| How the search engines view duplicate content | | | | violators to the search engines. Everyone wants to |
| For most web site owners waiting for their search | | | | ensure a fair competition for top ranking in the |
| engine rankings to improve and to bring long awaited | | | | natural search results. Webmasters get very irate |
| visitors can be a frustrating waiting game. It's little | | | | when they see other web site owners trying to use |
| wonder webmasters look for shortcuts to improve | | | | links spam, duplicate content or other black hat SEO |
| their search engine ranking to gain better ranking | | | | techniques. Once a web site is reported to the |
| faster. Unfortunately sometimes these shortcuts are | | | | search engines using mirrored sites for better search |
| on a direct collision course with the search engines' | | | | engine ranking, the search engines have an obligation |
| webmaster guidelines. | | | | to validate those claims. Getting out of search |
| Manipulating search engine ranking results by inflating | | | | engines penalties can take a long time especially if |
| a web site's link popularity is one of the ways web | | | | Google suspects the violation occurred with the |
| site owners are trying to beat their competitors in | | | | participation and full knowledge of the web site |
| the search results. Sadly, a fast tracked link popularity | | | | owner. |
| building approach can sometimes result in serious | | | | Mirrored domains carry real risks |
| search engine penalties, or worse, a complete search | | | | Some web sites run the risk of falling into this same |
| engine ban despite the web site owners' best | | | | trap by creating mirrored domains. What's worse, the |
| intentions. One of the seemingly fast link popularity | | | | mirrored domains are usually hosted on the same |
| building approaches is the creation and maintenance | | | | web server, making detection of the duplicate |
| of mirrored web site content on other domains. | | | | domain content very easy for the search engines. |
| Although having a few pages of duplicate content on | | | | Even if the mirrored content is hosted on a different |
| another domain is not enough reason to get a web | | | | web server the search engines can make the |
| site banned by the search engines, but if it's done | | | | connection between the web sites using the domain |
| with the purpose of manipulating link popularity it can | | | | registration information found using a WHOIS search. |
| be a very real risk. | | | | Although a single duplicate domain page will most |
| Duplicate content is not the same as duplicate domain | | | | likely not result in any penalty, but if a large number |
| For example publishing the same article on several | | | | of pages are found with identical content on another |
| different ezine directories is an acceptable form of | | | | domain, a search engine penalty can be looming over |
| information distribution on the Internet. However the | | | | the web site owner's head. |
| copying of large amounts of content from one web | | | | Search engines represent a large percentage of online |
| site to another is an entirely different form of | | | | visibility, therefore it's important to maximize the web |
| duplicate content in the eyes of the search engines. | | | | site's visibility for its most important target keyword |
| Thanks to sophisticated search engines ranking | | | | phrases, but we have to be careful not to get our |
| algorithms and human editors, search engines can | | | | web site penalized unnecessarily by using techniques |
| easily sniff out duplicate content when it's done with | | | | deemed inappropriate by the search engines. The |
| the intention of link spamming. You can see an | | | | truth is there are very few shortcuts in search |
| example of this technology used on a duplicate | | | | engines optimization that doesn't result in some type |
| content detection tool. | | | | of detection by the search engines, and when they |
| We also can't forget the competitors who are also | | | | do find violators of their search engine rules the |
| very eager to find and report duplicate content | | | | penalties are fairly harsh. |