The duplicate content "penalty" is one of the biggest myths among site owners, web developers, and even lesser SEO service firms. While true duplicate content may be a concern for some people, most are unnecessarily worried about syndication - a completely different issue. Believing in this supposed penalty can cause otherwise savvy businesspeople to miss out on much-needed rankings, traffic, and conversions. Even worse, so-called SEO "experts" will often attempt to bypass this nonexistent problem by spinning articles - an unscrupulous tactic which can easily land their clients in hot water with Google and other search engines. If you're an honest marketer, read on to find out why you shouldn't be worried about spreading your content around the web.

What is Duplicate Content?

Most people throw this phrase around to describe any piece of writing (and sometimes other content) which appears on multiple web pages, but there's far more to it than that. In the eyes of Google and other search engines, duplicates are actually pieces of content which appear on more than one page within the same website. In some cases, this might even mean that several pages on a given site have nearly identical words, pictures, videos, and source code.

If you're like most marketers, you might be wondering why anyone would bother doing this with their website. The answer is Search Engine Rankings. Some people believe they can boost their sites' rankings for certain terms by indexing multiple copies of relevant pages. This may have actually worked at some point in the early days of SEO, but Google is constantly changing its algorithms to weed out the junk - especially duplicate content. In fact, the recent Panda updates may even penalize entire websites that contain duplicate pages.

Dangerous Solutions to a Nonexistent Problem

Honest but confused site owners tend to believe that Google will slap them for distributing their content across multiple websites. To avoid this non-issue, they'll sometimes compose huge batches of rewrites - or they'll avoid syndication altogether. The former "solution" is extremely time-consuming and expensive, while the latter involves losing valuable backlinks and readers.

Unfortunately, some internet marketing companies will also resort to cheap "spinning" software which spits out horribly worded versions of original pieces. Instead of composing new and flowing sentences, these programs simply replace certain words with loosely associated phrases. The end result is spammy, incomprehensible garbage which gets rejected by reputable sites, blogs, and article directories. Even when spun articles do get published, they can tarnish their owners' reputations and hurt their original sites' rankings.

Why Syndication is Safe

The idea that Google would penalize webmasters for distributing their content is ridiculous. Syndication was common practice in the media world long before the internet came around; and for good reason. It allows large groups of readers to access potentially valuable information, and the spread of quality content benefits authors and publishers alike. If it weren't for syndication, we wouldn't have nationwide radio shows, news programs, television shows, or newspaper columns.

Still worried about how things play out in the digital world? If you handle your content correctly, you shouldn't be. Google officials are notorious for being secretive, but even they have said that they don't penalize syndication. As long as your website is optimized for your keywords, and as long as you index your articles on your site before submitting them to other sites - your own pages are likely to get the highest rankings. You won't be "penalized," and you'll still get quality backlinks from directories, websites and blogs.

If you believed the duplicate content myth - you're not alone. Millions of people still believe it and waste vast amounts of resources to overcome this imaginary problem. However, understanding how to stay within a search engine's TOS (Terms of Service) isn't always easy - especially considering the constant changes these entities institute in their algorithms (namely, Google). To make sure your site is able to withstand the pressure of search engines AND your competitors, call the number at the top of your screen now for an immediate, free consultation.