Does having my articles published elsewhere hurt content originality?

[msafi]

I know Google loves original content. I have recently published an article that I haven't submitted to any directories, and it immediately ranked very high for its keywords. Other articles that are posted on article directories are ranking pretty badly on my original website, but ranking some what OK on the article directories. This got me wondering if publishing my content else where is hurting the overall ranking of my website?

The competition is probably an important factor for why some keywords on my website perform better than others, but I still wonder if my suspicion has any legitimacy.

Thanks,

[Receptional Andy]

If you republish content elsewhere, you are well advised to substantially rewrite it (ideally rewrite from scratch in a way that targets the new audience on the site you submit too.

If there are duplicates or substantially similar articles on other sites, only one will rank well, and there's a real chance it won't be your copy.

It won't hurt the overall ranking of your website - just the ranking for articles that are duplicated.

[Gshaughn]

When I write an article to distribute I reference my site in the article or signature, but I don't publish it on my own site. If I publish content on my site, I don't distribute it.

This prevents some of the dupe issues previously mentioned.

-Greg