Should I do something about this duplicate content? If so, what?

[MarieHaynes]

Oh...I may have worded my question incorrectly!  The content is not duplicated across my site.  Rather, the home description is the exact same content as on several other realtors' sites.

[SteveOllington]

Whoah! You definitely don't want that...

[BradBorst]

That's even worse.

[MarieHaynes]

LOL...this is why I was asking the question.  Is there anything I can do to help other than manually changing the descriptions?

[EGOL]

Go out into the SERPs.  See what's happening.

If you have the kickass site in the niche, your page for this home might rank well.

Other guy's problem, not yours.

[btdavis]

The property address is most important and would definitely use that in the title.  You'll find the MLS # to be almost as important.  Why not include both in the title?  Then reverse the order for H1?

I wouldn't be too concerned about duplicate content.  I'm not sure about your area but most areas have an MLS that is syndicating the listings to hundreds, if not thousands, of sites which all use the same description.

In working with real estate sites I also found that "house for sale on {street name}" or "home for sale on {street name}" tended to drive traffic to the the individual property pages.

What are you doing with the property photos?  I'd optimize those as well for the property address and MLS number.

[MarieHaynes]

Oooh.  I like this thought.  Right now for most of these searches we are on the front page but not #1.  However, this is a brand new site and I haven't built any links to it.  So, perhaps, once I've got links and my site is viewed as the "kickass site in the niche" then the duplication will only be a problem for the other realtors?

[MarieHaynes]

Thank you!  You've got some great points!

I like the idea of having both the address and the mls in the title and then reversing them for the mls.

For the photos I have the address as my alt tag.  I could certainly add the mls too.

[EGOL]

Right... after your site is established this might not be a problem.  I know that your site is relatively new and that it will become the KickAss site in your SERPs.

Don't do obsessive SEO if you can do efficient SEO.

[EGOL]

Until your site is the KickAss site in your SERPs just add something catchy to the title tag like "Schedule a Tour!" ....... or....... "Free Beer"........ or..... "See it Today!"