One SEO professional asked John Mueller during the submitted Question and Answer segment of a hangout about duplicate code snippets and domain authority.
More specifically, the question was: how does long form content, perhaps a tutorial that makes use of existing code snippets in a new context or piece, count against domain authority?
If it does, is there any way to mitigate the effects?
John explained that first of all, Google does not have a concept of domain authority. This is a metric that was invented by third-party tools.
And John can’t provide any advice about that.
However, he did go on to explain that when it comes to code snippets, it’s just like different pieces of content.
It’s similar to picking a primary topic that you want to write about. Then you write about the topic in different variations. Or, for example, if you’re selling a specific book on your site, then you may write about that book from different points of view.
And that’s useful and unique content. Just because the code snippet is the same code snippet as used elsewhere, doesn’t necessarily mean that you can only make a single page about that one code snippet.
This happens at approximately the 07:07 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
John (Submitted Question) 07:07
How does long form content, say a tutorial that makes use of already existing code snippets but in a new context or piece, count against domain authority in any way? If so, is there any way to mitigate the effects?
John (Answer) 07:27
So I think, first of all, we don’t have a concept of domain authority. So that’s more of a third party metric. If you’re curious how they put that metric together, I would check with them. I can’t give you any advice on that. In general, you’re welcome to create more content around the same code snippet.
I see this kind of similar to you picking a primary topic that you want to write about, and then you write about it in different variations. Or, for example, if you’re selling a specific book on your site, then you might write about that book from different points of view. And that’s all useful and unique content. So just because the code snippet is the same code snippet, as used elsewhere, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s kind of like you can only make one page about that code snippet.
