Some Google myths are worth exploring in greater detail. Certainly much of what is written about the world’s largest search engine is merely wishful thinking, or just plain crap. The only way to figure out what really happens in Google is to test. Most people don’t have the time or inclination to do rigorous testing, so many of them will just end up parroting what others have told them.

The idea of duplicate content scares people

Webmasters seem particularly worried about what will happen if they have duplicate content on their websites. They seem to think it will result in an instant and damaging penalty. But in reality, Google tends to be very forgiving of duplicate content.

Testing shows that duplicate content won’t necessarily rank well, but it doesn’t affect the ability of your website to rank. You won’t be penalized for it, you just not might rank. This is especially true if there are better linked domains publishing the same content as you.

In reality, a lot of the web consists of duplicate content, for nefarious reasons as well as legitimate ones. If you’re really worried that duplicate content is bringing you down, you can always use the noindex meta tag to tell the search engines to drop the pages.