The most common method of duplicate content implies copying texts from other websites. Sometimes, webmasters make slight modifications in order to make it look different. Most commonly, these problems seem to affect online stores, which bring in a lot of products and similar descriptions. However, any kind of website can become a victim. Search engines try to detect this kind of content in order to provide original or source texts and not just some worthless copies.
What you have to remember about duplicate content
As a general rule of thumb, you should never create websites, web pages or subdomains with duplicate content. Fortunately, there are plenty of webmaster tools that can help you decide on the indexing method of a website. If the content is published on other websites as well, it might be a good idea to indicate the original source too. The key to success in online business is mostly given by the content. The better and more interesting your content is, the more appreciated your website will become. Plenty of webmasters complain about duplicate or stolen content, so they try all kinds of ideas in order to solve this problem. If contacting the plagiarists does not work, webmasters can contact search engines, provide proof and ask them to remove the respective websites from their results.
A lot of websites were penalized in 2013 by Google’s Panda update due to detecting duplicate content. Therefore, make sure that you do not copy anything. Content writing services can be very handy, but many of them employ people who they do not screen upfront. Therefore, never take anything for granted.