Duplicate Content - Next Step

[freshpaul]

Hello!

I work for an industrial company with a profile and product information listed on [well known buyer - supplier portal]. I just noticed that the person who set up our account used some of our site's product copy word for word. So, I performed a few google searches by copy/pasting some product copy from our site to see what would come up -- BOOM -- [well known buyer - supplier portal]. Our page was nowhere to be found.

I've already gone through and rewrote all product info on our [well known buyer - supplier portal] profile, but what else should I do? Am I under Panda? Should I rewrite all product copy on our site, or am I okay with completely changing what was on [well known buyer - supplier portal]?

Any tips would be great.

[edited by: aakk9999 at 2:49 am (utc) on Nov 4, 2014]
[edit reason] Exemplified [/edit]

[aakk9999]

So, I performed a few google searches by copy/pasting some product copy from our site to see what would come up

It would mean that the portal is stronger for this particular search and your site has been filtered out.

What happens if you search for the product, but without copy/pasting your exact text? Where are you ranking and where is the portal ranking for the same query?

I am asking as it is unlikely that ordinary searches will search by copy/pasting the exact text from your site.

[freshpaul]

@aakk9999 - [well known buyer - supplier portal] is on the 4th page for the keyword and I stopped looking for our page after page 16.

What prompted me to start looking around today was because none of our product pages are ranking well. Our site was hit by Penguin 2.1 and we've seen a lot of positive movement since 3.0 -- but mostly posts (vs pages(products)).

[edited by: aakk9999 at 3:44 am (utc) on Nov 4, 2014]
[edit reason] Exemplified [/edit]

[JD_Toims]

I would contact the copier and let them know they need to deindex/remove their content or they will be DMCAed -- Chances are they won't take it down, but if you have archives of the content prior to the changes you made you should be able to get it taken down via their host and removed from the results via Google.

-- Note: Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty with Google. It basically "groups duplicates", assigns the ranking signals to one of them, and ranks the one assigned the signals accordingly, so when you get the duplicates removed your site should replace the duplicator at or about the same spot in the rankings.

[freshpaul]

Thanks, guys.

And sorry, aakk9999, didn't notice that you edited the first post. I wouldn't have mentioned the site again in my second.

[Clay_More]

If we consider that the duplicate content site is on the 4th page of SERPS and you stopped looking for the company site after page 16, why are you concerned about the duplication of content?

Your product copy should reflect the terms you believe many people would use in searching for your product. Not keyword stuffing, but emphasis on the most important terms. Internal and external linking should enhance those terms specific to those pages.

Re-read aakk9999 and JD_Toims posts and spend a bit of time thinking about ranking signals and strength.

[freshpaul]

I read their posts and understand them. You seem to be doing a lot of assuming. That's okay, though. Thanks anyway.

[anim8tr]

Your question is a bit light on detail and not sure what else you've done, but as a manufacturer it's not uncommon to have your product descriptions copied and used by other sites (if this is what you're talking about).

I currently consult for a large manufacturer and we don't worry about this, but rather what can we do to outrank our competition who is using that same content.

Writing new copy won't likely do it. You need to establish yourself as THE manufacturer and source of this content. There are multiple ways to do this, but it's hard to offer great advice without knowing more about your branded and trademarked opportunities.

One thing you can do is to make sure that you're using some sort of schema in your product listings. Also be sure to list yourself as the manufacturer (if that's what you are). You can also add your company to Freebase.com. Be sure that all your brands are listed. You might also want to tag your content with tags that identify you as the "publisher".

Do you have a business listing? If not, be sure to setup your business listing in Google, LinkedIn, and other business directories related to your business.

It's not an easy task, but if you can get your pages into the top 5 listings, you'll be doing well. If they're branded, you should already be within the top 3 at least. If you're not make sure all your pages are using your branded terms in page titles and headlines.

[mrengine]

freshpaul, I've "been there and done that" before as it relates to content being copied/pasted directly from our website. When I examined the problem closely, it was crystal clear that content is actually such a low ranking factor in Google's algorithm that preventative measures had to be taken to prevent our content from being posted elsewhere.

We have contracts with those we supply, and it specifically restricts how they can use our images, text, multimedia, PDFs, etc. As a manufacturer we have differentiated our content from what we allow our customers to post by supplying them with a DVD with a lot of useful content they can use. I would recommend a company-wide policy to do the same and to ensure employees working within the company are given clear directives and content to use when posting on another domain.

Always remember that Google uses hundreds of signals to rank webpages - content is a weak signal especially when the other 199 signals are working against you.