“Can duplicate content hurt me?” This is a question that comes up in forums on almost a weekly basis. So what are some scenarios where duplicate can exist and what can web site owners do to make sure duplicate content doesn’t come back to haunt them?
First of all some practical tips from panelists on a recent session dealing with duplicate content issues at Search Engine Strategies New York.
It all started when Geico sued Google on the issue of allowing keywords that Geico claimed were protected by trademark to trigger sponsored ads by the competition. Now in the latest of suits involving this ongoing issue, Check ‘n Go has sued Google in federal court in Ohio, stating that the search engine permits other payday lenders to purchase ads that appear when the trademarked phrase “check n go” is typed in. In their suit, they have asked a federal court to halt the practice.
You have no doubt seen the commercials from credit card company Capital One where they use the phrase, “What’s in your wallet?” A recent post of almost the same title by Debra Mastaler has her talking about paid links, link bait, tagging and article writing.
She first visits the fact that the link buying zeal of last year has kind of of died out.
In case you missed it, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch was recently featured on ABC’s Nightline in a story about Google’s refusal to hand over search data to the Bush administration. I actually heard about it after the fact but was able to see it via subscribed feed through the ABC News web site. Danny got some great air time and of course did an excellent job giving his views on the situation. We also get a peek into Danny’s home office where three huge screens dominate his desktop space.
I was visiting Small Business Ideas Forum today as part of my daily routine and came across the following article written by Stoney deGeyter – SEO is Dead. My first thought was, “Is he serious?” Now Stoney is an SEO himself and fellow moderator with me on this forum so I had to take a look at the article.
Nick Wilsdon, also known as NickW on many forums, shares with us what information Google might have access to as a domain name registrar in an article entitled, What does Google know about your domain names? When Google became a domain registrar back in February 2005, people began to wonder what they were up to. Were they going to sell and maintain domain names such as GoDaddy, DirectNIC and others do, or was there another motive up their sleeve? Possibly their interest lies in the additional information they have access to as a registrar?
I came across an interesting thread over at Search Engine Watch Forums today entitled “Do Designers Hate SEO?” Forum member glengara questioned whether all-Flash sites should be used in the commercial web. An “all-Flash” site typically does not have any html text associated with it and many times is all contained within one file so that the site does not even contain sub pages. The problem with this type of site is that they are not very search engine friendly. Search engines cannot read the contents of the Flash file or files so they have difficulty understanding what the site is all about.
A Midwest internet service provider was recently awarded an $11.2 billion judgment against a Florida man for sending millions of unsolicited e-mails advertising mortgage and debt consolidation services reports Wired News. That’s right – billions! The judgment was issued against James McCalla of Florida on December 23rd. He has also barred from accessing the internet for three years.
There is not a week that goes by that I do not come across someone posting on a forum stating that they have been penalized or even banned by Google, Yahoo or another search engine. Most claims do not have much merit. The individual just assumes they have been penalized because their site is not ranking well for search terms they think it should or they don’t know how to check if their site is indexed in a search engine. Even seeing a grayed out PageRank meter in the Google toolbar can lead people to assume the unthinkable – “I’ve been banned!” However there are times when a web site has indeed come under some kind of penalty or has been completely removed from a search index for one reason or another.
SEM, short for search engine marketing has come a long way since it was first heard of in the mid nineties. When I first entered this arena of Internet marketing in 1997, there was very little competition among firms offering these services and the marketing process itself was quite simple. Modify a few title tags, add some meta description and keyword tags and then make sure the targeted key phrases are incorporated in the body copy of a web site and it typically enjoyed success.
