Google's Duplicate content

[Skinny]

Does Google punish sites that reprint articles?

For example this article:

(Just search "Google-And-Duplicate-Content" by Richard Lowe) is all over the place.

So do any of these sites get penalized over re-producing this content?

it doesn't seem to. I'm thinking of adding web tutorials on my site and sending them to article directories. Should I be afraid of Google's penalty?

[alika]

We use articles submitted by other writers. Our site has survived Bourbon and the past updates, and has consistently remained at either #1 or #2 for our main keyword. Although for many articles that we run - we rank higher for the same article than the author's website :o)

[hunderdown]

This is one of those "it depends" situations. If you reproduce an article verbatim that was published before your version, the original version SHOULD come up in the SERPs, and yours should not.

If you change enough content or have enough additional content on the page, then the duplicate content penalty doesn't kick in. Where the line is, only Google knows.

Personally, I'd rather have all original content but I have "reprinted" a few articles that I think will interest my visitors. I may not get referrals direct from Google but they can be found in other ways, after all.

[shoreline]

Thanks for the ideas to date! I will counter with an ‘impressions basis’ and post their result – excellent idea!

Is there a website of some type that rates affiliates or perhaps has a list of ‘undesirable’ affiliates that I could consult?

[hunderdown]

shoreline, I think you've responded to the wrong topic...