Yikes! My Hub Got Flagged for Containing the Dreaded "Duplicate Content"
83© Copyright 2009 Patrice Walker All rights reserved
I knew I was skating on thin ice when I decided to publish a hub about the new thought writer, Neville Goddard, that was taken from an article I'd written and published at another article submission site over a year ago. I figured if I delete the article and the account (I'd only published two articles since signing on with them), then HubPages wouldn't consider it duplicate content. I also changed the title, thinking that this would eliminate the last bit of duplicate content that existed on the Internet.
WRONG! A few minutes after hitting the publish button, the dreaded "duplicate content" message appeared at the top of the hub, and the words "duplicate content" in glaring red next to the hub listing in my account. Thankfully, I'm the only one who sees this message when I'm logged into my account.
If It Appears on Another Site ...
So I immediately wrote to team@hubpages.com, explaining the circumstances I just described, that the article used to be on another site, but that it had been deleted and I'd requested that my account be closed. I even searched for the article on the other site, and it wasn't there, although some portions of the text do appear in Google search results.
This is the reply I received from HubPages.
I have reviewed your hub, and approved it for publication. While you
are correct the content is duplicated on another site you did not have
any outgoing links. Thanks for checking in with us.
Happy Hubbing!
Huh? Did I say the content was duplicated on another site? Well, technically yes, it USED to be, but it no longer appears there. Don't get me wrong. I was ecstatic to hear that I had permission to publish the hub. But I was a little confused. The article was no longer at the other site, so why was it still considered to contain duplicate content?
The Matter of "Outgoing Links"
But before I attempt to answer that question, I want to deal with the main problem HubPages appeared to have with the hub besides the duplicate content, i.e., that it didn't contain any "outgoing links." Actually it did, to Wikipedia, providing additional information about the subject of the hub and having no monetary advantage to me whatsoever.
So I wrote back, asking them for a definition of outgoing link. And they replied,
An outgoing link is any link to another website.
That's what I thought, but I wanted to be doubly sure. At the time, I didn't understand why "outgoing links" were a no-no in so-called duplicate content. I really didn't care, so long as my hub didn't contain any. So I removed the Wikipedia link and republished the hub (hoping and praying that my profile score and the hub score didn't suffer as a result - still not sure if they won't at some later date, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed).
Deleted or Not, It's Still Duplicate
Team HubPages kindly sent me a link to a hub that I was hoping would help me understand just what this duplicate content is. Oddly enough, it's entitled, From A Moderator's Mouth: Overly-Promotional Hubs.
Double huh? While the hub contains excellent information on how to identify hubs that are "overly promotional," I didn't understand why duplicate content would fall in that category. I think the following quote from this hub about duplicate content answers that question:
Whether or not you own the rights to content, or wrote it yourself, is not relevant for this meaning of the word "original"- it refers to whether or not the content is unique to HubPages. If it is not, you are not permitted to use it to promote your products, affiliate offers, or website.
I guess I could have kept the Wikipedia link in my hub (just search for "Neville Goddard" at Wikipedia to find the relevant page) because the link did not promote any products, affiliate offers or a website that I own. It's not so much about the duplicate content as it is about having promotional links in that duplicate content ... I think.
So, What The Heck Is Duplicate Content?
I am NOT talking about plagiarism here. I'm talking about content that is original to an author (i.e., that s/he wrote) that may appear (or used to appear) on another site.
As of this date, I haven't received an answer to my question of what constitutes duplicate content. Hopefully, I'm just being impatient and one will be forthcoming soon. In the meantime, here's what I THINK HubPages means by "duplicate content," based on my experience:
If the content FIRST appeared on another site and then appears on HubPages, regardless of whether it was deleted from the site where it originally appeared, then it is considered "duplicate." And to be safe, even if the content appears first on HubPages, my advice would be NOT to publish it elsewhere If you want to avoid the "duplicate content" flag.
And, by all means, avoid those pesky "self-benefitting, outgoing links" if you do decide to publish duplicate content on HubPages. It doesn't seem to be absolutely forbidden as long as those links aren't in the content. But after some research on the forums, the FAQs and other hubs, it appears that your hub score (and/or profile) score may suffer the more duplicate content appears in your hubs because HubPages prefers original, not-appearing-elsewhere (either past, present, or future) content.
If anyone else can shed light on the subject, I most heartily welcome your comments. Maybe we can figure this out together.
P.S. I guess I Shoulda Read This First
The duplicate content flag is still on my hub, so I decided to read the complete message. This is the information HubPages sends you when your hub is flagged for duplicate content.
This Hub seems to contain text that also appears on another site, and may be incurring a HubScore penalty as a result. If you revise the content so that it is unique to HubPages, your hub will automatically be rechecked for duplication.
The issue of duplicate content on HubPages is completely separate from issues of plagiarism or copyright. All that it means is that we found text very similar to what is contained in this hub elsewhere on the web. Duplicated hubs are not a violation of our rules, and may remain published. However, promotional or affiliate links are strictly prohibited on hubs identified as duplicate.
Please do not contact us to say that this is your original content that is published on another site. However, if you believe that this content should not appear anywhere else on the internet, please contact us. Please include the URL or title of this hub in your message.
My question still remains: If the duplicate content has been removed from the other site, why is my content still considered duplicate?
And my advice remains the same: Keep your hubs original; don't post them anywhere else and don't copy your content previously posted elsewhere.
UPDATE
Yes, I deleted the article from the article submission site, but I forgot it was on my blog, too (sorry, HubPages!). So I deleted it from the blog and asked HubPages to check again for duplicate content.
If you want to find out what happened next and my new definition of duplicate content, read my hub, .
UPDATE 9/28/11: HubPages recently changed its submission guidelines as a result of the Google Panda algorithm update.
You can no longer publish content on HubPages that appears elsewhere on the Internet (e.g., your blog), even if you are the author of that content.
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Hey Patrick! Welcome to HubPages and thanks for reading this hub; be sure to read the follow-up hub under UPDATE above for additional information.
While duplicate content is allowed here, you'll be penalized if HubPages sees a "pattern" of publishing such content. That's why I kept my duplicate content hub published. It's the last one I'll publish here.
All in all, this is a great place to write. Good luck!!
Thanks for this information. I am still not clear about weather you still get your adsense money from a "duplicate" article but you helped me understand the mind set behind it.
Hi Brenda. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. As far as I know, you still get adsense income from the "duplicate" hub. If there are adsense ads on the hub, then I'm assuming you get income from them.
The big issue with duplicate hubs is that if hubpages sees too many of them, your hubsscore for the hub (and your profile?) will suffer.
My "duplicate" hub was on a "scraper site" (see hub link at end of this hub for more info on them) and there's nothing I can do to get it off. My email to the site publisher requesting that the article be removed was ignored. But I admit it was also on a now defunct blog I owned (that's where the scraper site found it) as well as another article submission site (I removed it before publishing the hub).
Needless to say, I'm sticking with original content from now on.
thanks for this information; very useful
Thanks for clearing these questions up so concisely
You're welcome Coolmon and Sibaja.
This is useful info to me. I wonder if I post a hub with a link to another off site publisher, they (hubpages) would decline the entry?
That's a good question, kirwing. Only way to find out is to try it. You can always delete the link and re-publish.
Btw, one thing I didn't mention was that when I changed the title of the duplicate hub, the "duplication" warning went away. Then I changed the title back to the original one, and the warning was slapped on again. So I'm going to change the title again.
I now have a question. My second two hubs are about recipes - one for recipes I made and the other a recipe I discovered in someone's blog. My recipes are also posted on a social network site (non paying) for recipes and the photos are linked to the photos I posted there. Otherwise, the non-recipe content is original. Similarly with the recipe I discovered on another blog that I thought looked so good. But, I didn't post the recipe as I didn't think it would be right to usurp traffic from that person's blog (even though I don't personally benefit in any way from her blog). I included a link to her recipe in case someone wanted to view it. I also used the photos she posted for the recipe but did give credit as to where they were from. Now I'm thinking that this might possibly constitute either duplicate content or outside linking, neither of which was my intent. I've had no warnings at this point, but am curious as to whether someone else thinks I might be at risk for censure.
Hi SJerZGirl (love your user name!). Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I've been "incommunicado" for almost two weeks, taking some time off to visit a friend in a little section of Honolulu on a hill overlooking the back side of Diamond Head crater on Oahu. I'm back on the Windward side of the island and reality, so let me start by answering your questions.
You seem to have enough original content in your first recipe hub that HP considers it original, despite the fact that the recipe itself appears elsewhere. Believe me, if your entire hub was duplicated elsewhere, HP would have been on it like white on rice. I'm sure they have software like Copyscape that detects duplicate content quickly. And the fact that you included a link back to the recipe in the second hub (called a "back link") will help the blog it appears on get more traffic, so you actually did the blogger a favor. You also did right by providing photo credits in your hubs, something you should always do when using someone else's photos.
As far as I can see, you haven't done anything wrong. Duplicate content is when your entire hub contains text that is an exact duplicate of text that appears somewhere else on the Internet, even if it is content you originally wrote (I'm not talking about plagiarism).
Now with respect to "outside or back links," if you have a hub that HP has marked as Duplicate Content, it cannot contain any promotional links that go back to an affiliate marketing or similar site that you profit from. On the other hand, you can have as many outside/back links as you want in a hub that contains original content, but only two of them can link back to a site that sells something that YOU would profit from. HP considers both types of hubs (i.e., duplicate content + any promotional back links and original content + more than 2 promotional back links) to be "overly promotional."
Finally, if you publish too many (HP determines the amount; don't know what the magic number is) original-content hubs that only contain 1 or 2 promotional back links, HP also considers this as being overly promotional, even though you haven't gone beyond the promotional-back-link limit that HP has set in any one hub.
I hope I haven't thoroughly confused you. I wrote this hub when I first started writing here. Maybe I should delete it or rewrite it so it's clearer. Let me know if you have other questions.
Thanks for sharing this information..but if we have lots of duplicate hubs then what..we will be banned from hubpages?
You're welcome, nikhil83. I don't think HP will ban you (but you'd be wise to research this to be sure), but your hubscore will suffer. HP just doesn't like duplicate content; they want fresh, original content, and quite frankly, it's in your best interest to have as little duplicate content as possible because the search engines don't like it either.
Being a new hubber, I find the info very useful. Have been reading a lot on Social Bookmarking to drive traffic. So are we allowed to have social bookmarking sites published our contents elsewhere? Will the hub be considered as duplicate content by Hubpages?
Hey pinkytoky, glad you found this hub helpful.
If you publish an article elsewhere that is an exact match to what you've published here, HP will consider it duplicate content. This is one reason why a lot of people either rewrite their articles or have them rewritten. Google doesn't like duplicate content either and it will penalize your hub/article as well by lowering it in the search engine results.
You can certainly let social bookmarking sites publish your HP content elsewhere, but my suggestion would be to rewrite the hub before you do it, especially the title. Hope this helps.
Very good advice. Luckily I have not started social bookmarking yet. All along under the impression that we can simply submit our original HP contents to them to drive traffic. Thanks a lot!
You're quite welcome and good luck!
hi PWalker281
thank for posting..
it looks that you have good study on hp duplicate content...
I have a doubt
I published my original content on HP, after some days i noticed 'red duplicate content flag' to my hub. And I also found same content on another sites. I do not want that red flag in my profile and even i do not want to change the content or title or remove back-link. What else i can do to throw that flag.
Regards.
Hey Van, did you publish the content of your hub on the other sites? If you did, then I don't think there's much you can do except rewrite the hub. If not, it could be that a "scraper" site got a hold of your content and published it without your permission. These are sites that are created from stolen content in order to make money via Adsense ads.
If that's the case, I would contact HubPages (http://hubpages.com/contact_us/) and let them know that your content was placed on a scraper site, without your permission. Ask them to look into it. The red flag on my hub was eventually removed, but I'm not sure why. I dismantled the blog it appeared in but it was still on a scraper site, and I informed HP admin of this. I also change the title of the hub but I'm not sure if that's the reason the flag was removed.
I don't think the public actually sees the red flag, but your profile score will suffer when a hub is "red flagged." Hope this helps.
Great information to know! Good Hub, thanks.
Very nice information, Thanks :)
You're welcome wsupaul88 and kjetil. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Both the hub and the discussion are helpful. Thanks.
You're welcome RTalloni. Thanks for checking it out and commenting.
Pwalker281, great blog. I have a question..I have a Best Quotes of..hub, which is obviously a culmination of quotes of one writer, and there are obviously his quotes floating around on other people's websites of him. But, hub pages tagged this as a duplicate. What do you think I should do..?
Hi Tracey. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
If it's the hub about Henry Rollins quotes, I think the problem is that the hub is just a list of quotes with no content from you, despite the fact that you have the quotes in quotation marks. So it's not a matter of plagiarism.
My suggestion would be to add some of your own content. You could include an introductory paragraph about Henry Rollings, like who he is, why his quotes are noteworthy, etc. You could also add some commentary after each quote as well as other media like photos or a video, even an amazon capsule with some Henry Rollins books if he's written any. But the main issue, as I see it, is that the hub needs original content that you have written
Once the hub is edited, contact HubPages at http://hubpages.com/contact_us/ and ask them to take a second look at your hub. My experience with them is that they are pretty responsive to hubbers' requests and will remove a duplicate content flag if it's justified.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have other questions.
Pwalker281, wow. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my message. I will take your advice. Thank you, thank you, thank you. :)
You're welcome, Tracy! Let me know when you re-write it so I can read it.
UGH! Thanks for writing about this! I was just slapped with a red flag today for duplicating content that I had written in my blog. But I LOVE my blog and don't want to remove content from it. Argh!
Welcome to Hubpages, skyliette!
Hmmm ... let's see, could you re-write the hub so it's ABOUT the post that's on your blog and then put a link in the hub to the original blog post? Maybe there's some aspect of the blog post that you could explore more fully in the hub. With the link back to your blog, you'd get more people reading what's there. If you rewrite the hub, be sure to change the title, too.
Then contact HP and ask them to take a second look at the hub. If it's original content, they'll remove the flag.
Is it accepted if I REWROTE my blog instead and just placed an exerpt of my work there linking to Hubpages?
Yes, you can rewrite the blog post, but don't take an excerpt directly from the hub - to be safe, I would actually REWRITE it, using new words that point to the hub. Then you're sure the blog post does not duplicate the hub content in any way. Hope that makes sense. Let me know how it gooes.
This is very good information, and interesting. I have one duplicate content flag, directed to a piece I wrote on another website, I was relieved to know it had nothing to do with plagiarism, just content published elsewhere. Rewriting seems to be the answer, as deleting it still comes up duplicate. Thanks for the great information.
You're welcome, crazybeanrider! Be sure to contact Hubpages admin (http://hubpages.com/contact_us/) and ask them to remove the flag once you've rewritten the hub.
This is good information for me as I am fairly new to hubpages and I am still learning. I voted up and useful.
Welcome to HubPages, anidae! Glad you found the hub useful, and thanks for your positive comments.
What's that saying? "The more we learn, the less we know"? HubPages is an awesome platform, a great place for writers, but can also be confusing sometimes.
Well, I get confused; maybe it's an age thing... :)
Thanks for helping to clear things up. Along with your incisive cut through the confusion on my 'Ode to the HubScore' hub, I feel like I learn something every time I read what you have to say.
Glad my hub furthered your understanding in some small way, writeonline. Yes, it can be a bit confusing at first. But the longer you're here, the easier it'll become. Thanks for your positive comments.
This article definitely explained what happened to my "Quotes on Truth" article. Believe it or not, it even happened to my "What Are Calories" article, because I copied and pasted a single mathematical formula to determine one's basal metabolic rate. The entire rest of the article was completely original and unique, but because of about 200 characters of math, which I can't exactly 're-word', it was flagged as duplicate.
I guess they just are afraid of being taken to court over something, so they have to do their best to make sure there is no duplicate content. It really stinks when you spend 2 hours writing a good, deep quality article only to have it be removed though.
Jared, if you put the formula in quotes and provide a source, it should be okay. And you can always contact HubPages to inform them of the changes you've made. They're pretty decent about removing the dup content flag once you've made the changes.
Don't get discouraged. It's just a matter of remembering a few rules (no matter how stupid they may seem :-)).
You are a life saver PWalker, thank you. I just yesterday wrote a hub about Canadian Retirement Benefits. Stupidly, I included what the federal government said about these programs. Although that was exactly what I wanted to do to show readers what the government means, I didn't put it in quotes.
I completely rewrote the article from a different perspective. Why low-income seniors need more info on programs and services available to them, and republished it, the "Duplicate" notice has not yet been removed.
From what you have said above, it would seem I need to email hub pages and ask them to remove the dup content flag.
Thank You soooo much. Being 10 days new to HubPages (not 6 months as my profile says) I am more enthusiastic than smart, it seems.
You definitely have a new follower.
Maralexa
I'm glad to hear this hub helped you, Maralexa. Yes, I would definitely email HP to ask them to review the hub again. They are usually pretty good at responding. Let me know if you have other questions.
Thanks so much for your positive feedback and welcome to HubPages!!
I'm a new hubber and was happily hubbing away until today when my original poem was flagged for duplicate content and then removed by the Hub police from my Hubpage. Not nice. Nor accurate arrest of my poor poem. Your hub had great info, but now my head is spinning. I wonder how long it will take them to review my innocent poem?
Hi Prisana! Sorry you're having such a bumpy start to your writing here at HubPages. Many of us have gone through what you're experiencing, so don't feel badly.
If your poem exists anywhere else on the Internet, then HubPages considers it duplicate content, despite the fact that it is original to you and not plagiarized. So you have two choices: 1) remove the content from the other site(s), then notify Hubpages and they should reinstate the hub; or 2) keep the poem at the other site(s) and it will remain unpublished here.
In the future, just make sure that any original content you publish on HP isn't published at some other online site.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions.
Hi,
Thanks for the helpful hub! I also got slapped with duplicate content. I wrote about Oprah's Book Club list but I hadn't copied anything except for the list of titles. I did put a source at the bottom though to Oprah's book club page and I'm wondering if that could be the reason.
I've also written them but haven't gotten a reply yet.
Hi livelovelaugh5, sorry to hear about your duplicate content woes. I think HubPages sometimes goes off the deep end with this duplicate content rule.
Did you include a straight list of the books or was it annotated? In other words, can you say something original about each book on the list? That might be one way to avoid the DC flag. Putting the list in quotes might also help if it isn't annotated.
HP usually responds, so I'd say give them a few more days. And when you do get one, if it doesn't satisfy you, ask them to clarify their response with specifics. In the meantime, find ways to add original content to the hub if you can.
Hope this helps.
Thanks so much! I think it may be the list. I didn't annotate or put in quotes. Will get to revising right away! I would very much like to see my hub published. Thanks again!
You're welcome. I've seen quoted text in hubs, much longer than a list, and they were published. So quotation marks, as well as citing a source, are important. Let me know how it turns out.
This is great it is still relevant today as it was then. I found it as informative as any-- I read teh forums and find so many new hubbers complaining about duplicate content- this hubs alone would explain it to them.
Thanks so much for your positive feedback, Rebecca E. I've often wondered if I should unpublish this hub altogether since it's a bit dated, but I decided to update it instead, to reflect HubPages' new publishing guidelines. Your comment lets me know it's still relevant.
that's a great idea-- and so true. I think that people are confused, and updating it was a brilliant idea.
Thanks for this information.
@Rebecca E - Sometimes you have to update your hubs depending on what your topic. I'm glad I remembered to update this one.
@ellahall2011 - You're quite welcome. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
An interesting article.
It seems that hubpages just want original content and that seems fair enough. I know that it would be the easiest thing in the world to write an article here and then copy and paste it into a Blog elsewhere but that breaks the rules.
I've had a blog in the past but found it difficult to get anyone to read it. Now that was probably because it just wasn't all that good but I like the idea of writing again but more within a community setting. It gives me the opportunity to read the thoughts of others that most likely I wouldn't normally encounter and to learn and try and develop a better writing style. Well, that's the dream anyway.
If I can be part of this community and grow with it then I'm happy to comply with not duplicating my content elsewhere.
Thanks for a thought provoking and interesting read.
Hey stepnek, I'm glad you found the article useful. Yes, HubPages is definitely strict when it comes to original content, and that's a good thing since original content is a factor Google looks at when ranking sites. I wrote this hub about 2 years ago when I first started writing at HP, so I was trying to learn from my mistakes. Despite the fact that HP isn't perfect (who is?), I really enjoy writing here, especially as you point out, the community aspect of it. I've met some wonderful writers who also happen to be great people and have learned so much over the past two years.
Good luck with your writing, and thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
It happened to me, too. It prompted me to write a hub about 'Moderator Alerts'. (You can read it if you want).
I didn't pursue the so-called rebuttal regarding 'duplicate contents' as a moderator (person-to-person) warned me of being 'erased' on the face of HubPages world.
Hi travel_man1971, I read your hub on moderator alerts and I didn't see anything about duplicate content. The alerts you discuss are "substandard," "disabled ads," "unrelated site/products," and "irrevocable."
It sounds like you're saying a moderator told you that if you asked HubPages to review a duplicate content flag, that your HubPages account would be terminated (that's how I interpreted "being 'erased' on the face of HubPages world.") Is that what the moderator was saying?
Even if I got one of the alerts you discuss in your hub, I would still ask for a review if I thought the alert was unjustified. And I think HubPages would encourage writers here to do so as well, without fear of being banned from the site.
Yes, that's what she said to me, nevertheless.
Anyways, I am trying to be careful with what I write these days in order to avoid such alerts.
My hub dubbed as duplicate will never see the dawn on HP.
Thanks for your concern.:D
Hmmmm ... well, I'm sorry to hear that a HubPages moderator would say something like that. But I also understand what you're saying about being careful to adhere to the content guidelines.
And yes, unless you make substantial changes to the hub that contained duplicate content, HubPages won't let you publish it here.
Good luck with you're writing, and thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment.
Patrick Brian 2 years ago
Thanks for sharing all of this information! I am new to hubpages and wasn't aware of all of these considerations. I do blog a little and write white papers for my employer, so I may end up with some things that are very similar or even duplicated.