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If you are going to be starting a website, you have probably heard the phrase 'duplicate content' come up time and time again. This is a much discussed area when it comes to the internet, and one that has garnered a lot of attention over the past couple of years. But the fact of the matter is that most people have no clue what duplicate content is, or how the rules are enforced.

Knowing the definition of duplicate content is the first step to avoiding the penalties that go along with it. Duplicate content is when different domains use the same or nearly identical information in order to serve the online community. In other words, this means that there is more than one website with the same information on it. People do this in order to get as many websites out there as possible, but without having to put in all of the work. Duplicate content also covers when content of one page on the internet is identical or similar to another page.

But even though this may seem like a large problem, it really only affects webmasters that are trying to design a lot of websites without having to put in all of the work. Unless you are using the exact same content as another website, in the exact same way, you will not be hit with duplicate content penalties.

If you are concerned about duplicate content penalties the best thing to do is to determine if anybody else is using your information. The most common way is by running the content through copyscape. This will tell you if anybody else is using your information.

At this point, you may be thinking about the private label articles that you use on your site. Many people use these as a way of getting new content every month; but at the same time there may be other people that are using the same content as you. The best way that you can avoid this is by taking the articles that you receive from your private label company and slightly modifying them. By doing this, you will be able to avoid any penalties. And remember, while you are modifying your content, anybody else that received the articles will probably modify theirs as well. The end result is entirely different articles being posted on each respective site.

Another great way to use content, but avoid duplicate content penalties is by sending them in text format. In other words, if you have an article that is going to be republished on other websites, make sure to send them in text format. This way when the recipient posts the content it will be reformatted. This will ensure that the content is viewed by the spiders sent out by search engines as original.

Duplicate content is not as big a problem as you may think. Many people are under the impression that this is a huge problem. Even though there is no place for copyright infringement, if you have the rights to an article you do not have to worry about this. Overall, duplicate content penalties are most often enforced on webmasters that are trying to create several sites using the same or similar content.