Duplicate Content From Citations?

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Hi everyone,

A number of citations ask for a business description, so I want to use one from our website. However, would this get flagged as duplicate content or some other problem? Do I need to write unique descriptions for every listing site?

Thanks,

Ruben

[MiriamEllis]

You asked a good question, Ruben. Glad to help.

[KempRugeLawGroup]

Will do!

Thank you, both!

Ruben

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ruben,

There is some amount of duplication 'baked in' when it comes to citations descriptions, because of the way in which content is shared across the Local Search Ecosystem (http://moz.com/learn/local/local-search-data-us), so one can't fret too much about this, as there is no avoiding it. Best practice is to write 10-20 unique descriptions and use them as you're building citations. I've never seen any specific studies done on whether there is a problem with using content from your own website as a citation description, but all the same, I wouldn't advise it. I suggest you make the effort to spend an hour or two writing unique descriptions, just to be on the safe side. It shouldn't take long and then you'll be worry-free. Hope these thoughts are helpful.

[WilliamKammer]

You'll notice some citation sites specifically request unique content for the descriptions. This is most likely so they don't encounter duplicate content, but it's a good practice. I know it's a hassle, but unique descriptions enable you to tailor content to the specific citation site, and you can surround your links (even if most are no-followed) with different contextual words they may be picked up on.