A Google software engineer, Matt Cutts, has revealed some information on what happens when pages contain duplicate information, which will come as a big help when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO).

Google have always preferred original content when it comes to websites, but that doesn’t mean that pages will be dropped completely. “What we try to do is merge pages, rather than dropping them completely,” explained Cutts. This means PageRank will be passed on to one page rather than all pages.

This is good news for search engine optimisers who constantly worry about being penalised by Google for duplicate matches, but if a solid PageRank is wanted then duplicate content must be avoided at all costs.