Duplicate Content
-
I have a question regarding non-original content on multiple sites. I'm working for a client that's company has a personalized social network for it's fans (completely custom, built from the ground up - not like kickapps, or the other social network dev platforms). Anyway the network is fairly active - at least a couple thousand users - and each one of these sites is given a subdomain.
Each of these subdomains can be given a custom URL if purchased - but essentially it's much like creating a blogger or wordpress. Each URL is basically "http://FanUsername.BrandName.c0m/"
Now the dev had the genius idea of publishing all "corporate/company" blog posts on everyone of these subdomains as well. When first learning of this, I told them it was a terrible idea - and that it may even penalize the main blog. After more research - it looks like this may not be the case? I still think they should just link back to the main blog and discontinue publishing these posts on all of these additional subdomains (and for those that purchased domain names - unique websites).
What do you guys think? Should they only include an RSS feed of links back to the main blog? Should they just link directly back to the blog? Or should they offer shortened versions of each blog post - ala links + meta description + Read More...? Or lastly, should they just keep as is?
Thanks for the help
-
For user experience, I don't like it either. But I'm more curious about the duplicate content issue. Could they be seen as simply full text RSS feeds on multiple sites? Or since the root domain is still apart of the site, it is actually seen as "on-site duplicate content" which some suggest penalizes the main site.
i'm going to recommend removing the posts all together, and then to offer an RSS of just links on another portion of the page. Maybe on the left or right column? This could be beneficial as it builds our internal linking.
-
They do not have to pay for the blog. It's all free.
It's simply apart of their blog by default when creating a social media profile. Basically it looks like an RSS feed going across all these sub-sites. Now RSS feeds are great usually right? The problem here, IMO, is that these sites are built off of the root domain. So off of one website. Which causes major issues.
I'm drafting an e-mail now to offer my options on how to fix this. rel=canonical seems like an option, but purely on user experience, I would just turn them off. Maybe include an RSS feed of just the links on a separate page.
-
As long as there is a rel=canonical in place on each one of these sub-domains I see no problem with it. It doesn't sound like the most elegant solution the way they are doing it... If I had my own "blog" on Facebook or Squarespace I wouldn't want their stuff to be published on my blog, it's just not relevant. Can you pm me the URL? I'm interested to see this in action.
-
...publishing these posts on all of these additional subdomains (and for those that purchased domain names - unique websites)
Sounds like a really bad idea that will stink up user blogs and make them mad. They should charge him for advertising if they have to pay for the blog.
and that it may even penalize the main blog. After more research - it looks like this may not be the case?
I would not do it. Six months ago I would have worried about the posts being filtered... but since February I would worry about my entire domain being demoted by the Panda algo.
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
-
How to provide good quality content if competition is stealing
Hi everyone, I have a customer that is very successful in a worlds niche market in the aviation industry. Following Rand Fishkin and Wil Reynolds I tell them to provide the best content they have for their customers and want them to blog. Now the issue is that their competition is playing unfair and already stole texts from them to present those at aviation fairs. What do you think? How can one follow Rands and Wils suggestions without losing in the end? Cheers Marc
Social Media | | RWW1 -
What's your preference - regurgitate content on social media or just post it the once?
Hi All, Not been on the forums for a while and this isn't really an SEO question. How do you feel about Twitter feeds that constantly regurgitate the same content. It's pretty much industry standard on most pages but if the content is yours, no affiliates or other people are involved - is it really necessary to plug the same 500 word blog post over and over? Personally, I don't like it. I think it looks spammy and unprofessional and in all honesty, I unfollow pages regularly because of it.. What do you guys think? Am I squandering content by not regurgitating? Happy Monday all - Jamie
Social Media | | SanjidaKazi1 -
Facebook: reaching audience who have liked / shared my content
Hi, I am new to social, so the question might be a bit beginner. If I put a like / share / recommend button on my site, or maybe a comment box, how can I reach audiences at a later time, who have interacted with my plugins (liked/shared/commented)? Paid ads would be one solution, but for now I am interested in organic (free) targeting. So if people who share my content do not become fans at the same time, how can I engage them in new updates about my page? Thanks for thoughts.
Social Media | | Valdo22220 -
Do we need to post unique content on every Social media website?
Can we use the same content (description) for FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc?
Social Media | | bondhoward1 -
Using Linkedin Groups for Content Marketing
In my sector there are approximately 100 relevant groups that I could post content to. There are between 5 and 10 that would be relevant to any particular blog post. How many groups should I post to? If I post to all relevant ones I can end up spamming due to overlapping group membership, If I don't I can miss out on access to a potentially large audience What's best practice here?
Social Media | | Zippy-Bungle0 -
If you post on two Twitter accounts could be rated as duplicate content
I have a personal Twitter account which is building up, but I also have a Twitter account for my holiday letting agency and until now I’ve always separated the subject of the tweets and links to my websites but I’m using Buffer which automates your tweets in advance and so I included some of the links to my business holiday letting agency articles on my personal account and people seem to like them and have shared them, but is there any risks to doing that regarding duplicate type of content? At the end of the day some the people on my personal Twitter will be interested in my agency tweets about holiday accommodation, I just want to do anything which could be termed spam.
Social Media | | persuaders0 -
Duplicate Content issue: Amazon book review & company blog
Can my site be penalized for including a book review verbatim in my blog that I also post on Amazon? What are the steps I need to take? I have written a book review that I want to post on Amazon. I am also planning to create a blog post and include the exact text of the review within the post which I will then also promote on my social channels. What do I need to watch out for in terms of duplicate content? Is there a sequence I should follow? We have the rel=canonical tag on our site which is WordPress.
Social Media | | gfiedel0 -
What do I do about old content on my blog?
I run a blog: www.b2bsocialmediaguide.com. It's been going for 2.5 years and some of the old content is, frankly, dated! What do you recommend I do about it? 1. Update old articles with new, more relevant content and change the date? 2. Write new articles with the relevant content and forward the URLs from old articles to the new ones? 3. Do nothing. 4. Just add links to new content from old posts? I don't want to lose link juice!
Social Media | | HeatherBakerTopLine0