Duplicate content.

Needless to say that duplicate content may bring catastrophic consequences for SEO.

But what are the ways Google detects it?

If I modify the content I found to the bone is there any chance that Google downgrade my website or throw it out from search results?

Huh?

Just make it 100% unique that way there will be no probs !

You wont have to worry about what ways google uses to detect it or have to worry about it being filtered out of the search results !

Why would u spend a lot of time copying someones content , then trying to make it your own ??
Its just as quick to knock something up in your own words !

The way you can detect it is by using Copyscape. Hire a copywriter, then copyscape their work to make sure there is no duplicate content.

check your webmaster tool. and you can remore. your duplicate content link

copyscape can also help to check dupe content.. since google can crawl every text on your site, they can definitely detects dupe sites..

Hi craigseo, I just wanted to ask you something on the same topic, my question is, suppose I worked hard and created some quality content for my website and uploaded it on my site next minute till Google didn't cached my new content some one copied it and posted to his/her website

now how would Google know that which content is original and which one is duplicate? please reply

In all honesty this is something ive never been asked nor came accross.

IMO the chance of people watching your site waiting for new content and stealing it before it is cached and trying to pass it off as there own is unlikely... that said there is some crazy folk out there who probably do this trick !

I will await the response of someone who has though so we can both learn something

I think I have started asking good questions , lets see if some other senior members like you can help me

Dont know whether its a good question , more of a niggly question and something many people wont think or worry about.

Google isnt daft and if someones site is full of pinched content it wont go very far !

Let me ask you something... who is your customer? The search engines? nope. Stop thinking about what you can do for them, and start thinking about what you can do for your customers.

Let's say I want to make a television show. I don't really care what people who watch it think. My focus is only the Nielson Ratings. Good plan? no, cancelled

agree, but its not the exact answer of this question, I am still confuse that what could be the results, which site will rank and which wont, but thanks anyway craig, keep writing

Well, actually... You're assuming the purpose of any business is a profit made via customer satisfaction. But that's not the only business model in the world. If I want to sell my business, then making it looking good is sometimes even more important. Twitter is a good example. It looks very good, but doesn't have a strong business model underlying it. Well, ok, now it has. A sort of. But it is still not strong enough, IMO. It is a kind of show for their investors. Happily, we, plain people still can benefit it, but for that business model it is not a necessity.

Though, basically you're right, of course.


Maybe because adopting someone's content takes less time than writing your own? It's the common practice in some industries actually. Google for "rewriter needed".

Answering to OP:

There are plenty of different mathematical and statistical methods that allow to calculate the similarity of several texts. That's really out of your concern, as others pointed out. Concentrate on what you can do, not on what Google can do.

I know there is loads who do it ... my point being why would you waste your time , copying , stripping it down and practically re-writing it in your own words to make it unique enough ????

Just write it in your own words to start with , and if you dont have the ability to do so then hire someone who does !

Simple fact of it is if you are not skilled enough to write your own and use other peoples content and try and doctor it to pass it off as unique there will only ever be one winner !!!!!

And it wont be the guy who takes content and wastes time doctoring it

Just write your own or get someone to do it and thats it ... no debate needed if you want to succeed

I've read an article recently that somewhat tackles this argument. And it does support Craig's opinion on this matter. I just want to share it and hope it can be made into a useful reference.

This is an article by Lisa Barone from OutspokenMedia.
9 SEO Mistakes Businesses Make With Content

Maybe not, but it's the one that works best.
And stealing someone else's money takes less time than making your own doesn't it? Does that make it right?