There is no duplicate content penalty. Yes, really.
The issue of duplicate content is a real one for webmasters. But Gary Illyes at SMX this week stressed that duplicate content is not a penalty and that it is just a myth – it is actually a filter.
Even though duplicate content is not technically a penalty, it is referred to as such because it does act similarly to a penalty because it will not rank duplicate search results unless a searcher clicks on the link at the bottom showing “display search results similar to the pages shown above”.
But having duplicate content will not penalize a site in any way, and it doesn’t affect pages on the site that aren’t duplicated. So just because you have duplicate content doesn’t mean your site will never see the light of day in Google, just those duplicate pages could be hidden away.
That said, many SEOs will continue calling it a “duplicate content penalty”, but just be aware that the idea of duplicate content being a penalty is a myth.
Added: Don’t forget that duplicate content on a large scale does play a role into the Panda algo, however this tends to be for sites who steal their content from others, not those who originate the content in most cases.
Jennifer Slegg
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Alan Bleiweiss says
Right. It’s not a penalty. Except if two pages are duplicate of each other, Google has to “figure it all out” regarding which of those pages should show up and which should be “buried”.
If enough content on a site exists that’s duplicate across enough pages, the site will most definitely suffer in many different ways.
So even though it’s not a “penalty”, and because it IS a “filter”, it’s NOT good to have duplicate content. You NEVER want to leave it to Google to “figure it all out”.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve audited sites where duplicate content issues seriously harmed important pages.
Roxann Souci says
Neil Patel write a blog saying that he used to freely allow the posting of his articles on others sites. Then one for posted to a site with more “juice.” Google went with the other site as the original authors and shut down Neil’s site.
I wouldn’t rely on any info regarding Google that isn’t current. There have been too many changes. I’ll
Roxann Souci says
Please excuse any typos. I’m writing this on my phone.
Jennifer Slegg says
Yes, Google will usually only post the one that it deems the “original”. However, it isn’t a true penalty, as it doesn’t downrank the rest of a site. It just essentially demotes the one it determines is a duplicate, unless someone clicks the “similar results” link at the bottom of the search results.
Roxann Souci says
I stand corrected. I was under a total misunderstanding. I am very grateful for the correct info. Of course, I always write original content, but I feel badly about telling a client incorrect info. What a great place to get accurate info. Thanks!
Bruce says
Is there an official comment from Mr Google on this assertion?
Jennifer Slegg says
It was said at SMX and numerous people tweeted it at the time. There is also a webmaster central blog post from Google a few years back which stated the same.
Dan Petrovic says
Semantics.
Xavier Deloffre says
A remark that left doubtful ,)
Sinisa Gavrilovic says
Not true.
This is how Google manual action/penalty looks like:
Thin content with little or no added value
This site appears to contain a significant percentage of low-quality or shallow pages which do not provide users with much added value (such as thin affiliate pages, cookie-cutter sites, doorway pages, automatically generated content, or copied content).
Of course you will not get your self penalized if you copy paste several articles or just peaces of content, but if you copy-paste entire website, and clone it on different domain, linkbuild it for same keywords, you’re on the way to get penalized….
Jennifer Slegg says
We are talking too different things. You are referring to a site that wholesale copies entire other sites that offers little value, which does get penalized by Panda. However, what they are talking about specifically here is more from the point of view of the site whose content is being stolen, and whether they need to worry about being penalized because someone else has stolen their content.
Sinisa Gavrilovic says
I’m commenting your article, not the comments.
Title says:
There is No Duplicate Content Penalty in Google.
NOT true.
Than you state:
Be aware that the idea of duplicate content being a penalty is a myth.
NOT true.
I’m referring to your article punchline statements, not to some specific case, because you did not mention specific case in article (eg. partially stolen content).
Reality is: if you duplicate your content it might lead to direct penalty. If you clone entire website it may lead to penalty.
That penalty exists, has name, and it’s used by google.
I’d rewrite this article, because you’re misleading readers. You’re article refers to specific case of duplicated content, not all.cases.
In Case only parts of the content are stolen, duplicated or cloned, you will not get penalized, it can “only” affect your website rank or innerpage rank. Nothing more. Large scale duplications lead to penalty…
Sinisa Gavrilovic
SEO Analyst
Jennifer Slegg says
If you read the article however, it is directly quoting what was said at Google specifically about duplicate content, where it was said the duplicate content penalty is a myth. This is as a standalone penalty. The factor duplicate content plays in the Panda algo is separate from what Google is referring to. I did add a reference to Panda to the original article to clarify.