Google And Duplicate Content

[mobillica]

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Hi people, I was just wondering how similar pages have to be to trip the google duplictate content penalty.

Over the last year I have been adding unique content, running it through copyscape and then a 'similar pages' checker which gives me a figure of how similar different pages within my site are.

Does anyone have an idea as to the % google would use? Would google allow similar content to be as low as 30% or as high as 70%??

What are peoples experiences of this?

[Brendon]

To understand Google, you have to understand what they want to achieve. They want to thave a scalable, automated algo. THey also want it to catch as much spam without human input as possible.

The dupe content filter is intended to kill, or flag for human review, sites that are scraping content from elsewhere, or using bare, non-value added data feeds. If your site doesn't reasoably fall into either of those categories, you should be safe.

[mobillica]

I understand what you are saying Brendon, but Im really talking about duplicate pages of your own website, and not scraping content from elswhere

Of course, I use the same template for the majority of pages with my site. ie. logo on top, menu down the left...

I was just wondering what sort of percentage google would deem to be 'too similar' to other pages of your own website.

[Brendon]

The same filter applies in either case

>> They want to thave a scalable, automated algo.

>> sort of percentage google would deem to be 'too similar' to other pages of your own website.

Just look at it. If they look similar, chances are the algo will flag them as such

[mobillica]

I understand that if google sees a 'similar' page then it would trigger a penalty. But 'similar' is a bit vague for SEO

Does anyone have a inkling as to the actual percentage figure of how much google would allow you?

Obviously 100% would trigger the penalty, but surely google would allow a certain percentage of leeway for the actual structure of your website? Menu down the side, etc.

[OLBG]

Id say 25%

On the basis that sites (like most shops) with same header, left menu, right menu and footer but unique middle seem to be OK.

[stevesa]

I always work to a rule of thumb of at least 30% of the page different, i have never been hit by a dup penalty yet (fingers crossed)

[mobillica]

Thanks for those replies, people!

When adding new content I usually run it through here:

http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php?

I always work to a rule of thumb of at least 30% of the page different, i have never been hit by a dup penalty yet (fingers crossed)

So you are saying that 70% smilar content hasn't tripped any penalties for you?

[stevesa]

not so far, even if its the same styles, moving it all around the page , different text and different colours seems to acceptable to Google

[mobillica]

Thats interesting Steve, thanks for your views mate.

[T.J.]

I have about 100 pages that are virtually identical, only difference being
the title and the first <h1> tag.
They have been up for a couple of months now with no penalty.
How long it will last for though I don't know.

[jokes4mobiles]

I have domains that are variations of the main site name all pointing to the main site homepage.
eg
www.seatonelectronics.co.uk
www.seaton-electronics.co.uk
www.seaton-electronics.com

Would this trigger the penalty?

[eskimo]

Personally I would pick one domain, probably www.seatonelectronics.co.uk as this has the most pages indexed by Google.

For the other domains I would set up a permanent re-direct 301 to seatonelectronics.co.uk.