Let me start out by saying that this article is a spoof so that nobody gets all crazy and starts a world wide panic. There is NO original content penalty, though sometimes you’d think there was. However, there is a very important message in this article that, if you’re smart, you’ll get. And if you’re reading this, then I know you’re smart. Anyway, here goes.

The other day, over at the Warrior Forum, Bill Platt, who I am convinced should have probably been a comedy writer, started a thread saying that Matt Cutts (he’s got something to do with Google) was hinting that there was going to be a new algorithm change over at Google where there would now be an original content penalty. In other words, and in plain English, if you had original content on your site that was seen nowhere else online, it would be buried in the SERPs. However, if you just scraped your content off of some blog or whatever, you’d be at the top of the SERPs.

Now before you write this off as just a big joke, think about this. Go look up a current news story at Google and take a look at all the news sites that are reporting the same story with the exact same content. And yet, they’re all at the top of the SERPs. Duplicate content doesn’t seem to be hurting them much. Conversely, if you had a brand new site reporting the same story, but in completely different words, do you think you’d be anywhere NEAR the top of the SERPs? I seriously doubt it. So yeah, while Bill Platt was joking around, there is some truth to the way SERPs work. If you have an authority site that’s recognized, you can put up nothing BUT duplicated content and still rank high.

Okay, where is the lesson in all this? Well, some people read the thread that Bill started and took it seriously. Some were even concerned about it. Now, imagine that somebody…ANYBODY…took this thread and reported it on their blog. Or better yet, just started spreading this rumor. Do you not think that EVENTUALLY it would take on a life of its own? How do you think the duplicate content penalty myth got started in the first place? That’s right…somebody started an unsubstantiated rumor. And make no mistake about it…there is NO duplicate content penalty. Google has confirmed this, though there are still people who believe otherwise.

Point is, before you believe ANYTHING that ANYBODY tells you, test it for yourself.

Not everything you read on the Internet is true.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.