(Or…SEO Experts Still Getting it Wrong on WordPress Duplicate Content…) Following my posts last week about the latest duplicate content vulnerability in the WordPress blogging platform, it didn’t take long for someone to point out tha…

Christiae, like greg i’m having some problems with the plugin though…not sure why

Hopefully those pranksters don’t take it a step further by referrencing different URLs containing the same content from within (UGC) and from outside someone else’s site.

Definitely great logic to make internal linking decisions by.

>>- There’s no absolute penalty on pages perceived as >duplicates.

Wouldn’t two duplicate indexed pages within the same site dilute the “trickle down” link popularity between two pages rather than one? Wouldn’t there be MORE benefit to a site to just have ONE page indexed by virtue of garnering ALL the potential link popularity in the site? Couldn’t this diluted link popularity be PERCEIVED as a penalty?

>neither is it likely to result in negative consequences.

If I link to two pages with the same content from my homepage I would have to say that it WILL have negative consequences. I will waste the value of that internal link juice for a page that will never have value. I would be much better off just having one link to a page with the unique content, and prohibiting search engines from ever seeing the second link if it was absolutely necessary for my users.

If I’m passing off even 5% of my sites internal link juice to mobile pages/ printable pages or the like, I think that definitely IS a negative. That 5% might be what it takes to get me on the next page. This is a game of inches.

I agree that there is most likely no “penalty” for internal site duplicates, but I don’t think you can honestly say there wouldn’t be any negative consequences versus creating NO duplicate content within the site. Then again, I’m from the outside looking in, and could perhaps be missing something.

SPAMMERS: ’tisn’t worth your time

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I think the issues discussed in this entry are interesting; however, here are some things to note:

- The “duplicate pages” are within the same domain.

- There’s no absolute penalty on pages perceived as duplicates. We do our best to display one copy of each relevant page to each search query. Understandably, even if content “x” is repeated twice on one domain and three times on another domain, it’s still (ideally) going to be shown just once to the user. That’s not a penalty, that’s optimal selection. There’s a difference.

- We do our best to determine intent. As you can imagine, we’re quite aware of tools like Movable Type, Wordpress, etc. There’s a difference between a user intentionally creating duplicate content (to “fool” search engines), malicious pranksters referring to multiple versions of the same content on someone else’s page, and inadvertant duplicate content created via templates included with or defaults of a tool.

- Our duplicate content filters don’t work in a “binary” fashion. There are (and you can appreciate this) shades of gray (near-duplicate content, for instance).

- Lastly, there are many instances in which near-duplicate content is created by default (e.g., with various forum software’s “minimal” or “mobile” versions). This isn’t likely to help a site’s indexing or ranking, but neither is it likely to result in negative consequences.

Hope this helps clarify the issues.

My opinion is that duplicating your pages ONCE in your own domain won’t hurt you with the algos.

What Google means by dup content is 300 or so pages exactly the same except one or two words are changed.

I think the whole concern is not a concern. My Wordpress blogs are doing just fine?