Wherever I go, I run into people who are scared to death that Google might ding their Web sites for “duplicate content,” but I’ll bet that none of these people has even bothered to read what the High Church has to say about dupe content.
I’ve read it, and I know the secret.
In its explanation of duplicate content, Google specifically focuses on hotel booking sites. Many of these are just cookie-cutter sites that are hosted under several different names and optimized for different travel locations. However, the pages themselves are just brief explanations and then some tools for searching and making reservations. In other words, there is nothing unique about each site, and therefore the search giant tries to push them lower on the pecking order (but if you’ve ever searched for, say, “San Francisco hotels,” about two zillion of these sites will immediately appear).
In its explanation, Google also singles out one hotel reservation site where the owner also provided customized reviews of local restaurants and places of interest. This, it said, was an example of a site’s adding value and deserving a higher ranking on the SERPs.
If you think about it, CNN, Fox News and a scadzillion other news sites all carry the same Associate Press stories, but it doesn’t affect their rankings on Google in the least.
So what gives?Â
What gives is what I just told you, but if you want further evidence, please read Jill Whalen’s authoritative article on duplicate content.
(Also, please check out my new feature on Traffic Tips. What’s especially useful in this article are the viral marketing tips, I think.)
Tags: Google, duplicate content
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