Tel : 0800 0431 298 |
|
||
|
This article is taken from the first GSINC Podcast If you're a website owner then the chances are that "duplicate content" is something that could affect your website to a lesser or greater extent. This has become more and more of an issue in the last year or 2 and these days avoiding duplicate content filters is a must. When Google crawls a website part of its alogorithmic process is to identify what is sees as blocks of text content across domains that match each other or content that is in Google's eyes "appreciably similar" The logic behind this is that Google is seeking to serve up distinct information, - it does not want to serve up 10 results of the same information. So to get around this where Google identifies duplicate content it is filtered and given less priority in the search results. There will usually be a main website page Google has decided is the main source for the content and then all other websites will be filtered accordingly. The importance for all websites here is that if the page text or page copy is taken directly from a supplier's site or their promotional material more than one site may start to display the same or very similar content. Google may identify the suppliers content as the source and if it did then if your page is primarily similar content then your page is likely to be filtered and given supplemental or lower status. If you repeat large chunks of text from within in you own website then a similar effect can take place, so many pages on a website can become filtered and given supplemental status if it appears to Google they are primarily repeating the same content and there is a lack of unique text on each page. In the worse case if 80-90% of a site's pages do not contain predominantly unique copy then 80-90% of the sites pages could be filtered - as a result the site maintains only a small percentage of its impact as a large proportion of its pages will end up as supplemental results and those pages are unlikely to drive much traffic in Google. This is why we always warn clients against short web copy on product pages because not only is it not effective for users - it increases the chances of getting your pages filtered and as a result given lower supplemental status in Google. If you want to check the status of your WebPages go to Google and type site: followed by your web address into the search bar and then examine the status Google gives to your web pages. It is quite common to have a few pages on a site labelled supplemental - however if they are important pages on your website then action needs to be taken if you want those pages to rank well. 4 ways to avoid duplicate content filters: Following these 4 simple rules should help you avoid seeing your web pages filtered as duplicate content. 1. Do not set up mirror sites or clones of your main site and expect Google not to notice - Google will and in all likelihood will disregard those sites entirely unless they have unique content. 2. Always write unique copy for your webpages and never copy blocks of other peoples website text onto your web pages. Not only is it illegal it can also get your pages filtered in Google - so just don't go there if you want your pages to be well ranked. 3. Admittedly this is an inexact science but as a guide try and write at least 150 -200 words of unique text on each page where possible and try to avoid serving up near duplicate content from within your own site across multiple pages. If you have 50-word blurb that is the same on every page you need to try to offset this issue by adding plenty of unique text on all pages. 4. Finally duplicating title tags and description tags when there is low content on pages can cause issues - so make the effort to always write unique and descriptive title tags and meta description tags for your web pages so that it describes the page and creates variation in the page content. Ok I hope this helps demystify duplicate content, supplemental results and how to avoid being filtered by Google! For more information see 'Deftly Dealing with Duplicate Content' written by Adam Lasnik of Google
|
|
|
