Duplicate content from articles/PR's/etc

What's the best plan?

[badass101]

Hi all,

When using a press release or article on your website, do you worry about duplicate content?

I'm using quite a few articles from different authors in the 'field' who are happy for me to use their articles on my site, but I think it may be hurting me in the SERPS due to the duplicate content controls that the search engines use.

My question is, how do you post articles/press releases to your site?
Do you copy them word for word, or do you add your own introduction, etc?

Thanks

Craig

[Syzygy]

All articles used by us are commissioned by us; thus are unique to us. I would not entertain the idea of reproducing an article that has been published elsewhere.

(Just to share an experience that this has just reminded me of... I once had a journalist - whom I'd used for some years, and who was certainly well known and very respected in his fields of expertise - submit an article to me that they, I discovered, had plagiarised. I knew it was plagiarised because the journalist had written it for me about two years earlier! How stupid. Needless to say, that person never worked for me again.)

In my day-to-day activities, press releases are edited to varying degrees...

Headlines and standfirsts need to be re-written 95 per cent of the time (for a starter, every site should have its own house style, ie, how it presents editorial content - press releases need to changed to fit in with this - I my view).

Body copy is trimmed; excessive quotes from spokespersons are cut as are all trademark symbols and those never-ending superlatives favoured by PR agencies.

Likewise, unsubstantiated claims are swiftly deleted. Anything that offers a "shift in paradigm" is laughed at. "Revolutionary" products or developments of any kind are treated with equal distain. Companies or products that are "leading", or are a "leader" in any way are sniggered over. Out come the editorial scissors...

In the same vein, if your name is included in the paragraphs usually found towards the bottom of releases, which seem to exist soley to ensure that no-one in that company feels left out, then sorry, I will not give you the pleasure of showing your spouse/kids/drinking buddies that your name is in the "news".

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in my view, press releases do need some editing - how much is down to the individual.

Syzygy

[alika]

A small percentage of our articles are article submissions from other authors and press releases submitted by other companues. I have not had any problems with duplicate content. In fact, in many instances, the articles submitted and published on our site gets better rankings in the SE than the same article posted by the author on his/her website. We're #1 for our main keyword (a very competitive term with 1.10 billion searches today) and tops in hundreds more.

[ianmll]

Totally agree. I never had any problems using someone's articles (with their consent!) That's what the web is for - spreading the word! Search engines love content and that's all there is too it!

[JPWriter]

I think a good mix of unique content and duplicate content is okay. If your site had all duplicate content found else where it would not rank very high. The bottom line is unique content is the best way to go.

If you got banned for duplicate content, places like ezinearticles and findarticles would not exist. These sites are full of duplicate content from writers.