June 14,
2006
In This Issue:
1. Duplicate Content 101
2. In the News - SE Algorithm overview, Web Design
notes
3. More News Headlines
4. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Duplicate Content 101
Of all the changes brought on by Google's "BigDaddy"
infrastructure upgrade (see Net Gains #102 and
#86 for reference), two that have had big impacts
are related to link patterns and duplicate content.
Last week I used this space to point you toward
some generally good information about linking
-- specifically, about making your link building
look natural. This week, some great information
about duplicate content problems you may be facing.
A search engine obviously doesn't want 10 versions
of the same content in its index -- what value
is there to the searcher if the Top 10 results
all point to the same article or same information?
The search engine wants only the best content
so that searchers are happy and get good results.
Since BigDaddy, Google, in particular appears
to have taken a much stronger stance against duplicate
content -- either that, or BigDaddy has just made
their system better at finding duplicate content.
Among web site owners who are reporting problems
in the past month or two with Google dropping
pages, duplicate content is quite often the most
visible reason it happens.
So, two posts/articles to point you toward. First,
Bill Slawski (a very smart guy) tackles the subject
with a list of 11 situations where a search engine
might see duplicate content. The first one is
very important - product descriptions on e-commerce
sites. Are you using the boilerplate product text
supplied by the manufacturer? Is it the same exact
text being used by all the other retailers of
this product? Ding! That's duplicate content,
and chances are those product pages are being
dropped from Google's index.
SEO by the Sea: Duplicate
Content Issues and Search Engines
Next, Todd Malicoat (another smart guy) tackles
the subject with a couple extra considerations:
thoughts on possible penalties that can come from
having duplicate content, and tips for handling
duplicate content on your site (other than removing
it).
Stuntdubl: How
to Remedy Duplicate Content and Magical % Thinking
Together, these should give you everything you
need to know about duplicate content on the web.
_________________
In The News
Search Engine Relevancy, 2006
Aaron Wall writes a very good overview of what
seems to work, and what doesn't, according to
the algorithms of the four main search engines.
If all you read is "The Short Version"
at the beginning, I bet you'll learn something.
Defining
Search Engine Relevancy
Two Web Design Notes
It's been a while since I've done anyone related
to web design on here, so let me remedy that.
First, Microsoft has just released a trial version
of "Expression," which is a suite of
design software that aims to compete with the
Adobe/Macromedia suite of design products. Can't
say I'm interested, and even if I was, it doesn't
run on the Mac and MSFT says it never will. Okay....
Microsoft
Expression
And second, here's a super guide to creating rounded
corners in your designs without needing to use
clunky images. Some level of CSS skill is required.
More
Nifty Corners
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Getting
into Google News revisited
June 13, 2006 - Search Engine Roundtable
Is
your copy trusted by Google?
June 11, 2006 - Karon Thackston
Look
out Wikipedia, here comes Yahoo Answers
June 08, 2006 - Search Engine Watch
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
Wrapping it Up
This is the last Net Gains for a while. I'll be
out of the office for the next two weeks, and
then the week after that will be catch-up time,
with July 4th hitting right as I'm ready to start
work on the newsletter that week. So #107 may
be out on July 5th, or maybe not until July 12th.
See you one of those weeks....
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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