Experts agree that having compelling, quality content on a website is one of the best ways to increase its search engine optimization(SEO), but as one online marketing CEO points out, duplicate content can do just the opposite.
In an article for PromotionWorld, Brian Easter, head of internet marketing firm NeboWeb, says that having content that appears in numerous places on the web can have a negative impact on a company’s search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
"If your content starts appearing in too many places on the web, the major search engines may penalize your pages for duplicate content," he writes. "This can have a dramatically negative effect on your rankings and thus on your traffic and overall presence online."
But companies looking to increase their search engine optimization (SEO) do want their content to go viral and be linked in reputable places that can increase traffic – something that can happen when original compelling content is created.
Writing last month for Search Engine Journal, David Risley noted that this kind of viral traffic comes when people write content aimed at humans rather than search engines.
By creating content that is appealing to readers, Risley says that sites have a greater chance of being linked on sites like Digg or Reddit or being mentioned by users of social networking sites like Twitter – all of which can spread a company’s message throughout the web.
