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February 19, 2012 By 17 Comments

Duplicate Content Explained

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If you have been writing for any length of time, you may have come across the term duplicate content.  No two words create such uneasy feelings in writers, bloggers and marketers than the words “duplicate content.”

With the emphasis on quality content in article writing, you tube videos, reports and blog posts, the issue of duplicate content never seems to get a real explanation.

Duplicate content is a fairly simple subject, but the myths surrounding it lead us to believe it is something to be feared. We hear stories of what not to do, how we should spin our articles before we submit them to articles directories or anywhere else.  How we need to change a certain percentage of the words to make it not duplicate content.

I’ll debunk duplicate content in a moment, but first, let’s start with the source…

I’ll use the example of the news services – the Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg – the end all be all of NEWS, right?

These organizations all operate on one premise – to distribute the news in a pre-written format.  They write the newsfeeds and thousands upon thousands of websites pick up the newsfeeds. In other words, it is published everywhere.

And none of it is re-written; it is published exactly as-is with a reference to the source.

This is called syndicated content.

According to Wikipedia “Syndication means the websites providing information and the websites displaying it. For the receiving site, content syndication is an effective way of adding greater depth and immediacy of information to its pages, making it more attractive to users. For the transmitting site, syndication drives exposure across numerous online platforms.”

So when you consider a site like Ezinearticles.com or ideamarketers.com or any of the other thousands of article submission sites, what you are doing is syndicating your content to them.

And that is why you always want to post your content on your own site first, before sending it out anywhere else.

Think about it this way – you have a great article, so you syndicate it to get as many eyes as possible to read that article. Other websites see it, pick it up to use on their websites, all the while generating clicks back to your site via the author box.

Just imagine if only one of your written-for-syndication articles is picked up by 100 other websites, if one is an authority site, that could mean thousands of visitors back to your site!

Oh, and for the definition of duplicate content…

The only time when duplicate content becomes an issue is within your own website. Duplicate content happens when you have content that appears on more than one web page within the same website. So when multiple pages in a website display the same content Google does not rank any of it, leading to your website being penalized.

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Comments

  1. Madonna says:
    February 19, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    Thank you Christine. That explains it for me. I was concerned about that because I had heard the term many times before.
    Madonna recently posted..Affirmations on SteroidsMy Profile

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  2. Jayne Kopp says:
    February 19, 2012 at 11:13 pm

    Hi Christine. What you say about posting the same article, (without spinning) does make sense when we compare it to ‘news sites’… I do often find the same news story over a great number of sites.

    I heard though ..(as we all did) since Panda that this was no longer a good idea.

    To be honest, I like your take on it :-) but I wonder if that does indeed still stand as been acceptable.

    I understand the difference between duplicate content and content syndication… but I wonder if it’s not still a good idea to play it safe and spin… (well… um… I actually have yet to find a spinner that does a good job) I usually take the time to actually modify manually. (although a pain in the You Know What).

    I have a couple of friends who are … well amongst ‘big time’ well known marketers and have been for many years… and they both believe spinning is absolutely necessary.

    I’m undecided.

    Was indeed a great read. You definitely do have a very similar writing style to our Mavis. :-)

    Best

    Jayne
    Jayne Kopp recently posted..The Profound Effects of Just One Thing…My Profile

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  3. Shawn says:
    February 20, 2012 at 8:24 am

    Thanks I needed the clarification.
    Shawn recently posted..Reasons for a tantrum and what you can do to avoid themMy Profile

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  4. Kimberly ~ Gypsy says:
    February 20, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    OMG thank you so much for posting this. I keep getting referred to Google’s TOS by so many people (experts, too), but all it talks about for duplicate is referring to on the same website. Nothing about on other websites. And it’s SSSOOO confusing! You have stated exactly what I keep interpreting it in my own mind but still questioned it. But seeing it in someone else’s words, really helps! As long as I add a blurb above and add my own author info at the end, I will continue to use my own posts elsewhere — especially now that I am a featured blogger on one of my friend’s blogs. I just don’t have the time nor the desire to rewrite something I already wrote. So thank you!!! You have so clarified my own feelings and thoughts on this ;) You rock!!!
    Kimberly ~ Gypsy recently posted..The Future’s So Bright ~ I Have to Wear ShadesMy Profile

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    • Christine Brady says:
      February 20, 2012 at 8:44 pm

      Hi Kimberly,

      You’re exactly right – Syndicated content does not require that we spend our time spinning and rewriting our own good, quality articles!

      And I’m so glad you found it helpful!

      Many thanks!

      Reply
  5. Ken Belanger says:
    February 20, 2012 at 2:28 pm

    Hi Christine,

    This really cleared up a few things for me, as I am trying to break into the word of IM. Question though, when submitting articles do you change anything before hand. IE, you post the original to your blog first, then do you send the same article AS IS to different article sites or should one change it up a bit before submitting to article sites.

    Thanks in advance.

    Ken

    Reply
    • Christine Brady says:
      February 20, 2012 at 8:41 pm

      Hi Ken,

      Great question – The only thing I do change when submitting articles to article directories like ezinearticles and articlesbase.com is I take out any affiliate links I have in them. For example, this post, was submitted to ezinearticles.com but the link is an affiliate link, so I took that out before submitting it to them.

      Article directories don’t allow affiliate links in the copy or even in the resource boxes -

      Other than the links, I don’t change a thing!

      Hope that answers your question and welcome to IM – please let me know if I can help you in any way!

      Reply
    • Ken Belanger says:
      February 21, 2012 at 6:10 pm

      So then when removing your Affiliate links to do replace it with a link back to your site instead?

      Thanks

      Reply
      • Christine Brady says:
        February 22, 2012 at 12:37 pm

        Hi Ken,

        Yes, just a link back to my site in the author box – ideally you’d link back to another article that has the affiliate links in it so they will click thru to your affiliate offer.

        Hope that answers your question!

        Reply
  6. Nicole Bandes says:
    February 20, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    Really good to know. I’ve been not submitting my content for a while now. Probably more because when I write for my blog, it’s for a specific audience. When I think about submitting an article to ezine articles, it would have a very different feel. The content would be the same but the voice would be different. I might have to think about submitting anyway.
    Nicole Bandes recently posted..Fan of the WeekMy Profile

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  7. Peter Lee says:
    April 6, 2012 at 12:39 am

    Now this is something new to me. At least someone is writing something different :) It’s good to know what really is considered as duplicate content! It make sense. Thanks for sharing Christine :)
    Peter Lee recently posted..Why an External Hard Drive is Important to YouMy Profile

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