bhartzer
05-10-2011, 04:49 PM
I was looking around on Google.com and noticed over 26,000 (twenty six THOUSAND) pages of duplicate content on the Google.com domain. Here we are trying to get rid of low-quality content on our own sites and remove the duplicate content because of updates like the Google Panda update...and Google can't even follow their own advice.
Recently, while reading Google’s own Webmaster Guidelines (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359), I read the Duplicate Content section. What caught my eye specifically was the 2nd bullet point on that page:
Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent. For example, don’t link to http://www.example.com/page/ and http://www.example.com/page and http://www.example.com/page/index.htm.
It appears to me that Google is not following their own guidelines when it comes to duplicate content. In fact, Google has an extra 26,000 pages on their web site that should NOT be there: they’re duplicates of other pages on the site.
Not only is Google linking internally to their directory pages, they're also linking to their /index.html pages, as well. Which are all duplicates.
I have screen shots and more specific examples of this on my recent blog post: http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/google-not-following-own-best-practices-for-own-web-site/
Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't Google themselves be expected to set an example here? Follow their own advice?
Recently, while reading Google’s own Webmaster Guidelines (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359), I read the Duplicate Content section. What caught my eye specifically was the 2nd bullet point on that page:
Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent. For example, don’t link to http://www.example.com/page/ and http://www.example.com/page and http://www.example.com/page/index.htm.
It appears to me that Google is not following their own guidelines when it comes to duplicate content. In fact, Google has an extra 26,000 pages on their web site that should NOT be there: they’re duplicates of other pages on the site.
Not only is Google linking internally to their directory pages, they're also linking to their /index.html pages, as well. Which are all duplicates.
I have screen shots and more specific examples of this on my recent blog post: http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/google-not-following-own-best-practices-for-own-web-site/
Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't Google themselves be expected to set an example here? Follow their own advice?