Monday, May 24, 2010

SEO Tips - Updating Your Content And Avoiding Duplicate Filters

By Aya Wilkinson

If you are just getting into Search Engine Optimization, it's important that you are aware that content is the most important thing in your website in order to get high ratings. Having fresh and relevant content in your website is the key as that will bring web crawlers back frequently. There are different ways of achieving this while avoiding getting your website removed off of a search engine due to duplicate content. If you decide to hire an SEO Consultant, make sure that you explain to them exactly what you want your website to look like and the content that you would like it to feature.

Make sure that the new content isn't only hype but also informative as it will do nothing for you otherwise. There are different ways that you can update your content no matter the kind of website you have. If you are selling online you can have regular featured items or fresh products it's a great way to add content as well as show them off. The easiest website that you can easily update is an online magazine, as there is always new information coming in, however, you can do the same concept for any type of website.

You may also have news sections about your company, events, activities, and undertakings. Other ways that you can update your website is through a blog or RSS feeds or Really Simple Syndication. They are headlines and news from major websites that can automatically be updated and posted on yours about any topic you choose. Another great way is self updating info like lists. These are lists that are regularly updated with products, discounts, features, order trackers, as well as online calculators just to name a few. It will not make a huge difference, but it's better than not having any updated content at all.

You can also attract more information to your website using techniques to visually make important text stick out to web crawlers and searchers. You can achieve this by using either formatting or font size. Headings are another way to bring attention to a certain text. Just make sure that you keep it to a minimum, as overuse of this method will bring the opposite results to your keywords and special texts. If certain phrases or keywords are bolded tag or italic tag a web crawler will be more attracted to them as they look more important than the rest of the text.

Duplicate texts are a major issue both for SEO as well as web crawlers. Make sure that the content that you put on your website and update is original. If there is a way to change part of the content in order to keep it from the filters it would be best, as search engines are very strict about duplicate content and there is a chance your website may be removed by a search engine. Also, if you use RSS feeds, remember that you aren't the only one that has them in your website, and it can be written off as duplicate content.

In the past search engines did not have too many issues with duplicate content, however, it became a problem with people started using duplicate content in order to make their website look bigger. So search engines have created a duplicate content filter that looks for suspicious websites that have duplicate content either throughout their own website, or copied off of another, and remove said website. Unfortunately, due to these filters there are many legitimate websites that are removed by using duplicate content that is not copywritten and sometimes even necessary, such as info sent to resellers by manufacturers that they cannot change up to avoid the filters.

If you find that there are too many similarities or identical content, just change up your content a bit. Another way is to add commentary or your opinion at the bottom of the same page, which should be enough. Should you find original content copied from your own website you need to notify the webmaster in order to have them removed? Also, to quicken up the process, you can use, www.copyscape.com to check content on your website with others. There are a couple of ways to avoid duplicate content filters in some situations. It's important to regularly review other websites that have the same theme or topics as your own to make sure that you aren't using the same content, or that they haven't copied any content for your website.

Make it attractive, interesting, and update it regularly in order to get a higher ranking and more visitors. This also means if you are using an SEO Consultant, that you communicate to them what kind of content you want to display, and to explain to them that you want everything to be original and no copied content. In conclusion, as content is the most important part of Search Engine Optimization, make sure that you choose your words wisely.

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