How Much Content Duplicated Across Articles is Okay?

[Boy]

Has anyone made a mass amount of "vs" articles? How much content was duplicated across different articles? Right now I have a few bullet points of information for different platforms in a spreadsheet and am writing the same shit over and over again. I was thinking of forming the bullet points into boilerplate text so I could reuse it. I mean, it's all factual.

What I would want to do is an original intro & conclusion, then under each subheading have the boilerplate text for each shoe followed by an original assessment comparing the two. The articles would end up being about 60% original text.

 

[Ryuzaki]

@Boy, I don't imagine that being a big problem, even at 60% original text, especially if the boilerplate text is very short and to the point, like stats on a product. "Weight: 10 ounces. Length: 4 inches." etc.

Google indexes boatloads of syndicated content that's the exact same. They also have said that even adding a single sentence of commentary is enough to "add value." I think it'd be okay, though I'd really rather that 60% be more like 80% or more, you know. But that's just fear and not backed by data or anecdotes or from the mouth of Google.

On the off chance that you're using Wordpress and Gutenberg, they have a method now called Reusable Blocks where you could create a design for the block, like a custom block that contains an image, the bullet points, and a button with a call-to-action, then save that block. You could then re-use that block on many posts. It acts like a custom post type, basically.

The point being that not only do you not need to reformat it each time you mention that product, but you can then make any needed changes once to the reusable block, and that change cascades across your site to all other uses of the block. So if you need to change the affiliate link, you can do it once instead of 20 times. This post shows how it all works.

 

[Boy]

Shoot. "Shoe" was supposed to be an example that had a bit more detail and instead I dropped it casually in the OP. The boilerplate text would have a bit more information than a consumer good, a few sentences or bullet points for each subcategory.

To add some context, I'm comparing programs in the make money online space. So I'll be pitting sites up against each other and looking at the programs as a whole, payout rates, referral programs, etc. Not something as simple as Air Force 1s vs Jordan 1s (correct answer: Chucks).

Thanks, @Ryuzaki, I've been pretty adamant about using the old editor but if Gutenberg helps out the workflow I can see it being useful. Also when it comes to updating the information that's going to be perfect.

I can totally see that 60% original text jump higher since I won't have to waste so much bandwidth on rewriting the same thing 10 different ways and instead can focus on the comparison aspect.

Time to learn Gutenberg and get to work.

 

[DanielS]

Time to learn Gutenberg and get to work.

You’ll get used to it really quickly. It’s a little difficult to use it as a page builder, but using it to put together blogposts is basically the same as the classic editor- blocks are just added into the mix.

 

[Boy]

You’ll get used to it really quickly. It’s a little difficult to use it as a page builder, but using it to put together blogposts is basically the same as the classic editor- blocks are just added into the mix.

So far it's not so bad, these reusable blocks are going to change my output like crazy. Creating them now from my already written pieces & I'm already getting new ideas for them now.

I'll probably end up switching to Gutenberg full time. It's crazy when you don't know what you don't know.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

They also have said that even adding a single sentence of commentary is enough to "add value."

Where did you get that from?

 

[bernard]

I'm testing this at the moment by reusing short, 50-100 word, product descriptions across multiple posts. Each post is a combination of 20 or so of these, and they belong to several categories, so maybe half will be copy pasted from somewhere else.