So What's The Truth About Duplicate Content Anyway? There is so much conflicting information online right now regarding "Duplicate Content" and a supposed "Penalty," that it makes it really hard to discern fact from fiction.
Many people are now being discouraged to submit articles to a large number of article directories because they will get penalized if they do... Which is a bunch of hogwash!
Here's the deal...
The search engines (primarily Google) are merely trying to give searchers a variety of content when they conduct a search, rather than give them links to ten separate pages which all contain the same content.
This makes perfect sense, as Google only exists because it is known for providing good search results. If searchers aren't happy, they will search elsewhere and Google knows this!
But here's the "tricky" part...
Google, like all search engines, love unique content and they certainly don't want to discourage content creators for creating and syndicating good content.
Content, after all, is why we have the Internet in the first place and without it, it would die.
When you submit an article (or online Press Release) you authorize other websites/blogs to syndicate this content. Even if you were to only submit to one article directory, like EzineArticles.com, you have no way of controlling how many websites/blogs your article will end up on.
If you write a really great article (like this one - GRIN) you will likely have your article picked up and syndicated by many outlets.
Here's an example to prove my point...
Let's say you write a really great article and only submit it to EzineArticles.com. Now, it's stellar content so 1,000 website/blog owners come by and syndicate your content which results in there being 1,000 pieces of "duplicate content" on the internet.
What's the difference between this and submitting an article of "average" quality to 300 different directories? If 300 website/blog owners see this article and decide to syndicate it there are now only 600 pieces of "duplicate content" on the net.
You see what I mean? No one can control how wide-spread their content will become so it just doesn't make any sense to limit your distribution channels.
But what about the "Duplicate Content Penalty," you ask?
Well, there really isn't on per se. At least not the way most everyone makes it sound.
If you submit an article (or online PR) to 500 different outlets you used to be able to get credit for the majority of the backlinks that resulted.
Today, you will not generate as many backlinks as the search engines will not index as many pages of your article content. That said, however, I still have articles out there that are indexed more than 50 times each and bring me targeted traffic.
But this is what most people miss...
Backlinks (and the search engine benefit they give) are only part of the reason you should be creating (and distributing) quality content!!!
This content, if valuable, will increase your credibility within the market you serve and can bring you targeted website traffic from the outlets that syndicate your content.
Yeah, I'd like to generate incoming links from all of my syndicated content too, but it just doesn't work that way any more.
I hope you found this helpful and I encourage you to continue to write quality articles and Press Releases and then distribute them far and wide.
Let your own results tell you the path to take, not a bunch of whiners who probably weren't really submitting a lot of content in the first place!
