Duplicate Content using templates

[petersen]

Hi,

Our web site is designed using a template, which means the header and footer is consistent across all pages. Only the body content is unique on each page.

Is the google bot able to see that the header and footer content is defined by the common template?

Will this have any impact in terms of duplicate content? For example, we have a two line text in the footer that summarize the services we provide. Because the same text is in the footer of all pages, i am concerned about creating duplicate content.

Finally, does it make sense to include keywords in header and footer of the template? Will it have any positive or negative SEO impact?

[AlanBleiweiss]

The claim is that they're pretty good at detecting headers, sidebars and footers - and make some accommodation for these.  In my experience it's mostly related to links in those areas, though there's some duplicate content consideration.

Having said that, I've also consistently seen where unless you've got a mega site with a lot of other SEO going, that accommodation is not enough to compensate for getting away with almost no actual unique content on important pages.  You still need to consider the overall competitive landscape, and you still need to have more than a spit's worth of content.  And the less you do in regard to other SEO factors, the more content you absolutely need.