Duplicate Legal Content
-
Oftentimes lawyer websites will publish laws (codes, statutes, regulations, case law, etc). They add no value to the text, it's just copy pasted. Therefore, the same text/content may be on potentially hundreds of websites. Does google interpret this as duplicate content, or does it recognize government content as special?
I want to have the laws on my website as well, however I am debating whether to add no follow tags or not. Or I'm thinking about adding value to the content by breaking down the specific law. However, even then at least 50% of the content on the page will still be the law, and I'm not sure if that is enough to be considered duplicate content.
-
Thank you for the responses. I think I'm going to add value to the content and not worry so much about duplication. Thanks again!
-
Hi Nikhil, it's normal that you're worried about this kind of things, that's one of the consequences panda got into this market. It's good that you worry about it, there two different approaches to this: try to trick it or understand it and add some real value to that content. This issue is not only in your niche. Think about books, films and lyrics of songs. You can't change them, howeveryou can add something to make that content more useful for google to le t you rank for it.
I'm not a lawyer but I'll try to make an example. The first result will be the official result then you may write an article which takes that law and then add some bullet points of the main aspects of that law, then the related laws, adding bolds, commentaries and things like this. You won't be first but you'll start building your brand as the site giving real value added to that laws, something that some people may think you're valuable and google too.
Don't worry about duplication in this case, as I said before, lyrics sites got a lot of that content and they're not duplicates, try to open your page to more keywords than only the text of that specific law.
I hope that would be useful.
-
Hey There
I would say if you think the content will be useful for your visitors/customers then add it. If you are wanting to add the content to attract new browsers through the SERPs then you are out of luck. As you say the content is not unique, so you are unlikely to be attributed as the source/original author of the content.
I don't think (although someone will come along and put me in my place) you will be penalised for adding the content, you just won't receive any SERP boost for it.
But as I say, if it helps your customers, then go ahead and add it.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Clarification on duplicate content
Hi, if I have a page that unintentionally ranks for a term that I want to create a page for - say "atlanta apartments" - should I still create a page specifically intended to rank for "atlanta apartments"? Will canonical tags be crucial in this case? Hoping to avoid creating duplicate content and instead create the correct content for a specific term.
Content Development | | smiller760 -
Can you add RSS feed content?
Buongiorno from the digital epicentre of forward digital thinking that is Wetherby UK 😉 Ok i have afeeling this is a big NO No but i just need to banish all doubt so here goes.. Am i right in saying you cannot subscrive to an RSS feed with the objective of pubkishing the linked contnet on another site.
Content Development | | Nightwing
Put another way if i built a news web page and subscribed to a BBC news RSS feed can i make that content appear in a site i administer? Grazie tanto,
David0 -
What are your favourite tools for discoving popular content?
Since looking around for popular content discovery tools I came across a review about a tool called PostRank which seemed ideal until I learned Google had bought it and shut it down already 😞 So far I have been using Google reader and Topsy to discover popular content in my niches but I am guessing there are a whole bunch of other tools out there that may work even better - please do let me know your favourites!
Content Development | | Clicksjim0 -
Is there a tool for measuring content freshness?
i.e. crawling a site to identify last date of new or changed content? Thanks.
Content Development | | PeterTroast0 -
Someone wants to syndicate my content but I'm afraid
I GOT THE FOLLOWING EMAIL: Hi, I visited your site and would like to connect regarding nSphere syndicating your content into our search platform. We are interested in syndicating your content into our network. There’s no cost for this, we ask you to place a module on your site that reads your content and syndicates it into our network of millions of users. You only need to place a simple JavaScript code on your site. I have the code, but I would like to speak or email with you first. This module acts as search tool for your users as well. Can you email me or send me your number and a good day/time to connect? Thank you in advance.
Content Development | | UnderRugSwept
Matthew Mantyla | nSphere
Director of Media Integration I'M AFRAID OF DUPLICATE CONTENT. SHOULD I JUST IGNORE THIS; IS IT SPAM; OR COULD THIS BE AN OPPORTUNITY? I'M THINKING I SHOULD BE SUSPICIOUS OF THE FACT THAT HE DIDN'T EVEN PROVIDE A URL.0 -
Does content have a shelf life for link building efforts?
Do you think that content (that doesn't have a date attached) has a shelf life? Especially content that is effectively timeless such as a quiz? I've noticed in my link building efforts that most links are achieved within the first couple of weeks, and that there seems to be a point of diminishing returns. Why do you think that may be?
Content Development | | nicole.healthline0 -
Archive older, low ranked content to help new content in Panda 2.2?
After watching the white board friday re: Panda 2.2, it got me to thinking about old content. One of the sites that I work with generates 3-10 new articles/day (movie reviews, interviews, guides, event previews, etc) and has been doing so since 2005. Now, they have almost 10k articles, 7k of which are indexed. The quality of the content varies, and much of it is dated (movies, events) much of the amount of older content gets 0-5 pageviews/month, made in the days BEFORE the site was using Google News + social tools to spread the word (and backlinks). Note that those older articles also of course tend to have 100% bounce, and small/zero TOS. Is this hurting the site? With 75-100 articles/month being published, I want to make sure they get maximum exposure. I'm also concerned that crawlers get sucked into the site chasing down old BS content, and that is hurting it as well. What to do with this content? Should I unpublish unpopular, dated content and get it off the internet? Or, do I leave it on, but NOINDEX it so Google won't crawl it?
Content Development | | EricPacifico0