3 tips for avoiding Google duplication penalties

Google. The imposing beast of either search engine victory or the blood curdling possibility for website penalisation.

Amongst the many, many rules and regulations that Google insists we play nicely by is the topic of duplicate content – a topic constantly on the mind of some of our publishing and marketing clients. Here I take a look at three ways in which you can avoid Google duplication penalties and retain both your time and sanity.

Many digital marketers build or utilise a series of websites that rely upon one another for link juice, as well as organic SEO, however when servicing an extensive number of similar websites it can be difficult to create content that is fresh and completely unique on a consistent basis.

For this reason some work upon the oft touted rumour that as long as 40-50% of the content is unique, then they can get away with it. However, whilst you can (and should) repurpose a single piece of content as long as it’s useful, relevant and engaging, you do need to follow these golden rules:

1. Work on a topic that is in some way tailored to that particular community
2. Take the content into different directions upon each platform
3. When utilising social media giants such Facebook or Twitter, be sure to amend the content more liberally

Through these steps you ensure that you follow the essential goal of any content marketing strategy – to produce content that is truly useful (and therefore highly shareable) for your various communities. What’s more, research has shown time and time again that the more specific you are with your content and the audience to which you serve it, the more engagement and readership growth you will receive.