SEO Effect Of Duplicate Content

	There are a lot of ways that you can improve your site's page ranking in search engines, unfortunately, not all of them are good. Some people employ certain methods in acquiring a high page rank in search engines, even if these are considered to be deceitful in the sense that they are designed to trick the search engines - one of these methods is actually duplicating web content. What is duplicate content? Duplicate content in SEO is actually any web content that is considered to be similar to another site. Search engines have actually implemented new filters specifically to monitor these types of deceitful attempts to improve site's search engine page rankings. A lot of people think that by creating multiple but similar replicas of their web pages or content, that they will be able to improve their site's page rankings since they will be able to get multiple listings for their site. Since search engines are now monitoring these types of trickery, sites using duplicate content can actually end up getting banned from search engine indexes instead of improving their ranking.
	What are considered as duplicate content? There are a couple of duplicate content types that are being rampantly utilized by a lot of people, each one a bit different in their use, but all of them employed for the same purpose, which is to trick search engines to get better page rankings. One way of getting duplicate content is by having very similar websites or identical web pages on different sub-domains or domains that offer basically the same content. This may include landing or door pages aside from the content, so make sure that you avoid using this if you don't want your site to become vulnerable to search engines' duplicate content filter. Another method of creating duplicate content is by simply taking content from another website or page and reorganizing it to make it appear dissimilar to its original form, though it is actually the same. Product descriptions from many eCommerce sites are actually being utilized by other sites as well. Other sites simply copy the product description of manufacturer's utilized by other competitive markets as well. And add the fact that the product name, as well as the name of artist, manufacturer, writer or creator would be included, a significant amount of content would show up on your page. Although this is much harder to spot, it is still considered to be duplicate content, or spam. Distribution of copied articles by other sites other than the one that distributed the original article can also be considered to be a duplicate content. Unfortunately, although some search engines still deem the site where the original article came from as relevant, some however, do not.
	How do search engines filter duplicate content? Search engines filter for duplicate content by using the same means for analyzing and indexing page ranking for sites, and that is through the use of crawlers or robots. These robots or crawlers go through different websites and catalogues these sites by reading and saving information to their database. Once this is done, these robots then analyzes and compares all the information it has taken from one website to all the others that It has visited by using certain algorithms to determine if the site's content is relevant, and if it can be considered as a duplicate content or spam. How to avoid duplicate content? Although you may not have any intentions to try and deceive search engines to improve your site's page ranking, your site might still get flagged as having duplicate content. One way that you can avoid this from happening is by checking yourself if there are duplicate contents of your page. Just make sure that you avoid too much similarities with another page's content for this can still appear as duplicate content to some filters, even if it isn't considered to be spam.

Top 10 Don'ts for SEO Copywriting

Following in the footsteps of Rand Fishkin and Guy Kawasaki, I decided to come up with my own list of don'ts. There is no shortage of don'ts when it comes to SEO copywriting. It seems this niche got off to a rough start many years ago when early comers somehow misconstrued the core principles of the trade. Allow me to elaborate on how not to write SEO copy. 1. Don't shove as many keyphrases into the copy as humanly possible. It's not about the sheer volume of search terms you include. Yes, Google and other engines should be able to follow what the page is about. Yes, engines are looking to match a searcher's query with search engine optimized content on your web pages, but which pages land at the top is decided through a series of calculations far more complex than any simple ratio. When you overload copy with keyphrases you sacrifice quality and user experience. 2. Don't lose site of balance. If SEO copywriting isn't about the percentage of keywords within the copy, then what is it about? Balance. You have two audiences with SEO copywriting: the search engines and your site visitors. But surprisingly, the balance doesn't come with serving both masters well. The balance comes in how much you cater to the engines. You see, your site visitors always come first. However, if you write with too little focus on the engines, you won't see good rankings. If you put too much focus on the engines, you'll start to lose your target audience. Balance... always balance.

3. Don't let someone else choose the keywords. If keyword research isn't a service you offer, an SEO firm, keyword specialist or some other professional that your client hires will have to conduct the research. Don't just accept keyphrases these folks toss your way. Ask to see the entire list with recommendations as to which terms would be best strategically. Then you, as the professional writer, can decide which will also work best within the copy. 4. Don't sacrifice flow for numbers. This is a follow-up to number three and is a major issue with bad SEO copywriting. SEOs or clients sometimes insist on using hacked-up search phrases that simply don't work in a normal sentence. An example? "Candies samples free." Many copywriters will just grin and bear it, sacrificing quality and flow for the sake of competitive values or other numbers. The result is often some obnoxious sentence like, "If you're looking for candies samples free, you've come to the right place!" Forcing a phrase into the copy at all costs never turns out well. 5. Don't use keyphrases that don't apply to the page. If you operate a site about wedding receptions, don't try to force a search term about wedding dresses into the copy just because it pulls a lot of traffic. (A) Unless you sell, alter or design wedding dresses, it won't be applicable. (B) Even if you manage to get the page ranked well for the phrase [wedding dresses], once the visitor clicks to your site and realizes you have nothing to do with wedding dresses, they will leave. It's a waste of time and effort and it creates a poor user experience. 6. Don't use misspellings and correct spellings on the same page. I fully understand that the misspellings of keyphrases can be valuable search terms. However, to mix correct spellings and misspellings within the same page of copy looks like you've got a bunch of typos in the content. It's just not professional. Some writers will go for the old, "We rent limousines (sometimes spelled limosenes) for the most affordable prices in town." I don't care for that approach. It's just not natural. Would you ever see brochure or newspaper copy that reads that way? I think not. 7. Don't use keyphrases the exact same way every time. This is how we end up with horrible SEO copy that sounds like a 4th grader wrote it. (See #4.) There are lots of ways to use keywords in copy, not just one. In order to sound natural, you have to get creative with your keyphrase use. One way is to break up phrases using punctuation. Since search engines don't pay attention to basic punctuation marks, you can easily write something using the search term [real estate Hawaii] that reads like this: "Currently there is an impressive selection of available real estate. Hawaii listings can be..." See? "Real estate" is at the end of the first sentence and "Hawaii" is at the beginning of the second sentence. The engines ignore the period so there's no problem.

8. Don't use all types of search phrases for every situation. There are many ways in which this "don't" applies. One quick example is that of an ecommerce site. It wouldn't be advisable to use specific, long-tail keyphrases on the home page of your site. They are much too specific in most cases and are better suited for individual product pages. Broader terms are typically best for an ecommerce home page. If you don't understand the best applications for the various types of keywords, you're likely to have lackluster results. 9. Don't neglect ALT tags/image attributes. These tags are the ones associated with images on your pages and they carry a good deal of weight especially if the image is used as a link. The ALT text counts the same as anchor text in a text-based link. Depending on a few different factors, ALT text may be a good place for those misspellings mentioned in #6. 10. Don't forget the chain of protocol. There's a method to the SEO copywriting madness. The idea is not to get as many different keyphrases onto a page as possible. Just the opposite, in fact. Rather than having 12 different search terms used only one time each, you need to use two to four keyphrases (depending on the length of your copy) per page. The title, META tags, ALT tags, other coding elements and on-page copy need to support each other as far as keyphrase use goes. Your goal is to let the engines know that you have original, relevant content about a narrow topic. Unless you have an exceptional number of back links built up, just mentioning [dark chocolate], [chocolate strawberries], [chocolate chip cookies], [chocolate cake], [chocolate desserts], [organic chocolate] and [chocolate cheesecake] once each on a web page isn't likely to do a lot of good. Instead, pick two or three terms which are closely related and use them several times each along with mentioning them in your tags. When you avoid making common mistakes, you'll find your SEO copywriting flows much better, is more natural-sounding and ranks higher, too.

Google Cash Spam Policy

If you reached our website as a result of a SPAM email: Please help me fight SPAM. SPAM is a serious problem on the Internet. Please help me in finding the spammer that contacted you. Please forward a copy of the spam email you received to: spamcomplaint@googlecash.com I will take every legal recourse possible against them. Please understand that spammers often promote legitimate websites like this one, in an attempt to receive affiliate fees for referred sales. Even the largest websites like ebay.com, and Amazon.com have to deal with this problem. If you forward the email to me, I can track down the spammer through their affiliate link, and immediately have them removed from my affiliate program. My affiliate program is run through a third party that has very strict anti-spam rules. Once notified they will immediately terminate the affiliates membership and they will receive no commissions on sales made. This works well in stopping the spam, as once they are removed and will not receive their pay, they stop! So please forward me the email and I can stop them instantly. SPAM Policy GoogleCash.com does not use or tolerate SPAM! Any affiliate that uses SPAM to promote "Google Cash" will be immediately and forever removed from the affiliate program and will not receive commissions on any sales made.

Three Clicks to Spam: Google’s Hypocritical Link Selling Policy

Bloggers are buzzing this morning about Google ()’s most recent updates to Page Rank, the system that determines how much weight your site gets in its index. Many popular blogs have seen their rank (which is on a scale of 0-10) take dramatic hits, with some reportedly even falling from PR7 to PR4 (Andy Beard has a good list of those effected). This is a very big deal; many of these sites depend on search traffic and the credibility a high page rank brings to keep their business of selling ads afloat, and a drop in score can significantly lower the flow of visitors.

For Google’s part, the reason these sites are being slammed is because the company’s policy tells web publishers to “avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web.” Do some of the effected blogs sell links to such sites? Perhaps; we’ll let these folks defend themselves and their practices. But the real story is the hypocrisy of Google enforcing this policy on third-party publishers, when within their own engine they profit immensely by selling ads to spammers and so-called “bad neighborhoods.”

Here’s an example of just how easy it is to find link spam in Google’s sponsored listings. First, do a search for “low cost airfare,” and then follow this path:

1. Go to page 3 of results. Under “Sponsored Links” click the link for CheapAirfareWorld.com

2. Arrive at CheapAirfareWorld.com. Click “lowest airfare.”

3. If the resulting page isn’t a web spammer/bad neighborhood, I don’t know what is. The page is nothing but sponsored links.

The truth of the matter is that Google makes a good deal of money by allowing spammers to buy AdWords. These spammers in turn make money by creating pages with no value added content and instead using schemes to get people clicking paid links. Often, these paid links are AdSense, which puts even more money in Google’s pocket. If bloggers are selling links directly to such people, they are in turn taking money directly away from Google, which, as a $200 billion corporation, isn’t something Google is likely to be too happy about.

However, versus some of the companies Google allows to advertise in its search engine, many of those taking a Page Rank hit are producers of great content, and it’s a total shame that this policy might ultimately drive them out of business. As the buzz grows over this, it will be interesting to see what kind of response Google has to offer.

How to Report Spam to MSN

To report search engine spam to MSN, use the form on their website.

Have you seen any search engine spam lately? Instead of submitting spam reports to each engine, you can also simply submit a spam report through SEOToolSet^TM.

NOTE: If you have seen one of our Certified Analysts or Organizations engaging in spam practices, please report the spam violation through a Certified Spam Report so we can conduct a spam audit of their practices as soon as possible.

How MSN Defines Spam

MSN Search has recently added content guidelines to their website, explicitly stating that the MSNBot will see the following techniques as search engine spam:

• Stuffing pages with irrelevant keywords in order to increase a page’s keyword density, including ALT tag stuffing.
• Using hidden text or links.
• Using techniques such as creating link farms to artificially increase the number of links to your page.

Also, in an e–mail announcing the second preview release of the new MSN search, Microsoft mentioned cloaking and having duplicate content on multiple domains as things that will lead your site to being penalized or removed from the MSN Search index.

How to Report Spam to Teoma / Ask Jeeves

To report search engine spam to Ask Jeeves or Teoma, e-mail them at jeeves@askjeeves.com