Forum Moderators: not2easy
I have heard rumors that Google penalizes duplicate content and would like to know if I will get penalized.
For example, my company sell widgets. I get the product information from the manufacturer's website. I edit some of the content. Thus, most of the content is duplicated from the widget's site. This appears to be duplicate content, so will I get penalized?
In my opinion, I think you should be ok if the content is not exactly the same. The literal definition of duplicate is where something is "identically copied from an original" (dictionary.com).
If your site has descriptions of widgets that are a summary of the companies description, or paraphrased, then I don't think that would be a problem.
This is what I would ensure if it was me:
- Don't copy and paste ANY content (obviously things like specifications etc may be the same)
- Reference any content which is a summary or paraphrased.
- Include a link to the original manufacturer's site (the whole fabric of the internet is to hyperlink)
The literal definition of duplicate is where something is "identically copied from an original" (dictionary.com).
It would be a mistake to go based on that definition.
What was described above will be considered duplicate content unless it was rewritten throughout, and not just in parts. Changing the first sentence won't solve duplicate content issues; instead the text will have to be rephrased sentence by sentence.
