Search Engine Optimization and Duplicate Content?
Okay. So the word is out that duplicate content can harm search engine rankings. I have several educational articles posted at article distribution sites, and these articles have back links to my site. Blogs, ezines, and websites that need content use my articles, but my own customers need this information, too. So I’ve added a few of these articles to my own site, as well. Is this considered duplicate content?
Thank you all for your contributions. Randy, very true, and yes-all the material is my own. Both what I submitted on article sites for others to use, and the copy I added to my own site. I’m confused on the part about pointing to the original article because I submitted it at more than one submission site. Does that mean I should remove the article from my site and just put a link to one of the submission sites? Because then I’d be leading people away from my own site which would defeat half the purpose of the back link. That’s why these new rules are so confusing to me.
March 23, 2010 - 5:08 pm
Yes,
The best thing to do is to re-write the articles, saying the same thing but with different words and layout
March 23, 2010 - 5:56 pm
As long as you link to the original article it IS NOT duplicate content. However, the word on the street is correct. SE are becoming aware of this, but so are SE marketers. They have become clever and fooled search engines with Article Spinners, which may or may not work (the haven’t been around long enough yet. I use a very good article submission program.
March 23, 2010 - 6:16 pm
You best bet is stay white hat. It works and you don’t run the risk of getting slapped by anyone.
Create original content (or have it created for you) with your voice – which is usually good enough to set you apart from the “also ran’s” and the lazy people.
People aren’t dumb and they are looking for the answers to their questions. Much like Yahoo Answers. If you provide valuable original content, they’ll know and you’ll create a great reputation.
At the end of the day, if you don’t want to rewrite these articles, create a great intro and summary of the pieces you have already written. Maybe even expand on some of your thoughts since you wrote the original articles.
That should help you avoid the duplicate content issue.
March 23, 2010 - 6:23 pm
Please realize that duplicate content does not cause your site to be penalized. It can, however, cause duplicates to be filtered out by Google.
Google may look at the multiple copies of the same content, and decide to only show one of them in their search engine. This may not be the version you want them to show. And, if you’re counting on links from the versions that are filtered out, you won’t get them.
In my experience, Google’s sensitivity to duplicate content is often overstated. I’ve looked at press releases my clients have sent out via the wires, and searched on a sentence from them in Google (using quotes so it’s an exact match).
Google generally returns dozens of copies of the press release, all of which are substantively identical.
I think Google is much more sensitive to duplicate content within the same site, so definitely watch out for that.