Duplicate Content

[Merrows]

Google http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html says that duplicate content is bad content. Ever since I saw this I have wondered about what scope of this statement.

I am involved in online retail (eg redburg.co.uk) and there are five main ways to list something:

1. By Brand Name
2. By Product Type
3. By Special Offer
4. By Popularity (Most Popular)
5. By Related Products, eg one product is related to an accessory

But of course in all five cases the same product is listed, and therefore the same content. This is normally title, price, desc, and other key data.

So how does Google see this?

See http://www.mailorderexpress.com/ and see how brand, category etc all present lists of products.

Amazon does something similar, but it may be dynamically driven.

If we see sites appearing near the top. eg http://www.boundarybathrooms.co.uk/bristan-taps.html for Bristan Taps, we see clearly a page built just for search engines. It provides no real data and simply links a customer elsewhere.

This last example of Boundary Bathrooms is a variant on duplication, this time a brand and category are grouped into one page which has no real meaning.

This leaves me to wonder about the scope of the Google statement, and if someone here knows.