Misquoted Confidence: high
Primary source found, but the way it is quoted changes the subject, metric, population or precision.
Safe rephrasing
Google says there is no 'duplicate content penalty': duplicates are filtered or consolidated, and action is taken only when duplication is deceptive or manipulative.
What the source says
Let's put this to bed once and for all, folks: There's no such thing as a "duplicate content penalty." ... Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.
Google Search Central — Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty" (Sept. 12, 2008)
- Commonly cited as
- "Duplicate content will get you penalized by Google"
- True origin
- Google Search Central — Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty" (Sept. 12, 2008)
- Type
- Stat check: A widely repeated statistic traced back to its origin.
- Year
- 2008
- Data as of
- Google statement, 2008; still linked from Search Central
- Last checked
- Method & sample
- Official Google statement. Duplicate pages may be filtered or consolidated, which can dilute performance, but that is not a penalty.
- Drift between quote and source
- Filtering duplicates is not a penalty; deliberate scraping or spam can still trigger action
- Interest
- Google describing its own ranking systems.