Duplicate Content - Merchant datafeeds

How much must change?

[atio]

I've done a search and read up a bit about duplicate content and "thin" affiliate pages but can't seem to find how much something must change to avoid duplicate content penalties.

I'm just finishing up my first affiliate website and am about to rewrite the datafeed's product descriptions. How much do I need to change them?

Thanks

[jonrichd]

Atio, I don't think that there's an absolute answer to the duplicate content question that would say 'if you change 30% of the words from the affiliate datafeed, you will be in the clear.' This is partially because part of the answer is how you change the content, and another part is how your page or site is looked at by the search engines in terms of authority, which is different than content.

If your site essentially uses the same structure as the other affiliates in your market, and doesn't offer anything additional beyond slightly rewritten content from the datafeed, you may have a long row to hoe.

Instead, start thinking about an old marketing term called the 'unique selling proposition' -- what can you do with your site to make it different from all the others. It may be that you present that content organized for a specific type of user, for example 'getting started with widgets' as opposed to 'the widgets expert forum'. Perhaps you organize your categories differently from others in your niche. For example if you are promoting clothing, instead of having categories for hats, shirts, and pants, have categories for spring wear, summer wear, and winter wear, presenting complete outfits. This is especially true if you can think of a way to present the information that you don't see on other sites.

There are lots of possibilities out there. Rather than trying to think in terms of 'how much content do I have to change to avoid search engine wrath', think 'How can I present this information in a way no one else does that provides a compelling reason for a user to browse (and buy from) my website.'

[atio]

Thanks for the help jonrichd. :-)

[Marcia]

Very, very nice post jonrichd! That kind of thinking could not also help with search engine placement, but also help a site stand above the crowd for conversions.

[jchampliaud]

"I'm just finishing up my first affiliate website and am about to rewrite the datafeed's product descriptions. How much do I need to change them?"

In some cases, not at all. I use a few merchant datafeeds on my biggest site (over 3,000 pages) and I've yet to have any proplems. I've even got a few datafeed pages that are #1 on Google. I'm guessing that the site has enough good content to make up for anything the datafeeds might take away - ie using duplicate content.