I’ve been researching the issue of duplicate content’s effect on search engine optimization and compiled some of the better resources I found in the post The State of Duplicate Content on TheOrganicSEO.com. But here’s my take on it for those of you who want the bottom line.

1. There’s no harm in not duplicating content. This means if you want to play it safe, make sure the content on your website isn’t being duplicated by you or anybody else.

2. If you are going to duplicate content by way of having your content syndicated, do some research to make sure you do it wisely. For example, if your site has printer-friendly pages, then you’ve got duplicate content, and you may prefer to have either the printer-friendly pages or the normal pages indexed. It’s not hard to make one or the other be indexed, but you’ve got to be aware of the issue first, and then figure out the specific action you need to take. Having your content syndicated or quoted in its entirety is a different issue entirely with different actions required.

However, there’s also the issue of opportunity cost. For example, Chris Knudsen has his content syndicated on this blog, and I don’t. Chris risks having the posts on this Connect blog indexed by Google first, which means that traffic he would prefer go directly to his own blog could end up on Connect’s blog. I don’t run that risk since I don’t syndicate my content here, but on the other hand I’m not getting the exposure Chris is. Which way is better? The answer is that it depends on the specific situation at hand. But if nothing else, be aware that the issue exists and you’ll be ahead of most people out there.