ng>What should you do to protect your website?

The best formula is still sincerity - if you work hard enough to make your website as informative and user-friendly as possible, search engines will detect it and rank it up. But there are also some common-sense solutions you can implement to make sure your pages are never tagged as duplicates.

For starters, make sure that your internal linking system is consistent. And if you have to syndicate an article, make sure it includes a link back to the

As a website owner these days, perhaps the biggest mistake you could make is to duplicate content. It sends a red flag to major search engines who may not only downweigh your site's rankings, but also possibly ban it.

If you do not want to experience the same ‘search engine wrath' experienced by websites that have used duplication, then you must understand (a) why search engines are strongly against duplicate content, and (b) what you can do to make sure your site is does not go down that road.

But first, what is duplicate content?

‘Duplicate content' can be interpreted in many different ways, but perhaps the definition offered by Google is the most accurate: it refers to considerable chunks of content within or across domains that match completely or at least significantly. The most obvious examples of duplication include using multiple pages containing the same articles and using plagiarized content from other websites.

There are two main reasons why some unscrupulous website owners duplicate their own content. One is to gather more traffic by means of long-tail or garner more traffic via popular queries, and the other is to attempt to influence search engine rankings.

But even if you do not do this very obvious violation, you still need to be very careful - you may already be duplicating content and not even realize it. If the items you sell in your online store are shown or linked using several distinct URLs, for example, search engines may tag your pages as duplicates.

Why do search engines hate duplicate content?

Search engines exist to serve internet users pages with useful, distinct information. When you duplicate content, you ‘spam' these engines to turn out the same ‘trash results.' In the recent years, search engine giants like Yahoo, MSN and Google have developed ways to identify malicious duplicate content that not only attempt to stage-manage rankings but worse, mislead the user. The penalty? Duplicate pages are either buried or banned.

What should you do to protect your website?

The best formula is still sincerity - if you work hard enough to make your website as informative and user-friendly as possible, search engines will detect it and rank it up. But there are also some common-sense solutions you can implement to make sure your pages are never tagged as duplicates.

For starters, make sure that your internal linking system is consistent. And if you have to syndicate an article, make sure it includes a link back to the

>But first, what is duplicate content?

‘Duplicate content' can be interpreted in many different ways, but perhaps the definition offered by Google is the most accurate: it refers to considerable chunks of content within or across domains that match completely or at least significantly. The most obvious examples of duplication include using multiple pages containing the same articles and using plagiarized content from other websites.

There are two main reasons why some unscrupulous website owners duplicate their own content. One is to gather more traffic by means of long-tail or garner more traffic via popular queries, and the other is to attempt to influence search engine rankings.

But even if you do not do this very obvious violation, you still need to be very careful - you may already be duplicating content and not even realize it. If the items you sell in your online store are shown or linked using several distinct URLs, for example, search engines may tag your pages as duplicates.

Why do search engines hate duplicate content?

Search engines exist to serve internet users pages with useful, distinct information. When you duplicate content, you ‘spam' these engines to turn out the same ‘trash results.' In the recent years, search engine giants like Yahoo, MSN and Google have developed ways to identify malicious duplicate content that not only attempt to stage-manage rankings but worse, mislead the user. The penalty? Duplicate pages are either buried or banned.

What should you do to protect your website?

The best formula is still sincerity - if you work hard enough to make your website as informative and user-friendly as possible, search engines will detect it and rank it up. But there are also some common-sense solutions you can implement to make sure your pages are never tagged as duplicates.

For starters, make sure that your internal linking system is consistent. And if you have to syndicate an article, make sure it includes a link back to the

s duplicate their own content. One is to gather more traffic by means of long-tail or garner more traffic via popular queries, and the other is to attempt to influence search engine rankings.

But even if you do not do this very obvious violation, you still need to be very careful - you may already be duplicating content and not even realize it. If the items you sell in your online store are shown or linked using several distinct URLs, for example, search engines may tag your pages as duplicates.

Why do search engines hate duplicate content?

Search engines exist to serve internet users pages with useful, distinct information. When you duplicate content, you ‘spam' these engines to turn out the same ‘trash results.' In the recent years, search engine giants like Yahoo, MSN and Google have developed ways to identify malicious duplicate content that not only attempt to stage-manage rankings but worse, mislead the user. The penalty? Duplicate pages are either buried or banned.

What should you do to protect your website?

The best formula is still sincerity - if you work hard enough to make your website as informative and user-friendly as possible, search engines will detect it and rank it up. But there are also some common-sense solutions you can implement to make sure your pages are never tagged as duplicates.

For starters, make sure that your internal linking system is consistent. And if you have to syndicate an article, make sure it includes a link back to the

Why do search engines hate duplicate content?

Search engines exist to serve internet users pages with useful, distinct information. When you duplicate content, you ‘spam' these engines to turn out the same ‘trash results.' In the recent years, search engine giants like Yahoo, MSN and Google have developed ways to identify malicious duplicate content that not only attempt to stage-manage rankings but worse, mislead the user. The penalty? Duplicate pages are either buried or banned.

What should you do to protect your website?

The best formula is still sincerity - if you work hard enough to make your website as informative and user-friendly as possible, search engines will detect it and rank it up. But there are also some common-sense solutions you can implement to make sure your pages are never tagged as duplicates.

For starters, make sure that your internal linking system is consistent. And if you have to syndicate an article, make sure it includes a link back to the

ng>What should you do to protect your website?

The best formula is still sincerity - if you work hard enough to make your website as informative and user-friendly as possible, search engines will detect it and rank it up. But there are also some common-sense solutions you can implement to make sure your pages are never tagged as duplicates.

For starters, make sure that your internal linking system is consistent. And if you have to syndicate an article, make sure it includes a link back to the original article on each syndicated article. Also avoid using empty or incomplete pages - usually ‘placeholders.' Do not publish pages that have incomplete content or are still under construction so as not to bombard search engines with useless pages. If you have country-specific content, help search engines by using top-level domains. Lastly, make it a point to block pages that you do not want search engines to crawl. For example, if you have two versions of an article such as one print version and one web version, then block the print version.

At the end of the day, there are really no shortcuts to lasting search engine rankings. Do your homework, write unique content, and trust that search engines will notice.