Is There a Duplicate Content Penalty?

Whether or not popular search engines oppose a penalty for duplicate content is under debate in the search engine optimization (SEO) community. Some argue that it is merely a myth while others testify they have seen a tremendous boost in ratings by simply replacing any duplicated content. One of the main reasons search engines may impose a duplicate content penalty is to avoid serving up nearly identical pages in their rankings. This is not useful to those who use the search engine and may cause people to opt for a different search engine. To be on the safe side create original content on your website and place a copyright notice on your website restricting others from using your content. Also, frequently search for duplicates of your content and contact the webmaster to inform them of the copyright infringements.