How do you treat a Site's Description being submitted to your Directory? Fact: We all know that people submit their sites to hundreds and even thousands of directories. Fact: Obviously they cannot possibly come up with hundreds of unique descriptions, especially if they are using a submission service or an automatic or semi-automatic submission program. Question: If your Directory accepts the Description as is, do you feel you'll have a duplicate content because chances are, it was already submitted to hundreds/thousands of other directories? Solution?: People submitting to Directories can only come up with so many variations of a given description. After a while, they simply exhaust their imagination. I came up with 40 for one of my sites. Most of my friends have 5. You the Directory Owner however, are able to rewrite each description submitted because you'll be doing it only ONCE for each site. Your Input: Is it worth the time? Is it really a duplicate content if you leave it as is? Any other solutions? WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I rewrite all descriptions at least a little. It helps with the effect you mentioned, allows for a consistent writing style to be used, and corrects any grammar/spelling/etc. errors.
I've noticed that after my submission to Alive. I think it's a good thing. I've been doing it on and off also, time allowing. Yes, the bad once definitively are rewritten immediately. How about rewriting some, after they have been in the directory for a while? One might think that the content would change so it could be a good thing for SE. Now, I do not mean going crazy and rewriting all. Simply what catches your eye.
I rewrite the description sometimes too. I think many other directory owners tend to submit to other directories, then their descriptions are probably the same. I have 5 descriptions pre-written to use when I submit my directory, but my little effort won't do much if other descriptions from the "regulars" use the same description. In the end, Google may notice the content is extremely similar under a category, especially directory categories.
I always rewrite the desciptions to conform with my format and to ensure uniqueness. Occasionally a customer will compain, usually because they don't understand the benefits to both parties.
Was not doing it, as most of my directories were free. Made couple of paid ones, I will take this as an advise and try to do it on the paid directories. Thanks
I read the description and if it's well written I normally don't edited it. Like already mentioned, there are only so many variation and chances are what I would write has already used or very close.
We always rewrite. We correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Also, when reviewing the site we see more to describe so our descriptions are usually 2-3 times longer than what was submitted. Another thing is that many submitters don't take the time to fill in the fields for their deeplinks. When they miss that opportunity we fill it in for them. So yes, lots of editing.
I usually rearrange some of the submission to avoid duplicate content. I am careful not to change the main message of the subject matter. Cheers.
The duplicate content penalty isn't about sentences or even paragraphs. Duplicate content means one webpage is a duplicate of another. So, the situation you describe isn't a problem when it comes to individual directory listings. I do edit many of the submissions to our directory however, due to spelling, grammar, repetition, capitalization, etc. But I don't do it because of duplicate content. best, Denise
I rewrite more and more. I'm also getting into the practice of writing original descriptions when I submit to directories, rather than rotating the same 5 or 6 descriptions I originally wrote for submitting with.
Not quite. If you have a near-duplicate page, it can still be affected by the penalty. So changing a word here or there, or maybe adding a sentence, won't necessarily be enough to help a page. I think the duplicate content penalty is concerned with a certain % of sameness, and it's a % that fluctuates to an extent whenever Google wants to experiment. The problem is, a lot of directory pages tend towards duplication because of category dumps, similar scripts, lots of submitters all submitting the same text to multiple directories, and the fact that it's often the same competing websites that get listed in any category that's at all specific.
Yes, duplicate content penalty happens when one page is substantially the same as another. But here we are talking about one listing on a page with many others. There's a difference. There may be similarities, but the pages are not being duplicated. Just some of the listings. best, Denise