Does Google compare markup?

[jsp_1983]

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Just wondering... As Google looks for original content as a factor in ranking sites, does it also compare markup? I mean, if I have two sites on the same niche and using the same WP template and meta tags, but both with different content, will Google ignore that or will it recognise that they are a bit 'too similar' and penalise them? I suspect not, as this would also penalise sites that are the victims of plagiarism, but I still thought it best to ask.

[sabian1982]

Just wondering... As Google looks for original content as a factor in ranking sites, does it also compare markup? I mean, if I have two sites on the same niche and using the same WP template and meta tags, but both with different content, will Google ignore that or will it recognise that they are a bit 'too similar' and penalise them? I suspect not, as this would also penalise sites that are the victims of plagiarism, but I still thought it best to ask.

Try Search Engine Spider Simulator (or similar) to get an idea of how your pages are viewed. Personally though i think markup probably does factor in somewhere but only marginally, trying to prove it is a completely different matter (as with many SE related things!)

[Seamaster]

I'm trying to create a template so I can throw up 3-4 pages thin landing pages quickly.

As they will all have the same CSS and HTML formatting I hope Google doesnt penisalise them?

[Stellar]

I read somewhere that Matt Coutts said that they do take it into account. If a lot of bad sites use the same template and then another site comes along with the same template, and without any other redeming features, then it is likey to get turfed out.

You've also got to look at it from a quality and uniqueness point of view. How many high profile sites are going to use the same template as another site? Probably very few. They tend to have an army of designers and coders building unqiue front ends. Therefore, using the same template as other sites might be an indication that you are not a high profile, authority site.

Having said that, I do sometimes us the same template across a few sites. It certainly does save a lot of time. So it is a risk vs reward thing.

[ContentBoss]

It's all about intent, as I understand it.

Content is used (among other things) to determine relevancy etc that's publicly used, eg in the serps.

The page template etc are also analyzed in order to 'footprint' the site. That's why there are 2 ways of avoiding footprints, either make it totally unique, or 'hide in the crowd'.

[Lawcom]

I'd disagree with that.. Google is not interested in how it is, just what it is, if the content is unique, if people show interest in it, then google bot will like you, regardless of the template you use...

[fizzbird]

I'm trying to create a template so I can throw up 3-4 pages thin landing pages quickly.
As they will all have the same CSS and HTML formatting I hope Google doesnt penisalise them?

It won't. As long as the actual content is unique then you have nothing to worry about.

[ContentBoss]

I'd disagree with that.. Google is not interested in how it is, just what it is, if the content is unique, if people show interest in it, then google bot will like you, regardless of the template you use...

perhaps you'd care to explain to us the mechanism by which the 'googlebot' can determine how 'people show interest' in a site.

[Diablos]

I doubt that the robots use markup to determine anything other than they architecture of a site, but manual checks will almost certinally take it into account, i.e. I remember Cutts saying someone had a section with comments saying "insert paid links here" and another with content spinner tags and they got banned.

As long as you are not breaking a ToS I wouldn't worry about it, just try to have a well made site that's accessible to both humans and spiders and its all good.

[ContentBoss]

analyzing the html of a page is one of the easiest ways to footprint a site.

That's how they caught the original 'james brausch' niche sites, and traffic storm and all that lot.

Hide in the crowd is easiest (use a standard wp template).

[Lawcom]

em ! contentboss .. work it out ?

[ContentBoss]

em ! contentboss .. work it out ?

I'm interested In your ideas.

You seem to be suggesting that a web spider (googlebot) which does little more than grab pages from servers can in some way tell how popular a particular page is with human beings.

How do you think that works then? Are you suggesting that the googlebot is in some way hooked into the stats packages of the servers it interrogates? Or uses some kind of funky heuristic to determine from response times what the server load is and therefore how 'popular it is with human beings'?

Or did you mean something else?

[Iain_M]

I'm interested In your ideas.

You seem to be suggesting that a web spider (googlebot) which does little more than grab pages from servers can in some way tell how popular a particular page is with human beings.

How do you think that works then? Are you suggesting that the googlebot is in some way hooked into the stats packages of the servers it interrogates? Or uses some kind of funky heuristic to determine from response times what the server load is and therefore how 'popular it is with human beings'?

Or did you mean something else?

I've came across discussions of google take into account bounce rates:

Search for your keyword, you visit the first result, it isn't relevant to your keyword so you leave back to your search, go to the next result has relevant content so you stay there longer.


Back to OP: There is a sort of relevant blog post here Who said it’s duplicate content? Google didn’t … | Contempt

[ContentBoss]

I've came across discussions of google take into account bounce rates:

Search for your keyword, you visit the first result, it isn't relevant to your keyword so you leave back to your search, go to the next result has relevant content so you stay there longer.

what has that got to do with the activities of the googlebot? Do you know what the googlebot is? Do you understand the difference between a web spider and the other software search engines use?

[Iain_M]

what has that got to do with the activities of the googlebot? Do you know what the googlebot is? Do you understand the difference between a web spider and the other software search engines use?

You were the one that brought googlebot into it, all Lawcom said was "Google".
And as you were asking Lawcom what they meant, I gave my opinion on what I thought.

So before trying to jump down someones throat, try reading.