Forum Moderators: martinibuster
A quick question. I have a few articles on my web site that I'd like to make available because they provide good content for the community and to get some good links as well.
Trouble is that Search Engines do not like duplicate content. So if some other webmaster copy and past the article (with the link to my site) that will create duplicate content that potentially could hurt my site or the other site or both. Correct?
What is the right way to do this? How can I make these articles available, get linked to it and not get hurt?
Thanks/regards
F.
Other than that I think it's a waste to let someone else republish content that's on your website. However, there are no limits for offline republishing.
none of the pages will be candidates for duplicate content penalties since the site structures differ.
I have to respectfully disagree.
Your conclusion may be accurate although, I suspect the pages your search returns may well be PR0 for other reasons. The results from your search are sites with aggressive linking strategies, after all.
I tried a search as you suggested and selected a result at random, about #30 or 35 in the returned results. It was a PR6. I didn't explore any of the sites using the content it provides.
I also publish articles submitted to my site, so of which the authors use on their own site (and I have in past emailed people asking permission to reuse their articles on my site).
1. Havent had any of my pages PR0'd and havent noticed any of the articles on other sites PR0'd.
2. The articles provide pretty decent click through traffic (more so than links in generic link sections).
3. They also serve to let people on other sites know about mine - branding (a concept somewhat outshadowed by PR in the past).
Can it be dangerous?
In theory, Google could PR0 single pages I suppose. But then you didn't write the articles for Google, did you? ;)
As long as you dont do it en mass - ie allow your entire article seciton be copied to another site - there is no reason why a couple of articles can be used on another site.
Plus, if you allow article submissions to your site, there are additional benefits:
1. Added content - indexed or not, your articles are developing into a great resource for your users and providing additional perspectives for users.
2. Links from other sites - more often than not, if a site uses your article, they will also link to you from their links page. While not as good a link in terms of click through rate, it still has SEO benefits.
3. The rare gem. From time to time, people will give you articles because they want to. Ive had people send me articles from their books - Ive had users write unique content - Ive had industry experts provide me with exlcusive work. This type of content is what helps set your site apart.
Scott
As long as you dont do it en mass... there is no reason why a couple of articles can be used on another site.
I agree. A little bit won't hurt.
Articles, particularly business writing, is my business. Since you posted this question in LINK DEVELOPMENT, it only makes since to answer your question.
I publish articles on my site. I publish others website articles, and allow others to to publish my "free" articles, only with a link to my site and byline. Most article pages will have very few outbound links on the page. So if the article publisher (the other website) is better at SEO than you and me, the end result is a high ranking page with a link to your site. Get it? ;)
I few of my articles on my site are PR5, so most of the time I'm in the first position for particular search phrases. But when my published article on another site is better ranking, then my site gets all the benefits of a high ranking link to my site.
Marketing Guy makes a good point, it is branding, and, as they say, spot on. And the click thru traffic, is well, beautiful (PS - one of the very many secrets to improving Link Development and traffic jams!).
MartiniBuster is typically very reliable in his advice, so take it. He says "create unique content exclusively for another website" and that is pure magic. So, if someone wants an article you have written, make a few changes to the article, require it with byline and link at the top of the page, and let the link development begin!
Don't worry about the duplicate content, that USUALLY means duplicate content on your site, not other sites.
Hope that helps, and again, welcome. Send me a sticky email if you have any other questions. WFN :)
How I explained it to the client is that if you strip away all of the site template for the two sites, including headers, footers and side navigation, they are identical pages. Of course using the same shopping cart didn't help, and there are no doubt a couple other factors, but a lot of sites out there use a common cart.
The site is in the index at Yahoo but it is literally buried. And it's got one of those mini-penalties from Google, apparently. The kind that's hard to spot and doesn't put a site out altogether, but will drain off enough PR and drop it down far enough to where there aren't any sales because it's below the threshhold to get the traffic.
Links from other sites TO articles on a site aren't a problem, but it's my belief that what's in a common site template is not treated the same way as the main body content. I could be wrong, but I'm not comfortable with duplicate content and never will be. It can be too easily abused by people cranking out duplicate sites and just changing the design and if I, being a humble white hat SEO know it, the search engines surely do.
There was also a duplicate content factor involved with a member's site back when the PR0 penalties were handed out, according to what the member reported. I don't think we'll see penalties of that magnitute again, but being the cautious type, I'm not partial to anything that can possibly accumulate demerits.
I'm with martinibuster on this 100%. Alter articles (with different titles and maybe sub-titles) a good percentage so they're no more than around 70-80% alike, even change a bit of the wording and phrasing. Use different ones to syndicate than the ones on the site.
