Here are several ways companies tend to have duplicate content. Courtesy of an article I read on Search Engine Watch. This is my redefined version in a much more entertaining form.

1. MFA Websites. I’m sure these type of mini sites (Made For Adsense Web Sites) are tempting for Internet Entrepreneurs. I personally stay away from these and try not to contribute into making the Internet full of crap. An MFA Website is a site that is built from the ground up with Google Adsense in mind and used to earn income. These sites are usually made by one person and built multiple times, so one person could have 100 MFA sites. They are also keyword based on a PPC basis, making sure the keyword used has a high ROI (return on investment) per click.The webmaster then steals content from other sites and puts it on their sites, and this tells the search engines that there is duplicate content on the web, or SPAM.

Search Engines tend to give credit to the original source, or the one that posted the article first.

2. Multiple URL Issues. Companies tend to own more than one Domain, and they like to post the same type of info on those Domains. Now most companies do not consider this duplicate content, but search engines surely do. The best way to correct this is to have separate content on each site, related to your industry. Make sure the other sites point out to the one site you would like to focus on, like the corporate site.

There have been instances when the URL issue was corrected and rankings automatically sky rocket to the roof. Simple as that.

3. Same content in one Site. There are companies, and PEOPLE, who like to have a big website and love to post the same info on separate sections. DUPLICATE CONTENT!!! Quit being lazy and write unique content on each section.

4. Multiple Press Releases. This one isn’t really bad. Search Engines try their best to give credit to the original source in order to avoid SPAM. Make sure to stick with one GOOD service when making press releases.

Duplicate content is like plagiarism, instead of falling in line like the sites that have come and gone, avoid these mistakes to make sure your site stays on the good side of the search engines.

And BTW, please don’t be one of those people that build sites just for the money, and don’t care about producing valuable content. We, as human beings, have a tendency to screw up everything that we do. I really don’t want to see the Internet become full of garbage, and as a consequence be full of restrictions up to the point that it becomes a regulated atmosphere with policies and constant watchful authorities waiting to catch the idiots who SPAM the web.

Well that’s enough of that.