Does Using PLR Make Google Apply A Duplicate Content Penalty?

The short answer is No. No duplicate content penalty here. It is estimated that somewhere in the region of 30% of the internet content is duplicated.

So why are we worrying about our articles made with PLR content?

Google is smart enough not to need to penalize your site for duplicate content because it picks up the duplication and tries to work out which is the original and shows that first.  

If you want your article to rank in Google then you need to change it enough for it not to look like duplicate content anymore. So more replicate than duplicate. You may not be bothered whether it ranks in the search engines and if not then it doesn't matter if you duplicate content. However, be assured Google doesn’t penalize just because you use private label rights content (PLR).

It is a commonly held fear that Google will whack you with that duplicate content penalty just because you are using PLR content.  Fear not, Google is clever enough to know the difference between PLR and spam content.  Using PLR is perfectly safe and if you produce similar content rather than duplicate content then you can make sure you have no worries.

It is important to comprehend what duplicate content really is. If you take a single PLR article and post it on your blog multiple times, you have duplicate content.  'Now,  why would I do that?'  you ask.   You probably wouldn't but there are people that make a career out of trying to game the system.  They may just dream up a dozen different headlines and head up the same PLR article with 12 different titles in an effort to manipulate search engine rankings and attract a tidal wave of visitors. 

This is very unlikely to work as checking duplicate content is easily done. They’re trying to rank in the Google search engine results and hoping that it goes unnoticed.   It doesn't.   Google doesn't get fooled as easily as people think.

If you buy a PLR package it doesn't hurt to post your articles even though identical to other people that have also bought an identical content pack. It is obviously better if you take the time to turn the article into appreciably similar content rather than identical content to the other buyers of the PLR package. 

When you buy a big PLR package with many articles you can easily lose track of what you have posted so it is best to keep track of what you have posted and check content duplication errors.

Using PLR is very similar to websites that publish other people's articles using RSS feeds or repost other people's articles which is very common.  But with PLR you can edit and make sure you have similar content rather than identical duplicate content.

News aggregators help news articles to be republished on the pages of hundreds of websites. This information isn't rewritten it is original content and just a reposting of the original version on different pages on news websites.

The content is exactly the same.  I hope you can see that duplication isn't a problem done correctly.

As long as you control your own content on your own domain there is no reason to fear the duplicate content penalty.

PLR content can certainly speed up the building of your website and there is no reason to worry that using PLR articles may damage your search engine rankings.

Not everybody wants to do the SEO work to turn their PLR blog posts into unique content that will rank in Google search.  However, if you do some keyword targeting or rewrite a good proportion of the original content within the article so that it becomes unique content then you have a good chance of ranking.

When you buy PLR  products you know you are not the only person that owns the right to publish that article or ebook.  Although there are also many people that will buy and never use, there are usually enough buyers to make changes to substantive blocks a sensible idea. It is better if it doesn't completely match other content or other people's page.

In most cases, people will just copy and paste the PLR content, as purchased, without changing anything. Often the first off the mark is the one that gets the ranking from Google. The early bird etc.

So if you are not quick off the mark you know that you should be finding a new title for your new article and take some of the information and put it into your own words so that it becomes unique.

Look for relevant keywords to use in your content, add bits from your own knowledge, and generally make it your own.  

If your finished article reflects the sentiments of the original PLR but using largely your own words you will have done a good job, have a good article, and be safe from the duplicate content penalty. 

Make the blog post, get some links back to your new article and you may well have done enough to get yourself ranked in the search engines.