I ran across an article on the CNET News Blog about whether or not the Google duplicate content rankings drop (for lack of a better word) is actually a penalty or a filter. This got me to think about perspective. From the perspective of the search engines, it is a filter that lets the original page (first time and date-stamped page) of content enjoy higher rankings than the same content published on another page at a later date.

This makes sense because searchers don’t want the SERP’s cluttered with the same exact pages over and again. It seems only natural that one page would be at the top of the rankings and the other ones buried.

But, from the perspective of a webmaster, this may indeed be a penalty. Take for instance the webmaster who has the famous www versus non-www Google canonical issue on their website. The search engine may apply a penalty for both the www version of a web page and non-www version for having identical content. Both pages (meaning the entire website) may be buried in the rankings for up to 6 months after the fix is applied to force one version to resolve to the other.

This may technically not be a penalty according to the search engines, as it is the timeframe needed for a URL removal request. But, to any webmaster or online business owner, waiting out weeks or months with a website buried in the rankings will seem like a penalty even if technically none is at work. Functionally, it is indeed a penalty in position, rankings and money generated through the search engines.

Whether the ranking drop due to duplicate content is called a filter or a penalty matters little. Depending upon the type of duplicate content issue at work (duplicate content between separate websites, which could last only days once the offending material is removed or months for the www versus non-www issue) the consequences can be very detrimental to online business owners no matter what official terminology is used.

Filed under: Google