Maybe you have heard that it is a good idea to add content to your website on a regular basis. You like the idea of giving your audience new things to read when they get to your website – or discovering you for the first time from that content. BUT you just do not have the time or energy to come up with content on your own. You found content from another source, and your plan is to put it on your website as a blog and credit the original author. I’m here to tell you, Don’t Do It! Let’s talk about duplicate content when it comes to reusing blogs.
Now, this is a specific scenario, but I would also like to fold in the situation of a guest blogger giving you blog content that is on multiple sites.
In your mind, this may seem like a simple solution. What is the harm of reusing blog content if you are crediting the original author?
First, there is the impact on Google or other search engines. Now, you will see varying accounts of whether it is okay or not to use duplicate content. Some say that duplicate content will hurt SEO. Some say that is a myth. However, most of the time, this debate is addressing when you have content from your own site that you duplicated on your own site, such as a product description written in multiple places.
Ultimately, Google is looking to prioritize the best answers to the queries that are made. Google is scanning the internet for answers that are relevant, and then it needs to know how to sort those answers. When the exact same copy is coming up on multiple pages, it can be difficult for Google to know what to do with this information, and it has to look for other factors to set priorities. So, if Google has a reason to think that the work on your website is plagiarized, this may very well be a deciding factor in searchability and ranking.
When the exact same copy is coming up on multiple pages, it can be difficult for Google to know what to do with this information. #blog #blogs #marketing #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur
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“Plagiarized” may seem like a big word to throw around here, especially if you are crediting or even linking the original author at the end. Let’s think about it. The original author took time and energy to create their original content and publish it to their website. This content was meant to fill a certain role: Driving people to THEIR OWN website. Once the readers got there, they would have the opportunity to surf the rest of the website to discover products and services or read other blogs. Maybe they would sign up for a freebie to get onto the original author’s mailing list.
By taking the entirety of the original author’s content and putting it on your website, you make it so that readers have no need to click over to the original author’s page to read it. So, they had put in the time and work to create the content, and you now use it to divert traffic away from them. In this situation, if the original author is paying attention to what is out there on the internet, it would be fair game for them to ask you to take the content off your site or to cease and desist.
If you are thinking that you want to use someone else’s full, already-published content to drive people to your website, consider this a possible red flag.
If you are thinking that you want to use someone else's full, already-published content to drive people to your website, consider this a possible red flag. #onlinemarketing #marketing #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #business…
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So, what can you do?
If you like someone else’s content and you want to be able to use it in some way to help you add content to your website, try using it as an inspiration for commentary from you! Whether through video or text, share your thoughts about the content in your own blog. It can be one paragraph or it can spark a lengthier commentary from you. You can put excerpts or quotes or the first paragraph of the original content in your blog, and then a link to read the rest to drive people back to the original author’s site.
Not only will a strategy like this help streamline your brainstorming process, but it will also give you room to have shorter form content of your own if you want. Plus, since you are boosting traffic to the original author’s site, this is your chance to approach them, tag them on social media, and try to form a collaboration.
In another scenario, you may find that there are people who land in your email inbox trying to push you to publish pre-drafted blogs on your site. I get this type of thing all the time. When I do a search for lines of the content, I tend to find that the copy has been previously published on one or more websites in the past. I categorically avoid this type of content. If Google is indeed factoring in duplicate content into its algorithms, I don’t want to perpetuate a problem, and I certainly don’t want to be last to the party.
Most business owners wouldn’t know the ins and outs of blogging and related etiquette, so it might just seem like a logical solution to repurpose content. If this is a strategy you were doing – or thinking about doing in the future – hopefully you now have ideas on how to adjust the approach to make everyone a little happier!
Are you interested in creating more original content, but you want suggestions on how to brainstorm a lot of ideas at once? Check out this Marketing Tip of the Week on 7 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block.
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