Question: I am building an eCommerce site where I will be selling products that appear on other sites, including manufacturers’ sites. If I cut and paste descriptions from one of those sites onto my own, will I hurt my Search Engine rankings? Jonathan Rosen, Give.bz
My instincts are to say “Yes, it would hurt your rankings.” In SEO (Search Engine Optimization), duplicating content from one site to another is never recommended under any circumstances. However, if you are adding lots and lots of items onto your eCommerce site, it sure would make it a lot faster and easier to copy and paste rather than having to create a unique description for every single product.
I’ve done some research, and my instincts were right. It is a bad idea to duplicate content from one website to another, especially when you don’t own both sites. But to make your life easier, go ahead, copy and paste; then tweak the text and make it your own. This will serve to:
1. Protect your hard-won search engine rankings.
2. Your site will have a consistent “voice” throughout.
3. You can make your descriptions more compelling than the original.
4. You will have total control over all the content on your site
For more interesting tips on SEO and eCommerce, click here:
Guide to Optimize your eCommerce Site for Search Engines
Question #1: What is Google PageRank?
Google PageRank (PR) is a number that represents the importance of an individual web page in the eyes of Google. So, when lots of web pages link to a specific web page, it shows Google that the page is popular. That means good stuff to Google because their ultimate goal is to always deliver the most relevant, quality content to their users.In other words, if a page has a PR of 9 or 10 (10 being the highest), that page has won a popularity contest!
Question #2: Is Google PageRank Important for SEO?
Well, that’s a really good question. There was and still is a lot of speculation as to whether a high PageRank benefits a web page’s ranking in organic listings (SEO). However, it is ALWAYS good to have as many quality inbound links a possible directing people to your web pages.
If you have the Google Toolbar installed in your browser, you can see the PageRank of each page as you browse the web. Don’t know if you have the Google toolbar, or want to install it? Let me know and I’ll be happy to help!
In spite of the economy we began quite a few new projects in March:
- New website: Upscale furniture store
- Internet marketing program: High end invitation company
- E-Commerce site: Children’s coat manufacturer
- SEO content pages: National frozen seafood producer
- Internet visibility program: NYC construction consultant
Because Internet marketing is relatively low cost and is highly trackable.
Jump in…the water is very buoyant here! You won’t sink, you will swim… …and we’ll be right beside you!
The long anticipated Google SearchWiki has launched. Google calls it “a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results.” Now you can move pages that you like to the top of the page, or even add a new site. You can add your own notes and delete results that you don’t feel are relevant. This is only available if you have a Google account and are signed-in.
What is really interesting is that the changes you make are stored in your Google account so that your preference info is visible to Google. And, you can see what others have said about search results as well.
Personalized search is the next step in the dynamic and exciting world of search. How does this affect website owners? It is more important than ever to make sure that your site is well optimized and managed all the time. Titles and meta tags are once again important. And…everything needs to be kept up to date.
I would love to hear comments: will you use it? what effect if any will it have on you as a user? as a business owner?
Our good friends and colleagues at Dragon Search Marketing are moving into new offices. Congrats on their new digs!