3rd Party Reviews = Copied Content?

[JoshuaMackens]

I'd like to put this to bed once and for all (or at least for the next few months )

Just based on your opinion, do you think Google sees review streams on each page of your website with the same reviews over and over from Google, Yelp, etc. as copied content?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@JoshuaMackens, no. The reviews won't get filtered just because you stream them, even if you stream them ad nauseam.

Now, it's still possible not every page will get "review stars" in the SERPs, but those recycled reviews are unlikely to be the deal-breaker.

My only concern would be if the marked-up reviews are about a variety of services, but all show up on the same pages on your site. Let's say you're an HVAC company and you have a pile of 100 marked-up reviews, and 50 of those reviews are about your heating services, but your review-streaming widget has marked up those reviews and streamed them on your "A/C Repair" page. That probably wouldn't line up with Google's policies.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

@JoshuaMackens, no. The reviews won't get filtered just because you stream them, even if you stream them ad nauseam.

Now, it's still possible not every page will get "review stars" in the SERPs, but those recycled reviews are unlikely to be the deal-breaker.

My only concern would be if the marked-up reviews are about a variety of services, but all show up on the same pages on your site. Let's say you're an HVAC company and you have a pile of 100 marked-up reviews, and 50 of those reviews are about your heating services, but your review-streaming widget has marked up those reviews and streamed them on your "A/C Repair" page. That probably wouldn't line up with Google's policies.

Hey Phil, thanks for the reply.

I'm not talking about for review schema though. I meant more for copied content in general ala the Panda algorithm.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@JoshuaMackens, gotcha. In that case, it's a question of how much of the total content of the page is boilerplate/duplicate vs. unique. If some of the content (let's say 50% is unique), you're good. Of course, that's just been my experience.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

@JoshuaMackens, gotcha. In that case, it's a question of how much of the total content of the page is boilerplate/duplicate vs. unique. If some of the content (let's say 50% is unique), you're good. Of course, that's just been my experience.

Yeah, that's the thing. Does Google look at a threshold for duplicate content of 25% or 50% before they frown upon it or is it incremental?

My main question, I guess, is will Google even see this a duplicate content? Surely they don't look at content in the footer as duplicate content? So hopefully they have a way to tell true duplicate content from boiler plate stuff? What is that function and how does it work?