Page 11 - SEO Mad Scientist 2020 Report

Duplicate Content Tests

Can You Duplicate Content from Events and Rank?

Test Setup:

We’ve used many different types of duplicate content throughout our tests, but this specific
analysis digs deeper into an old test site we’ve used - mymarketer.online. We wanted to
determine if Google's duplicate content algorithm is actually black and white, or if it has a specific
threshold when it comes to certain data.

The duplicate content algorithm is set up to stop SERPs from showing 2 sites with the same
content, preventing copied content from outranking the original. However, this isn’t always the
case. One example of duplicate content that Google doesn't seem to mind and will still rank in
the same SERPs, is events...

Test Results:
February 28, 2020

In the example above, we
searched "marketing events in
Chicago February 2020" and
copied all event listing info directly
from Google's "events" at the top
of the search to a page on our test
site. The only unique content
added was a video at the bottom
with a marketing event in March. Immediately upon indexing, we saw SERP placement in the
same SERP that we took the content from…

Google is apparently ok showing duplicate content in the SERPs, but where the content came
from and how it is obtained seems to be the defining factor. We are currently testing this same
concept with local listings, various FAQ Schema pulled from other sites, and many other sources
that we believe Google is "OK" with showing duplicate content.

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