Duplicate Content on your site

“Every time I find the meaning of Life, they change it.”

~Author Unknown (But Damn Clever)

You know why I like change?  Because I never really figured out what to do in the first place, so when shizzle changes, it’s like I’m getting a Do-Over.

Google makes sure we get “Do-Overs” all  the time, don’t they?

They’re givers.

Stupid Google Changes that can HURT You

Last week, Leslie Rohde, Dan Thies and I conducted a Live Webinar entitled “Stupid Google Changes that can Hurt You“.  I took many notes and was unnaturally silent.  As promised, we recorded the Webinar, and it’s now available in bite-sized chunks of geekery and profoundness.

I’ve split up the webinar according to topic, and will be releasing each nugget over the next few days.

Bonus Tip

BTW, write this down:  Since I’ll soon be turning up the volume on my How to Market with Video project, I thought you might like to know this little tid-bit:

The viewership on short, 10-15 minute videos – even when they are simply tiny parts of a larger overall presentation, it about 1000% higher than the viewership on a single long duration video.  Because effective Video Marketing AND Video Training is ALL about consumption, take a moment and look at your current video releases and see if you’ve got some magnum-opus length videos out there boring your viewer to tears.

Parts 1 and 2 of “Stupid Google Changes that can Hurt You” is now available for your viewing enjoyment!

Duplicate Content and You…and DEATH.

In this video, Dan and Leslie horrify us with their tested theory on why your excellent and thoughtful web site might be screaming “SPAM” to the Search Engines.

Part 2 – Duplicate Content and You…and DEATH.

The stunning conclusion complete with a teeth-grinding cliff hanger!

When you’re done watching these first 2 videos, do 2 things:

1) Leave me a comment – say “Hi”, ya know – just check in and let me know how you’re doing…
2) Go to Http://www.SEOBrainTrust.com and get on Leslie and Dan’s Newsletter and grab the bonus videos (Which are really cool).

FTC Disclosure of Relationship and Compensation: You’ve heard about the completely selfless and helpful decision by our friends over at the FTC on the matter of Affiliate Endorsements, right? I’ll talk more about that later, but for the time being, I am required to disclose to you my affiliate relationship and the nature of my endorsement of Dan and Leslie.

Here it is… Ready?

They’re FREAKING SMART…
I get NO MONEY if you decide to buy anything from them.

BAM. How you like me now Mr. FTC? I’m ALL UP in that COMPLIANCE. Like a BOSS.


Tagged as: Andy Jenkins, Dan Thies, Duplicate Content, FTC, Google, Internet Marketing, Leslie Rohde, Like a BAWSS, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Videos, Webinar

  • http://paoloorlando.info paolo

    Like always your is the best content around.I really dont know how you can deliver so good content.I am watching and reading Stompernet 999 and it is something with so a high value that i cant believe that i am not paying to see it!!
    kEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS
    pAUL

  • http://www.FredaHill.com/blog/ Freda Hill

    Big thank you Andy, missed the webinar the other morning,
    hey, this is kinda scarey, how can mass numbers of people
    not repeat something they hear and now get booted for sharing
    with friends, bah, there is a limit to how much there is to
    know on any one subject, so whats it matter how many different
    ways they want it written, many copies of the same information
    is like handing out leaflets to an event, so it boils down to who’s
    the greediest on earth… and I guess some will stop using google…
    Cheers, Freda
    PS. my new site won’t have any duplicate content as its gonna be
    a garage sale site and no-one will have the same junk to put up for grabs, he he

  • http://www.uncleflag.com Eddie

    If they handed out honorary doctorates for SEO you two would definitely get one!

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention Duplicate Content on your site -- Topsy.com

  • Bill

    Thanks Gents,

    I appreciate the info and would like to know if you can recommend a good tool for checking my sites for duplicate content internally.

    Take Good Care,

    Bill

  • http://sherylloch.com Sheryl Loch

    Thanks to Andy, Dan, & Leslie!
    I was on the call but, I am sure I missed bits & pieces. Thanks for putting up the vids so, I can be sure I catch the hidden gems!
    I was baffled on the webinar though. For some reason that hour show seemed to mess with my clocks & showed it to be like 2 hours & 40 minutes. Strange eh?
    Loved every minute!

  • http://www.hoodiagordoniiliquid.net Mikko

    Hey Dan and Leslie,
    You did talk about blog networks and link building on those videos. Can you recommend any good blog networks? Is that a good way to build links? Is the My Article Network good one?

    Thanks,
    Mikko

    • http://texasseo.com Kevin Lam

      Mikko, watch the videos.

  • http://www.wordpressthemestudio.com DeeDee

    Thanks for posting the videos Andy, I have friends who missed the webinar that can now see and hear what was discussed.

  • http://www.darntoothysam.com Thomas Drayton

    I was there for the full 2hr webinar and it was solid gold… except for the parts where AJ spoke anways.

    =p

    Already signed up for my membership… Good bye “other guys”.

    Thomas

  • Great work

    Thanks you guys for the free videos in stompernet. I guess I don’t even have to watcj. Thanks watching leslie rhode videos over and over. I used expression engine dynamic functionalities to dominate the search engines without firing a single article. I have massive amounts of long tail number ones and now number 88 on a keyword worth one hundred thousand searches per day. A ll in less then three months. If you know anything about expression engine and combine that with lesllies advice. total domination. Every entry is a page and every page has a unique title tag and description. Even if it’s the same thing. I think I’m set up to be a rich person.

    • Doris Bentz

      Wow “expression engine” sounds very sophisticated, can you tell me where one can learn that? That is, if it’s not too difficult.

      Thanks,

      Doris Bentz

  • Eric

    Hey Andy, I glad your posting these videos. I signed up for the webinar and really wanted to see it but was unable at that time so thanks for posting.

    I was wondering if you could answer a question for me. I took the $1 stomernet video course a little bit ago and followed a link that has a good CSS layout templete. The source was free to take and I decided to use it. Do you think the CSS templete (all the coding) that I used for my site is looked at as duplicate content? Because I am sure there are probablly a hundred different people using these templetes on the web since the designer says they’re free to use.

    If you do think that Google looks at the templete as duplicate content, do you think by changing the background colors would solve this? Please let me know what you think or anyone else…

    • http://www.linkliberation.com/ Dan Thies

      Eric, the template is just a wrapper for your content – very basic layout that a LOT of sites are using. The content is the part people read. In other words, don’t worry ’bout that. ;-)

    • http://texasseo.com Kevin Lam

      Btw, just think of a template as a car frame… whatever type of engine, body kit, logos, paint and any other accessories is up to you to stand out is up to you.

      • Eric

        Thank you so much for responding Dan and Kevin!

  • Tom

    G’day Andy,

    Compleeeeeetely off topic here … but I keep thinking I should mention it.

    Dude, your links in your emails do not work without the trailing /

    eg, the link in your last email was: http://www.andyjenkinsblog.com/DuplicateContent – That returns a Server 500 error for me, and I am sure others too. Though I am sure it also works for some.

    Try adding in the / at the end (eg http://www.andyjenkinsblog.com/DuplicateContent/) and all will be happy and merry and gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

    Cheers

    Tom

    PS – thanks for the great content dude.

  • http://www.tom-harvey.com Tom Harvey

    Andy

    More great tips, thanks. Have downloaded the videos to watch again.
    Interesting to see your FTC comments as have been following the chat and developments around those issues.
    All the best

    Tom

  • http://texasseo.com Kevin Lam

    Hey Andy,

    I’m doing pretty good. Thanks for sharing the webinar with us. I actually just tweeted this entry and then noticed the tweet button above, lol. Whatever.

    You’re still unemployed? You bum. Come out with something new already. If not, you can help with my ad network: http://fairadsnetwork.com lol.

    Quick question, maybe I missed it some where in the webinar, but… how WOULD you protect yourself from the bombers who are trying to sabotage you? I don’t have that problem, but to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does happen soon.

    We’re outranking a lot of SEO companies that have been in business since 1995… and we’ve only been active for the past 6 months! In that short period of time, I’ve already built a solid 5-figure monthly income. Most of it was from my own efforts, but have recently partnered with a friend, Mike Richey, and hired about a dozen helpers.

    I’m afraid with this much success, I may end up getting bombed on by my competitors. Not sure if there’s a way to protect myself in case that does happen. Then again, not sure if it will hurt me much because my home page content changes over time as I add on more pages. It currently displays 10 blog entries at a time although the majority of the top content remains the same almost indefinitely.

    Thanks,
    Kevin

    • http://www.linkliberation.com/ Dan Thies

      Kevin, if your home page doesn’t stay static, not a whole lot to worry about with proxies and stuff like that. You can read the details of that issue on my blog:
      http://www.seofaststart.com/blog/google-proxy-hacking

      • http://texasseo.com Kevin Lam

        Thanks, Dan, that’s what I figured, lol.

  • http://www.comoganardineroxinternet.com/ ROGELIO

    Excellent content as always. Since I saw the Stompernet SEO Video Course, I have been pleasently surprise to see how a little intelligent work can change things all around. Thanks for sharing this and keep the format as it is; there are enough boring gurus that can put you to sleep faster than you can say “free traffic”.

    Great work guys
    RARG

  • http://www.compareautoinsurancequote411.com Kamlesh

    This is really informative videos. Thanks for the in-put.

  • http://www.thecoolghoul.com Larry Combs

    So, I guess this shoots Howie Schwartz Web 2.0 strategies all to He*l!
    Which I’ve been busting my butt on for 5 months.

    • http://www.shaunguido.com Shaun Guidolin

      Remember everything evolves.. but it does depend how similar the items are on different social media sites.

      If you take a “Exact Copy” example that Leslie gives, you won’t have any penalty, as every social media site has a different template, even though the “main content” is the same – your “article”. However at some point this will be easy to detect and strip away, as say the HubPages template is the same on every page, so strip that away and you have your article .. then strip out say a squidoo template – and all you have is your article. Compare the 2 .. and zappo, it’s flagged.

      There is one true test for today – are your sites/properties ranking? If they are you are ok – today. But — if you want long term success, you’ll want to have “unique” articles on each page — which means at the very least spin the damn things, but what I’d suggest is that if you have properties ranking today and you know that they are dupes – change the content (or maybe better – add content) so that they become more unique, and will last long term.

      It’s important to remember Google’s goal here, it’s not to kill you sites, it’s to provide the best options to it’s users.. and having 10 of the same in each of it’s top 10 slots is bad for the end user.

  • Walter Daniels

    Thanks for these videos and content. Every time I watch one, I learn something, or see a new way of looking at things. I’d have to make more money than is good for any Human Being, to afford this, if you charged for it. It is genuinely priceless.
    The “smarts” you all have is looking at things from a very different way, not just “book smarts.” That’s why you are all so good.

  • Martin R.

    Rather well beyond our own Internet Marketing capabilities,
    still these Andy Jenkins interviews are really very fascinating.

    Best wishes from Guerrero Mexico

  • http://artcamp.com.mx/ Martin R.

    Google seems to treat our pages very well (site was founded in 2000)

    IMO perhaps there are not so many people searching for things Mexico ?¿

    I dont know. And I need to know. Eventually. At least by December 2012.

    If I cant figure out this internet marketing stuff by them, I am going to give up.

  • Martin R.

    The Andy Jenkin’s expositions make me feel as if maybe I am not as smart as I thought

    Still, the ringing of a bell way inside my awareness is like a signal in the cavernous darkness

    the cavernous darkness of my ignorance, even though I take copious notes in my workbook

  • Martin R.

    sorry men, ignore my irrelevant commentary, these dialogs are obviously quite serious;

    the current topic is reassuring since we have lots of content and all of it is 100% original

    thus to our relief we dont have to worry or anguish about an impending Google God wrath

    yet i cant get past the idea that this series of dialogues is somhow extraordinarily valuable

  • Martin R.

    i read an article about how the internet is mostly all copies

    so, now, people dont want to pay for what are only copies;

    that copies, people think should have a price tag of . Free.

    This article maintained that what is IN now are originals

    Perhaps Google is attempting to reflect the underlying value

    the underlying value of every web page in terms of its Originality?

  • http://www.video-editing-software-tips.com Lance

    Thanks guys. Always not only great content (and not duplicate!) but also calm and measured whilst the world goes nuts reacting to every little shift in the Google universe.

  • http://www.joycebrister.com Joyce Brister

    Had to drop by and get a dose of seo from some of my favorite gurus.

  • http://www.geovision.co.il mor

    Hi Andy,
    Great video! What about sites (people) that are duplicate my content?

  • http://www.shaunguido.com Shaun Guidolin

    Speaking of duplicate content — and the retention factor — I seem to remember a “going natural” video from a year ago saying the exact same thing about the “more content than your template” concept…

    And why must everyone talk like andy — fo shinzle biotch ? Peach out.

  • Nick (BacklinksClinic)

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!PRESS RELEASES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    ***ANDY***
    Please explain how the duplicate content ‘rules’ work with respect to Press Releases. I have yet to find a reliable explanation of how this is slipping through the Google net and long term is a site that carries a ‘back catalogue’ or re-publishes press releases

    Thanks

    Nick

  • Nick (BacklinksClinic)

    At risk……ooops

    Thanks

    Nick

  • http://composttumblerssite.com Renee

    Thank you for the good information. I’m glad I found your site, thanks to a tweet by Ed Dale. I’m fairly new at internet marketing and there is so much to learn and your information is very clear and to the point.

  • http://www.basketballshootingcoach.com Dave

    Thanks Andy, my name is being deleted from the lists of your supposed competition.
    There are about 300 keywords spread through out my site, I’ve been ranked page 1 -5 on 100 of them and top 15 on the rest (home page has a Google rank of 4). The entire site is unique data. Now, I can’t find me in the top 50 pages on 75 of my top 100 keywords. There is little duplicate content, and what is is me duplicating what I consider to be information that needs repeating, except for the template, and most pages are quite long.
    I’ve done everything white hat just like they wanted, now Google is punishing for that, that sucks and I have no idea what to do now.

  • Bill

    Thanks for increasing my awareness of some things that I can avoid.

  • Jim

    True, I do miss the fancy pants (quote from Frank) video stuff .

    Thanks for asking the questions and summerizing your take on it…

    Cleared it up for me.

    Jim
    BusinessAndMarketingMakeover.com/blog

  • KiwiKev

    Hey Andy, Dan and Leslie,

    Excellent Content Again.
    The difference between you guys and the wannabe coaches,
    is that the wannabe coaches keep telling repeatedly us what to do,
    and You guys tell us Specifically “How To Do It” and then…
    “How To Do It Better”.
    Cheers Guys
    Kev

  • mike

    As always, great information that can be put to use right now. Time to tweak some pages.

  • Dan

    If Google punishes duplicate content as you guys say, then why do the major article directories that are filled with duplicate content rank so high in Google?

    Can someone explain this to me clearly?

    Thanks

    • http://www.linkliberation.com/ Dan Thies

      We’re talking about observable effects here… most likely (some) article directories have a great deal of authority because of inbound links. Not sure what kind of competitive SERPs you’re seeing where article databases are ranking especially well.

  • Jack B

    Always great information. Someone has to steer us around all the google holes on the net.

  • http://www.internet-marketing-website-design.com/ Boris

    Good stuff as always.
    One way to deal with templates and duplicate content is to create editable regions in some parts of your templates. I do it in Dreaweaver where in places like right navigation column, I create a couple of small editable regions where I change links a bit or place a paragraph or two of related content to the topic of the page.
    This of course has nothing to do with the left column where the original content/article is. It is always original.
    As I look closely at Google’s updates, I notice one trend. They don’t like people to automate tasks related to content creation or SEO. It has to be “hand made”. Of course, they don’t mind using streamlined processes themselves.

  • http://www.salesobjections.net Greg

    Hi,
    interesting ?
    I have a site that knocked me out of #1 position on Google for my keyword a few weeks back. Only 7 articles on the blog and 5 were reprints from other authors. Also, this blog had 900 backlinks and 800 of them came from another blog of the same author ?
    How does Google let that one slip by?
    Greg

  • Alex

    So if I syndicate my articles (that are also published on my website) I’m shooting myself in the foot? Even if every syndicated article has a link to the original article on my website?

  • http://www.transformyourmind.com Art Martin

    Andy
    I agree in general to what you are quoting in your recent email. Yet there are
    exceptions to the case.
    Most people are single trackers. Give them more than one task it fouls up their brains ability to function and overwhelms them
    I have been working in the field of NeuroPsychology for 25 years.
    People who are right brain oriented can function with multiple tasking
    without problems. The right brain functions digitally in in pictures instead of linear analog processing. Left brain functions at about 34 bits per second while the right brain functions at 240,000 bit per second.
    This explains why people can photo read a book in 30 minutes to two hours where the average person may take up to 24 to 40 hours to read the same book.
    Granted we can accomplish more single tasking. I have discovered many exceptions to the case.

    Art Martin Ph.D.

    -

  • http://www.uspassport123.com/blog/ Nicole Smith

    Just to tell you that i am very happy to see your succeed. My online bussines and my life are now very VERY good, thanks in part for your content and life example.