Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Copy/pasting the article from another website and referencing correctly not to get penalized
-
Hi all
I am looking at copy/pasting an article from another website which is very relevant to my business, is there a standard practise/best practise for SEO to do this and ensure Google doesn't think i am plagerizing content etc.. Link to source down the bottom? Using Quotations... making a page noindex or no follow etc?
-
rel=canonical is a good alternative to noindex. Both will prevent the article on your site from going into the index of Google or other search engines who honor rel=canonical. From what I have seen, noindex works quicker.
The advantage of rel=canonical is that much of the link value of the article with the rel=canonical will be transferred to the specified source article. I have used it on content that I own and have published on two domains. The copy that receives the benefit of rel=canonical ranks better than expected.
-
If the article is public domain then there is no legal problem with republishing it verbatim with attribution.
If you have written a unique summary of substantive length of a public domain article then there is no need to noindex, worry about duplicate content, or a potential Panda problem. That is best practice for reuse of public domain.
-
What is your opinion of doing everything you said but, skipping the no-index and pointing the canonical at the original publishers site?
-
Thanks for that, I've done my own summary of the article and how it relates to my business.
Just to be more specific so I know for future reference, the article is from an Australian Government body and a non profit organization who's goal is for this to be seen by as many people as possible, is this possibly the exception to the rule of contacting for permission?
Link to article:
http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/news/2015/05/new-look-healthy-eating-pyramid-help-tackle-nutrition-confusion -
is there a standard practise/best practise for SEO to do this and ensure Google doesn't think i am plagerizing content etc
The best practice is to contact the author of the content and obtain permission. That is the legal way to do it. Otherwise you are committing copyright infringement which can land you in court. If the owner files a DMCA with google (millions of pages get a DMCA each month) your page will be removed from the SERPs. If you get a few DMCAs filed against you, it is possible that your whole site will be removed from the SERPs.
If you start republishing a lot of articles, even with permission, without setting them to noindex, then google will see your site as a duplicate content site and will either filter your site from the SERPs or hit you with a Panda problem.
Even better practice is to write unique content for your website. Then nobody is going to take you to court, nobody will file DMCA, google will not filter you, and google will not Panda you. If you can do that repeatedly with excellent content that visitors love then you will be in a position to make buckets of money.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why is Google appending a different website's brand name to the end of SERP title?
I've recently been shown some SERP results where Google is appending a different website's brand name to the end of the SERP title. It's actually rewriting the brand's name to that of the other website. (This is obviously not ideal.) Why would this be? The other website doesn't even stock the same product, so there shouldn't be any confusion there. But even if it did, many websites stock the same products. Just confusing...
Branding | | Ria_1 -
Organic Brand Clicks/Traffic Drop - Why?
Hi Moz Community, I've been reviewing Search Console and have been noticing that there has been a consistent drop in brand clicks. The overall number of keywords (especially for the top 2 pages) have been increasing, according to SEMRUSH, however, traffic and sales are still in decline. There are no algorithmic and manual penalties, in addition, paid search activity has been increasing in the leadup to Christmas. Has anyone experienced this and potentially advise how to diagnose and resolve this issue?
Branding | | rec1230 -
Doubleclick how to get static banner ADs
Doubleclick how to get static banner ADs. Its been a week and all my attempts have failed Until last week i have been using adsense and now got a direct AD space sold and tried to add a static image banner in Double click so in specific pages it shows just this clients AD banner and not ADsense banners. But what ever i do i can see just Adsense banners. What settings can i change in Doubleclick that tells to show just my Static AD and not adsense Thank you
Branding | | bsharath0 -
In the Google search results, the company name (with the drop down arrow) next to the result URL is incorrect. The company being displayed here is a company we acquired many years back. How do I adjust/fix this?
When I search any term for my organization, we are getting good results BUT the company name, next to the results URL is of an orgnization we acquired many years back and not the name of our company. The URL is correct page JUST the company name next to this URL is incorrect on the Google search results page. How do I go about changing so the company name next to the URL ?
Branding | | DigitalNTT0 -
Rebranding/Url Structure Change
Hi Everyone, First off thanks for taking the time to looking at my question. I was wondering about rebranding and URL structure changes. Right now my company is planning on changing their domain and doing a massive change to their site which includes a url structure change. The idea is in September they will be changing the site to be a combination of wordpress and ruby on rails (currently the site is ruby on rails). The homepage and design on the site will be completely different and parts of the site will be in php and other parts will be in ruby. The URL structure will also be changing completely at the same time. Each page will be completely different in structure, including the homepage (currently now it redirects you to a subfolder page that is your local page [i.e. nyc if you are in new york]). Then, the following month, they will be changing their domain name to a different domain. I have asked them to do this in stages. First the domain, second the rebrand, and third the URL restructuring or we could lose SEO traffic but they asked a freelancer his opinion and the freelancer said that you could do the rebrand change with the URL restructure and then domain later and while you're SEO may disappear, it'll definitely return in 3 to 4 months. Could you tell me who is right and what the correct method is to make this change?
Branding | | MattJD0 -
Best Directories to Get Listed On?
Hello, I'm looking for a list of the best, most trusted, SEO friendly directories to list my company on. Can you guys please provide some directories that you have seen help increase your rankings and also drive targeted traffic? No Black Hat directories, only high quality ones. Thanks!
Branding | | Prime850 -
Best Way To Get Twitter Followers
What does the forum think the best way to get Twitter Followers is? I'm talking from the perspective from a fairly unknown brand where there's no obvious reason for someone to follow.
Branding | | PeterAlexLeigh0 -
Video's Pros and Cons - YouTube vs My website or both?
This isn't really a question per say, but more of a request for advise. We are in the process of creating videos for our travel website. They are more informational and do not promote any products as such. I am aware of the options, and I am leaning towards creating a pro account with Vimeo so that the videos are available only on our website. The reason for this is so that we can at least get credit for our work, as when they are on you tube, anybody can syndicate the video without linking to our website. I am also aware that there are allot of searches happening on YouTube, and it may be worse if we choose not to upload our videos there as we would loose out on a big audience. it would be GREAT if we had the best of both options. And i had an idea i want to get your opinions on. Create the video and upload onto our website with "lower competitive" title / meta / body. Submit the video on YouTube with a "Higher competitive" keyword / title /meta and description. When someone finds our video, they might search YouTube to avoid linking back and wont find it, (although it is there getting traffic from a similar keyword) Branding is the number 1 objective for these videos, so you tube + many other video sites would be the way to go. However, i would also like our own "private" video blog on our site so that if web masters like the video, we can give them the option of embedding it on there site (like SEOMOZ do it on there whiteboard Fridays) Your comments and suggestions will be muchly appreciated. Greg
Branding | | AndreVanKets0
