I have a forums where a good bit of the content is unique, but then some posters from time to time post copied content from news sources and article sites and even some do this when replying to threads/posts or they just use snippets of duplicate content. Would this be a problem when it comes to Google with penalties and ranking? Also does all forums have this happening and how do they deal with it? Thanks! PS. My main question here is about duplicate content and Google so believe this is the correct forum to post in.
I think that must be the risk which is there in the type of site you are running. Some of the big players in this field like DP or WF should have editorial staff that look for plagiarism using heavyweight tools. If you're not in a position to do this then you will continue to run the risk. Some people just change title and submit same body contents many times with different urls. And if you have enough time to check use copyscape for duplicate content. You should also be on your toes to remove or delete the article or post which you think is duplicate.
As long as your forum isn't filled with duplicate content, then you should be fine. Just make sure when members make these duplicate posts that you either put the copied content in quote tags with a URL to the original source, or delete it altogether. Hope that help
There's no 'duplicate content penalty' as such, unless you think that having a page relegated to position 500 in the SERPS is a 'penalty'. I explain it more here:- duplicate content penalty
I do not think just some threads with copied content would lead your forums to being penalized. There are a lot of authority forums have the similar problem, including DP, V7N. Seochat, etc. Please be aware that Google does look on overall ratio of duplicated contents and not penalize website because of partial duplicated issue. The one thing you should worry is, if your forums have 100% duplicated content in any single thread, that would be a real threat.
Hello: I wouold just keep checking my page to look for a duplicate. Hopefully you will find them if there is any. Then you can repost an artice perting to the duplicate.
The forums I have is part of a bigger site. Main reason for it is so I could build a community plus also get user submitted content to build content quicker without the cost of buying it only to see others infringe on the copyright. I think every poster I have from now on, I will look at a few of their posts from time to time to see if they are copying their posts from other sources and if so, then ban that user. Will also update my TOS about duplicate stuff. Thanks guys.
You've a good article there. I say that because I already know all that what you said about the way the search engine worked apart from the odds that they still may penalize for substantial duplicate content, but then I guess you have to look at the likes of EzineArticles, GoArticles, Articlesbase, etc. They get thousands of uniques from Google each day and all carry a lot of duplicated articles which are over 250 words each.
I have realized if your website has good amount of backlinks then google will not penalize your website. But remember your forum should have also unique content. 100% duplicate content means you have to struggle more to get high rank. So if the duplicate and unique content are mixxed up then don't worry.
There is no "duplicate content penalty". Otherwise it would be easy to sabotage ones competition that way.
It depends on the reaction of the webmaster/mistress who had their content copied. When I'm in a good mood, I contact the forum webmaster and ask them to remove it. When I'm in a bad mood, I file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice with the major search engines. Part of the registration or a sticky should state to use quotes and attribute the source, so at least the other site gets a link out of it. That goes a long way.
I had one thread with 4 posts, 3 of the posts was copied content, therefore I removed the posts that was duplicated. Valkerie, I understand where your coming from, but personally sometimes it's not easy to notice duplicate content and therefore the webmaster owning the forum may not even know he/she's in the wrong. I certainly didn't notice it up until just recently and is the reason for this post.
Duplicate Content Penalty is just a myth. There are millions of Autoblogs exist in the web and doing very well... Myself having 100+ autoblogs and half of them are in the Google's first page for low competition keywords. I am earning good money through adsense from these sites for years.
Use copyscape to check whether a content is duplicate or not before you allow it published on your forum.
When my site drops into the supplementals SERPS because I'm being outranked by my own articles on someone elses website, I notice it.