Another website copying our blog content but credit us. Still bad?
-
Hi Moz community,
A few businesses that we work with are asking if they can leverage our content such as blogs by basically copying it and post it on their site. They will give us credit for the content though. My concern is that going to cause duplicate content issue and hurt us with our SEO? We'd like to provide it to them in a way that would benefit us or at least doesn't hurt us. I can think of a few possible options...
1. Have them only copy part of the content and link back to our site with a link "Read the original article" or something similar
2. Have them implement rel=canonical back to our site
3. Have them just copy the whole thing (because it doesn't really hurt us?). In that case, do we have them link back to us or no?
Is there anything I missed? What's the best option for us?
Thank you for the help in advance!
-
This is a great question that many clients have asked me on several occasions. I really do not like any of the choices you have listed. You still risk duplicate content with option 1 as the teaser will still be mostly word for word then a link. If your content is that good they should produce their own content based on the subject and link to yours. This way they are producing fresh content that gives authority to your content.
-
Option #1 for sure. This way you get a link and hopefully traffic from them, while they are still able to reference your content.
-
Hi,
Don't let someone else benefit from content you worked hard to create. If they want to reference it, they can link to that particular piece of content within their own content. So option number one is the best of the 3 you've laid out, I'd be picky about how much of a teaser you allow them to copy though. Give them enough to want to click the link to your site, but not so much that they don't need to click that link.
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
-
Removing old content
Ahoy! Variously I have heard the opinion that content which does not generate regular search traffic (let's ballpark it at >10 views in any given month) should be noindexed or even removed. Allegedly this would improve the overall quality of the site, rankings and traffic. I remain doubtful. What would you do if the interest in a given matter goes down over time for any (most) given topics of your content and is replaced by "newer" specific interest? Concrete example: I have a website about (book) reviews. Naturally, there will always be new books; old books are not in the media as much and "forgotten". Nevertheless, the reviews (all unique, based on really having read the books, no trace of the standard back cover copy) are obviously still there. Personally I feel that they do not really lose any value - they are still reviews of that one book, even though it is not the most recent one. So, what would you do: Deindex "older" book reviews after a certain time? Even remove them completely? Just let them run? I am looking forward to your opinions - and even your experience if you have done something like this! Nico
Content Development | | netzkern_AG0 -
Blog.xyz.com
I have a site that is running its blog on www.blog.xyz.com and I am looking for ways to increase Google traffic. Would it be better to running the blog on something like: www.xyz.com/blog instead?
Content Development | | kevgrand0 -
Updating blogs - SEO best practice
Thinking of new blog content and one option obviously is to check out historical popular blogposts via Analytics and do fresh versions of those. So my question is what is best practice: 1. Copy and paste the old blogpost copy but edit it to be slightly different while still having the old blogpost live or 2. just update the old one and re-promote I assume it's better to have a new version of the blogpost?
Content Development | | digitalbua1 -
What is the Best Content Spinner to Use?
I'm looking for a good article spinner. I used to use Spin Doc but it's not as intuitive anymore.
Content Development | | 01023451 -
Am I spreading my content & site thin?
I have a video section on my site. Basically I am filtering quality videos for my readers to check out. The videos are pretty much all embedded youtube/vimeo vids. There are a few categories, which are pretty niche-y in relation to my readers. In general they probably aren't seen as too relevant to the overall content on my site... Is it a mistake to keep these videos up? Could they be messing up my rankings since they aren't necessarily in line with the rest of the content on my site?
Content Development | | PedroAndJobu0 -
How does one write different pages of their website that are very similar in nature with using too much duplicate content?
We are a service provider and we have different links on our website to each of our services. The problem is the content that we would have for each is very similar. How can I ensure that it is not deemed duplicate content and ranked poorly because of it. Thanks
Content Development | | JayTurner0 -
Best Blog Engine
We currently are using blogengine.net 1.6 and it's proving to be an SEO nightmare, with link loops causing infinite "duplicate content". I am trying to find the best blog solution as far as ease of use, clean content and good SEO. What do you use? What do you suggest? Thanks!
Content Development | | QuickLearnTraining0 -
Directory Subdomain: Bad or Good?
We are thinking about setting up directory on a subdomain (local.sample.com) with content supplied by DirectoryM. Despite assurances by DM that they are Panda proof, I am uneasy releasing 100's of 1000's of pages at once to the search engines with content that is somewhat limited in value. Even if DM can somehow make these directory pages look a little unique then what they already have out on the internet, I am still scared how a potential spammy subdomain will impact the master domain. The upside to DM is that they can add 1000's of new weekly visitors and they will add 1000's of links to our pages to our master domain to their existing directory sites. What approach would you take here? Is there any risk in trying this out or are my fears unfounded? Would mass linking to the subdomain from the master site impact the master site?
Content Development | | irvingw0