Google wants its top ten searches to display different but relevant information to the searcher. This is rather than ten listings of the exact same information. Google has a new application that enables them to find duplicate or very close to web pages.
There are many reasons though why content may be duplicating of another. It could be a perfectly good and legitimate reason, or it could be plagiarism. The patent application from Google is trying to find duplicate material at different places rather than in the same place. Google may bring together many different methods that they already use separately. Here are 5 reasons that content could be duplicated in the search engines: ·
The information you are trying to view could be available in other formats such as a web page, a PDF document and so on.
· The information you are trying to view may have been syndicated. The same company or person may have a blog and a website and have the same information on both.
· The information may be listed under different locations on the same website.
· The owner of the website may have a ‘mirrored’ website, so not to slow down loading times for other users.
· Another web user has plagiarized the material for use on another website that does not belong to the copyright owner.
The patent that Google have produced shows that Google want to try and combat plagiarism and duplicate content for the better. And this new way forward is only one way that Google want to fight against plagiarism.
There is no telling what Google will do if they do find duplicate content via their patent application. As mentioned above, there are many reasons that duplicate content is used and used by the copyright owner. Google must be careful when removing duplicate web pages from the listings as they may remove the wrong one, so what does this mean for your website?
Google will more than likely pick the website that has the best reputation on the internet, they may also look at the in and outbound links attached to the best website. There is only one way to truly combat this affecting you and your website. That is to have completely unique and individual content. The more unique content you have on your website that centers on certain keywords, the more visitors you will get to your site.
This is a positive step forward for all website owners that are worried about plagiarism. Make your website original and keep a good reputation and you will prosper.
Author: Sarah Folgea