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A post on the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog provides some insight into Google’s views on duplicate content. It addresses the following questions:

  • What is duplicate content?
  • What isn’t duplicate content?
  • Why does Google care about duplicate content?
  • What does Google do about it?

Most interesting of all though, is the section, “How can Webmasters proactively address duplicate content issues?” sumarized below:

  • Block appropriately:
    Rather than letting algorithms determine the “best” version, guide to your preferred version. For instance, if you don’t want us to index the printer versions of your site’s articles, disallow those directories or make use of regular expressions in your robots.txt file.
  • Use 301s:
    If you have moved pages on your site, use 301 redirects (”RedirectPermanent”) in your .htaccess file.
  • Be consistent:
    Keep your internal linking consistent. Don’t link to “/page/” and “/page” and “/page/index.html.”
  • Use TLDs:
    Use top level domains whenever possible for country-specific content. We’re more likely to know that .de indicates Germany-focused content, for instance, than /de or de.example.com.
  • Syndicate carefully:
    If you syndicate your content, ensure every article includes a link back to the original. Even with that, we’ll always show the (unblocked) version we think most appropriate in any given search.
  • Use the preferred domain feature of webmaster tools:
    If if inbound links use both the www and non-www version of your URLs, you can let us know which way you prefer your site to be indexed.
  • Minimize boilerplate repetition:
    For instance, instead of including lengthy copyright text on the bottom of every page, include a very brief summary and link to a page with more details.
  • Avoid publishing stubs:
    Users don’t like seeing “empty” pages, so avoid placeholders. Either don’t publish or block pages with zero reviews, no real estate listings, etc., to remove instances of “Below you’ll find a list of all the great rental opportunities in [insert cityname]…” with no actual listings.
  • Understand your CMS:
    Be familiar with how content is displayed on your Web site, especially if it includes a blog, a forum, or similar system that displays the same content in multiple formats.
  • Don’t worry be happy:
    Don’t fret about sites that scrape (misappropriate and republish) your content. It’s highly unlikely that such sites can negatively impact your site’s presence in Google.


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