Does it impact over ranking of any website if their same content being used some other external sources

[Futura]

Hi Moz & members,

I just want to make sure over website www.1st-care.org , does it impact over ranking this website if the same content (of about us or home care services) being used some other external sources or local citations places. Do those published same content create any ranking drop issue with this website's and making its content strengthen week? . As I was on 9th position in Google.com before, now it has slipped to 29th position. WHY? is there content issue or anything else which i am not aware.
See the content used:
Home page content
About us page content

Regards,
Teginder Ravi

[Chris.Menke]

Teginder,

Yes, you're going to have to completely revise all of the content on your homepage.  Since that content is shared on many other sites, your best bet is going to be to do a rewrite. Be sure  to make it very different from what you have now--not just changing a few words.  Moving forward, you should make sure the content on the rest of your pages is also unique on the web.

[RobertFisher]

Teginder

Before you revise and rewrite all I would say this: Chris is correct and I am not sure that Chris is correct any longer and here is why. We are in the middle of a rather interesting study around ranking and ranking factors for page one of SERPs. (More to follow on that later.) While doing this I am noticing that in many cases, a company who has identical info in directories and citation sources are ranking very very well. Because of the study I cannot show you an example yet, but it really discounts the "thin content," "duplicate content" info from Google. Frankly, I am at a point that I do not believe what shows as the result of local (not necessarily just in terms of your G+, etc., but the effect of local optimization on organic listings) is equal to what shows otherwise organically.

Yes, this flies in the face of all we hear from the Google and the pundits.

So, what does this mean for you? I, personally and the advice I would give a client, would look to see what my rankings are and what they have been over time. For what you presented the meta's showing in the SERPs are near identical. If you are ranking well (whatever your definition of well is as I am not handling similar business in that market), I would not change it yet. I would hold still and watch. If, for example, for home care Bronx, you rank in 7 pack and you have an organic url at #6, I think it is nuts to change that right now. With the beta of the carousel and so many changes in Local, I do not think rushing into rewriting all is a good move.

But, that's just my opinion. Let us know what you do and how it works.

Best,

Robert

[Chris.Menke]

Interesting.  I can't wait for your study to come out.

Maybe duplicate then revise the home page and try an A/B test.

[RobertFisher]

Thanks for understanding I was not disputing you. I will let you know as soon as we complete. As to the A/B it is not a bad idea, but we are looking at rankings vs known SEO factors at this time. We are going to show what is present or missing from top 10 in multiple cities and categories (US) and provide it as a guide. I am not sure we will provide a conclusion, but likely leave it as a discussion and then each can decide for themselves how they address it for themselves or clients. We have four paid interns gathering data along with several staff members supervising and insuring accuracy and validation at each step of the process; this requires a lot from each of them. They are a good team, but it is a daunting task.

I would appreciate any insights or thoughts from Mozzers re the changes they are seeing in the SERPs. Right now, we are focusing on organic sans the local results, but will follow with Local. The problem with looking at both is the carousel beta, the 1 pack, 3 pack, 7 pack shuffle, etc. The biggest thing we are seeing is just a massive proliferation of directory sites for staggeringly important search terms. At the current rate, I could see page one of most service/professional searches to be all directories. That is where I am seeing all the duplicate content around categories and "About your business" pages and where it does not seem to matter in the least.

Take a look at any major US city plus: realtor, plumber, electrician, etc. and see how many directories now show up. It has skyrocketed even in the last 4 to 6 months.

Best to you,

[Futura]

Thanks Chris Menke & Robert Fisher replying to my question. Wow Robert, it will be pleasure to see your experiment you doing on this important aspect.

Teginder