Redirecting articles to another website on the same niche

Is there a legal option to incorporate articles from another site?

[Mozubiquitus]

Consider a website (example.com) is ranking in top 5 for keyword : get rid of fruit flies. with a guide and a list of best products for this issue.
Another website, with lower DA, yet strong enough authority on the same topic, is also ranking for the same keyword on first page, with a guide on how to get rid of fruit flies.

The owner of the first website offers to buy the article from the second website and redirect it to his own landing page to consolidate his position on the SERP.

Could this be considered illegal or penalized by Google guidelines?

There are many site owners that buy domains and redirect them to gain some keywords or domain authority. But, this situation is about redirecting some articles from various blogs that are ranking well enough for the same targeted keywords.

Note: examples are pure fictive to illustrate a general situation

[edited by: not2easy at 4:14 am (utc) on Feb 15, 2022]
[edit reason] please use example.com for examples [/edit]

[not2easy]

Hello Mozubiquitus and Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

In general we do not offer legal advice but legal concerns aren't usually involved in linking arrangements as you describe.

Google may or may not see things as beneficial to users. Google does not reward all links or treat all kinds of links the same way. They aren't going to spell out what they reward or penalize in clear terms either.

I don't know why a person might buy an article and not take possession of it rather than using a redirect. That is only my opinion and not necessarily relevant to how the practice might be rewarded or penalized.

[FranticFish]

the owner of the first website offers to buy the article from the second website and redirect it to his own landing page

This needs clarification IMO. What exactly is going to happen?

1) The second article on the second site moves to the first site, and links from within the second site to that article (as well as any external links) are redirected to a new article on the first site.
2) The second article will cease to exist on the second site, and links to it within the second site (as well as any external links) are redirected to the first article on the first site.

In other words, is the content being bought and re-used (with a link/redirect as part of the deal), or is it being taken down and replaced by a link/redirect?

[Wilburforce]

@ Mozubiquitus

Welcome to Webmaster World.

Unless s/he has given or sold the right to another party, the writer of the article will own the copyright, and the website owner (publisher) may not be the copyright owner.

Bloggers own the copyright to their contributions from the moment of publication, although published terms may say it is assigned to the website owner, or somebody else.

There may therefore be multiple copyright owners involved.

Although presentation and some technical issues (affecting how pages are rendered and how quickly they load) are a factor, it is primarily content - what the pages say - that Google ranks, and what underlies your question.

Methods that are more likely to add to your authority are (content):

1. Identifying the owner of copyright in other authoritative articles and obtaining the sole right to publish them yourself;
2. Employing the the writer(s) to write content for you;

(and SEO)

3. Getting unpaid links from other authoritative pages to yours.

I would personally break down what you need to do into discrete actions like this, rather than what you propose, which might superficially look like a quick fix, but conceals a minefield of possible SEO and intellectual property issues without any guaranteed advantage.

[lucy24]

this situation is about redirecting some articles from various blogs that are ranking well enough for the same targeted keywords

The article will stop ranking well--or ranking at all--the moment G### discovers it no longer exists, so what has either party gained?

[tangor]

Seems like an exercise in circular futility to me.

[RedBar]

As Lucy and tangor have already suggested, a pointless exercise.