Web site owners might be amazed to learn that one of the biggest sources for duplicate content isn’t externally, but rather internally.

Certainly, popular sites and blogs that syndicate a lot of content have to deal with external duplication, but as I already touched on external duplicate content, we know that there are steps to minimize those challenges and to establish your site as the canonical source.

Internal, or on-site, content duplication tends to come in a few key ways, the first of which is within the key page elements. The second is from the content itself; similar to e-commerce sites using stock product copy, you may be using your own copy over and over again on your site. Third, it simply may come from too little differentiated copy.

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When it comes to Internet retailers, getting found in search results is often just as important as the right location is to brick-and-mortar retailers. When a big part of online success comes down to words, why settle for selling what everyone else is?

All retailers, no matter what their channel of choice, often sell the same products as at least some of their competitors. If you are a big enough fish, you can command enough power to at least obfuscate that fact . . . different product names, model numbers, etc. — of course the underlying product is often still the same, anyway. Ever wonder how some retailers offer those huge pricing guarantees if you find the same product elsewhere at a lower price — much easier to do when you have your own guarantee with the manufacturer that no one else can carry that same model.

But online retail is a bit more challenging, because aside from brand loyalty or being at a convenient location, the difference is often about search results . . . obtaining those highly coveted top rankings for the right searches. I began our duplicate content discussion by focusing on the duplicate content filter or penalty topic and the challenges of external content duplication. What better way to bridge the gap from external to internal, or on-site content duplication, than by talking about sales copy.

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Looking to get started with a blog? More importantly, do you hope to monetize that blog? There are a lot of articles and books on blogging these days, many with limited or inaccurate information, but How To Make Money With Your Blog is one of the most complete and thorough …

In my presentation yesterday here at Web 2.0 Expo, I showed Yahoo Suggest as an alternative to Google Suggest for quick-n-dirty keyword research. Both tools are free. Google Suggest is also built into the Google Toolbar’s search box, so it’s super convenient: just start typing keystrokes and …

Are you being outranked by you? Is “your” content showing up in searches, but on sites that aren’t yours? Do you have multiple websites that compete against each other? Well this discussion on duplicate content from external sources should be right up your alley.

Earlier in the week, I …

Flickr announced today that they now support video sharing to go along with their popular photo sharing services. The option is only available to “Pro” accounts, however, so those using the service on the free level will not have the option. Adding video support not only encourages the upgrade to …

Several weeks ago at SMX West I had the pleasure of meeting and having lunch with Brian White from Google. White works on Matt Cutts‘ Web spam team, tirelessly working to make Google’s search results the best they can be, ensuring the best user experience. Quite a hefty task indeed.

You’d think that someone who spends his days fighting the never-ending battle that is Web spam might be a bit negative or jaded. If that is the case, he does an amazing job hiding it. Instead, he was upbeat and you could feel the excitement in his voice as he spoke. Here’s a guy who loves what he’s doing and truly wants to not only improve the searchers’ experience on Google, but wants to make the Web a better place. You can’t help but like a guy who’s fighting the good fight.

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Earlier this week I talked about how a recession may be the best thing for SEO. Let’s revisit that bold statement and also how to make the most out of a downturn in the economy using SEO.

There will be firms and people within the industry that will feel the same pains of a recession that everyone else will. I’m certainly not claiming that you can sit back and coast in to success. In fact, the statement is less about SEO firms and practitioners, and more about SEO as a tool.

If you are in-house and have been struggling to get the resources or attention you need to make SEO a priority, then this may help to increase the urgency of SEO. Or if your firm provides SEO services, then you may be able to use the concerns and challenges that will come with a recession to get the attention of the decision makers to illustrate how SEO may be a more cost-effective solution.

A recession or economic downturn will lead consumers and businesses to reduce their spending as their confidence in the economy, their business, jobs, investments and/or retirement weakens. While there may be a subset of the market that “quits buying,” what we are really talking about is a reduction in spending. There will still be necessities and essentials that must be purchased. Beyond that, we may expect to see purchase adjustments or a scaling back.

For instance:

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So here we are, one quarter down and recession to go. Recession has become an unfortunate but popular topic in 2008. Some people follow strict definitions of what qualifies technically as a recession while others speak purely from opinion–or maybe they are speaking from the pinch they are feeling in their wallets. For most, they could care less what you call it; labels don’t make the impact they are feeling any better or any less painful.

In most industries, when things slow, something has to go. Will that be cutting back on seemingly frivolous expenses, going to fewer industry shows, reducing ad spending, or worse, cutting jobs? Like many industries, search marketing firms are considering these choices as well, and rather hoping that this slowing, downturn, recession, or whatever you want to call it, actually presents more opportunities than hard choices.

Only time will tell, but I like to think the feeling that search marketing firms may be able to find opportunities during these trying economic times are spot on. But don’t think this will just be a slam dunk–every opportunity also presents challenges.

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Google’s Webmaster Central has become a very important resource for anyone who has a Web site, works on a Web site, or, like SEO practitioners, helps others with their Web sites.

Google continues to roll out more features and better functionality to existing features, and now they just did …