This is a post I made in the Firepow forum as part of my case study demonstrating the niche marketing methods I teach.
I’ve been following a couple of the discussions happening on popular blogs lately about duplicate content and I decided to incorporate a little test of my own into the Firepow case study.
I hope you enjoy…
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Hey Guys,
Just wanted to make this update to the case study thread out here too so everyone can see, because it’s an important issue.
So basically if you’ve been following, the latest update is that this page I’ve been building links to, on a brand new domain, is now ranking page 2 just below by Squidoo lens on the same keyword – for the term I’m targetting. (UPDATE: the page is now page 1 position 6)
It’s taken quite a few links, and I think this page will keep rising.
What I didn’t mention so far is this…
That page, is NOT a unique article, I didn’t have it written.
It’s pulled STRAIGHT from the affiliates promo tools page for this popular product – I know hundreds of other people are using the exact SAME article.
BLATANT duplicate content.
But my page is dominating anyone else using it AND dominating plenty of “unique” pages too!
Why?
Because duplicate content is BS – no content is banned for being a duplicate – in fact posts aren’t even ranked by how “unique” they are – they are ranked by how AUTHORITATIVE they are… which is to say… how many links point back to them, how old and strong the rest of the domain is etc etc.
I used this duplicate article right from the start to prove this point and now it unfolded just like I wanted… muahahahaha!! (sorry, that was childish)
I hope the lesson here is clear.
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In case it’s not clear, the implications are this:
You can literally rip an article straight from an article directory, build more links to it than any other copy of that piece of content, and you’ll outrank the original, or any other version, for the keywords it targets… I think that is pretty damn good news.
It was noted correctly in responses to this thread that the only type of duplicate content that will get you in trouble is having two pages exactly the same within your OWN site. Of course I hope none of us are doing that.
I have to credit Robert from the thirty day challenge for putting this idea to me about two months ago – I’m just glad I bothered to test it for myself because it’s going to prove hugely beneficial!
I hope you find this valuable.
Andrew
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Woo-hoo! Get to be the first commenter.
A very similar thing happened to me a while ago. I use HitTail.com to track long-tail keyword hits to my blogs. Well, one caught my eye one day, so I decided to “test” the theory behind HitTailling.
The original keywords hit was from page 6 or 7 in Google. I went out to EzineArticles and found an article that pretty much matched the keywords (the phrase was actually 3 words).
I copied the article, along with it’s original title into the post, and added a blurb at the beginning that said something like “Here is an article that illustrates keyword1-keyword2-keyword3. Enjoy”.
The post title was the exact 3-word phrase I pulled from the HitTail suggestions, and of course the keywords were repeated in the permalink.
I forgot about the post for a couple weeks, and then I noticed at 103Bees.com that the page had received several hits for the phrase – all from Google page 1! And, this was with only a few links pointing to the page, mostly internal. Apparently, I had somehow dominated that long-tail phrase with – as you describe it – *blatant* duplicate content.
My only explanation at the time was – 1) the site overall was well established (age), 2) my permalinks and keywords matched, and the actual content of the post supported those keywords, 3) the post had extreme relevance to the site (another aspect of “authority” I guess).
ok, now I am addicted and am going to have to read all your posts :p
Wish I could afford firepow now, maybe I’ll just splash out and see how I go. Are you currently running any promotions?
hey man! Just saw your tweet…
I Love the new blog design!
Keep it up bro!
Love your thoughts on duplicate content. You said in “The Crap Cutter Marketing Report” that you use just a few article directories, Buzzle being one of them. You publish the same article to those directories. Since Buzzle says they don’t publish duplicate content, how do you use them and get around that?
one approach Henry is to publish in Buzzle first. They can check that it is not published elsewhere and approve it. Then you can publish it elsewhere.
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Great news, Andrew – Thanks for taking the time to test this theory! This will save me a lot of time and anquish over this nagging topic. Best to you …
Hi Andrew, thanks for the info. I agree with you as I’ve found that out myself some time ago. It’s good to have affirmation on the matter. Cheers.
I have been working relentlessly on my price comparison/ information store for six months and not a sale! My site has approximately 300 pages, earned £2.78 in adsense revenue. I have been posting regularly on my blog, without knowing about the duplicate content stuff that you explain in your video series. No wonder my pages keep disappearing! I have been slapped every time I posted!
Thank you so much for sharing this information Andrew, I am hoping to see some better results now.
thanks for the info here. Although the video you recommended regarding duplicate content can’t load.
Which video is that Tina?
Andrew
I had heard this but good to have confirmation on it. I like for my PLR customers to know this so they can put their duplicate content issue to rest.
Thanks, Andrew!
Thanks for a great post.I have been wondering how much of the content of my articles I should change up after they went live at Ezinearticles when I post them to other directories. So if I understand what you are saying that posting to other directories isn’t really the key but having lots of links to the article ?
thanks foe great information.
Thanks Jacquelyn