Multiple sites using same text - how to avoid Google duplicate content penalty?

[CalamityJane77]

Hi Mozers, my client located in Colorado is opening a similar (but not identical) clinic in California. Will Google penalize the new California site if we use text from our website that features his Colorado office? He runs the clinic in CO and will be a partner of the clinic in CA, so the CA clinic has his "permission" to use his original text. Eventually he hopes to go national, with multiple sites utilizing essentially the same text. Will Google penalize the new CA site for plagiarism and/or duplicate content? Or is there a way to tell Google, "hey Google, this new clinic is not ripping off my text"?

[pastcatch]

Penalties are never a guarantee and we only have best practices to follow. The risk is there for sure. Duplicate content is never a great plan and for a 5-15 page website, the risk is not worth the reward in my books.

Hire a copy writer and have them re-write it. What a GP offers from clinic to clinic are similar but what's unique is the doctor and location. Then do your typical local optimization work with listings, places and basic directories and you should be golden.

This post will support my advice and provide context for a much larger business with a similar question: https://moz.com/community/q/duplicate-content-local-seo-250-locations

Hope that helps.

Brent

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