josef Stalin and commanded him to transform one of your socks in the hamper into another gray hair on your head.

It didn’t happen.  You just lost the sock somewhere.  Check behind the dryer.

The Internet is all about information sharing and syndication.  Google gets that.  That’s why they don’t lower some sort of nasty boom on sites that happen to run the same article as some other site.  The fact that your EzineArticle appears on Buzzle and your own site isn’t going to trigger G’s algorithm to beat the crap out of any of those three sites.

Yes, Google will notice that the content appears on multiple sites.  That much is true.  It will then evaluate each of those pages containing the same content and will decide which of them deserves the higher ranking for the material.  It makes that decision based on the secret formula embedded within its mysterious algo.

Let’s say you wrote an article for your little Blogspot blog and, just for kicks, you also submitted it as a column to The Atlantic Monthly.  If The Atlantic runs that article, you can probably count on that version showing up in the SERPs for the article instead of your little ol’ blog that you just started last Tuesday.

That doesn’t mean that your blog is being punished.  It just means that Google is trying to serve up the unique content on the best possible site amongst those carrying it.

Google wants people to keep using their search engine.  The best way to do that is to provide a good user experience.  That means that it makes more sense for them to list the version of the article that appears on an authority site above the little blog that has as many Adsense blocks as it does posts.  The blog isn’t getting a beatdown, the user is getting a better experience.

The fact that a site using syndicated content isn’t necessarily ranking for that content isn’t a penalty.  It’s just common sense.  Google doesn’t want users to search through eighty five thousand copies of the same article.  That doesn’t help end users.  They gotta pick and choose.

So, if you submit an article to 2,399 different article directories, the omnipresence of the content isn’t going to adversely effect its search engine performance.  If it hits the right keywords, gets the right inbound links, etc., it’s going to show up on what Google believes to be the best available site carrying it.

Google isn’t going to look down its digital nose at your site for carrying syndicated content.  It won’t reward a site that offers little or no additional value, but it won’t crush the site out of spite.

The recent post from Google dismissing the DCP does not, however, mean that everyone should run off and raid EzineArticles for 59,833 pages worth of site content.  You won’t get penalized for sharing all of that article goodness, but you definitely won’t con the G into loving you for it.

From Google:

However, you may also want to consider content that’s being duplicated across domains. In particular, deciding to build a site whose purpose inherently involves content duplication is something you should think twice about if your business model is going to rely on search traffic, unless you can add a lot of additional value for users.

The key line in the Google post:  We select what we think is the “best” URL to represent the cluster in search results.

That’s right, if you have the best site in the eyes of the might G, you can even break through and rank for duplicate content.  It isn’t just about who was first with the story.  It’s about which of the sites carrying it is the best of the bunch.

And that’s where unique content enters the picture.  Google may not be snuffing out sites for using some duplicate content, but it is more than happy to reward those who are providing an optimal user experience.  And, as the people at G have told us over and over and over and over again, that means giving users something uniquely valuable and important.  In other words, unique content.

You can get some mileage out of duplicate content if it’s on a site that also provides something uniquely valuable.  You can create archives of relevant duplicate content to offer user value while still kicking ass in the SERPs with fresh, new content.  Even if you don’t build up any mojo on the duplicate content portion of your site, we know that original content will rank on its own merits.

So, don’t lose any sleep over the fact that your site features an article you wrote and that has been submitted to article directories.  Maybe your site will rank for that content, maybe it won’t.  It will not, however, be penalized in any way for having it sitting there.

Stop thinking about the fiction of the duplicate content penalty.  No one is going to hurt you for running syndicated material.  The G will, however, show you some love if you’re running with valuable original content at the same time.

Original content still rules.  It’s the backbone.  It’s the best way to make sure you’ll consistently make the SERPs and it’s the best way to add real value to your site, which is what Google rightfully wants to see.  However, if you’ve been spending a lot of time worrying about duplicate content issues, you can now redirect your energy toward something slightly more productive.  I recommend thinking of ways to use original content as a way of improving your site’s value, personally.

And you know where to get high quality original content, right?  Hint:  Here’s my contact form.