WordPress, duplicate content and the power of Google

Posted 14 March 2007, by Aaron

Search Engine Optimisation

I don’t claim to be an expert with search engine optimisation (SEO). I’m very interested in the design and aesthetics of the Web and new media, but not really very interested in the fiddly geeky works of SEO. So it is with complete ignorance on my part that miLienzo.com has been blacklisted by Google.

In actual fact, I exaggerate. I haven’t been blacklisted as such, but my pages are being filtered out of Google’s search results due to duplicate content. Google states in its quality guidelines not to create multiple pages with substantially duplicate content. But I haven’t - each of my blog posts are unique and the result of hour upon hour of researching, writing and linking. So why am I being punished? What’s going on?

WordPress and duplicate content

Well, believe it or not, WordPress is to blame here. By default WordPress kicks out shed-loads of duplicate content:

Your homepage - if you don’t use excerpts then your homepage duplicates the entire content of your posts. Categories/archives - your category pages just duplicate the content of all posts in that category, and you archives duplicate all your entries posted in that week or month. If you use some kind of tag plugin (like this one), then your tag pages are further duplication of your posts. Feeds - search engines spider your feeds too, which duplicates your content further.

So, taking all this into account, for every blog post I make, it can be duplicated more than five times - sometimes much more if you use lots of tags. Now I begin to see why Google is punishing me.

So what’s the consequence? Well, no-one comes to miLienzo.com through Google. I’ve run a few sites over the years and Google has always given me about 90 per cent of search engine traffic, and sometimes over three quarters of all traffic. When Google filters you, you notice the difference.

Fear not though, there are ways to make WordPress search engine friendly. I’m not going to post a detailed technical ‘how to’ but I strongly recommend all WordPress users take a look at this excellent article on SEO Marketing Research.

Is Google too powerful?

Google So I’ve now implemented these changes and we’re apparently a Google-friendly site. However, I’m still being filtered and further research indicates that recovery can take anything up to six months. Suppose I’d better get used to the cobwebs.

For me this isn’t too much of a problem really. This blog is more of a personal thing - there are no ads on miLienzo.com, I’m not doing this for money, I’m more interested in learning new skills, connecting with people and getting exposure. Having no Google traffic does have a dramatic impact on overall numbers but there are better channels through which to get a more lasting and ‘personal’ visitor.

What annoys me though is the power Google wields. Duplicate content isn’t proving a problem with other search engines, but the amount of traffic I receive through Yahoo! and MSN is so insignificant it’s barely worth mentioning. It truly is all about Google, and suddenly the Internet is not the free, fair and open platform that it should be, but a platform increasingly being controlled by one increasingly giant corporation.

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Tags:Google, Internet, SEO, WordPress

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10 fantastic comments

How do you know it was duplicate content? Are you really blacklisted or just lost some positions (like from #5 to #140)?

I wasn’t blacklisted, but the duplicate pages were being filtered out of search results. I know this happened because my Top 10 plugins post made it into the first page of search results and was giving me quite a bit of traffic. Then one day it was gone.

Even if I searched for unique strings of text from the post, it wouldn’t show in Google’s search results.

Since implementing the changes in the SEO Marketing Research article, I contacted Google to let them know I felt I was being unfairly filtered and yesterday I started seeing Google traffic again.

Sure enough, the Top 10 plugins post is back in the SERPS, but has slipped to page 2 now. Nevermind, I’m just relieved to be back in Google.

This is odd, I was under the imporession that Google punished duplicate content across different IPs or domains and that it was intelligent enough to work out the blog issue as you describe - otherwise all blogs would be hit by this problem. Are you absolutely sure it’s just a duplicate content issue?

neil - I’m as sure as I can be without Google explicitly telling me what I was being punished for. I did quite a lot of research into it and the issue is quite well documented elsewhere - I’m not the only person thats been stung like this.

And I dont think it’s a coincidence that I’m back in Google’s SERPs after implementing the duplicate content precautions.

However, what is unclear is the fact that many WordPress installations manage to go unpunished by Google without taking any of the precautions. It seems a bit hit and miss.

I still don’t quite buy this, it could have been other factors. I’m still ranking with pages with duplicate pages side by side in the SERPs.

But I have included a noindex in the All in One SEO Plugin , just to make sure.

Incredible, I didn’t realize that this was the case.

[...] option which suddenly appeared on our Gmail screens. This not only reminded us how much power Google wields… but how much we like Gmail. So random CH staffers helped us illustrate the magic which is [...]

Well… I got here through Google.

Most people use the internet for information, products and even services. They search for their needs through the search engines. As you can see, as you type a specific keyword at the major search engines such as Yahoo, Google and MSN, you will find a lot of results â€“ about thousands of results. But of course, those results that are found on the top rank are the ones that visitors or internet users will take time to look and visit. Since they believe that those results are the reliable ones for the information, products or services that they need.

Hi Aaron,

Good Post. You make 2 good points: On Search Engines in general and on Wordpress.

You nicely underscore the problems with Optimizing for just a single source… What if that source ‘changes its mind’?

And regarding Wordpress kicking out a lot of duplicate content by default… they’ve managed to give you a nice update regarding that in the latest versions. When you’re typing your post in Wordpress, be sure to scan the Editing Icons for a Button labeled “Insert More Tag”. This will allow you to select the first X words/sentences where you want to break the text. This leaves a nice “Read the rest of this entry” Link on ALL pages (home page, posts page, tags/categories/archives/etc.) except for your Actual Post Page. This REMOVES a LOT of duplicate content from your site to keep Google happier.

And for Feeds, Recent Wordpress versions also allow you to select between Full and Partial content in your feeds.

Again, keep coming with your excellent work,
Mike

WordPress, duplicate content and the power of Google

WordPress and duplicate content

Is Google too powerful?

10 fantastic comments

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