Duplicate Content vs Content Syndication
Just a few days ago, I receive an email from a reader about the concern of duplicate content issue when using press release after he read my one of my post about getting traffic from press release. I think this is one of the myth in SEO or in general marketing context.
What Is Duplicate Content?
First of all, we need to understand the definition of duplicate content and why it happens. When Google refers to duplicate content issue, they mean the same content that can be accessed via different URL in the same domain. For example, you have a page with unique that is about dog training, i.e. YourDomain.com/Dog-Training, this page can also be accessed via multiple URLs because of session id or you have created multiple page with different design for split testing purpose, such as via YourDomain.com/Dog-Training.html, YourDomain.com/Dog-Training1.html, then this could post a duplicate content issue.
If you submitted your very same post to the article directories, this is NOT a duplicate content issue but content syndication. There are a lot of misunderstanding about content syndication versus duplicate content. Of of the most common way that you might see is that your blog posts were scrapped and posted on some other blogs via RSS. There are a lot of content scrapping software that are able to scrap content easily and get posted automatically to the blog to generate content. Most of them will provide a link back to the original source to acknowledge the author.
Content Syndication
This is the situation where you have the same piece of content showing up in multiple websites with different URLs and this is not considered as duplicate content. Similarly, you can also submit the same article to multiple article directories or using software like Article Marketing Robot for mass distribution of your article. This content syndication will result in multiple backlinks to your website and direct traffic to your site because you have increased the exposure of your website.
Another good example is press release. Most of the reputable press release sites will get a lot of syndication from other news agency and blogs, therefore resulting in massive exposure of the single press release. That’s one of the reason why press release can be extremely powerful to generate buzz for product launch and any kind of event.
Unlimited Traffic And Backlinks?
Now, hopefully you understand clearly the difference of duplicate content and content syndication. You might be wondering do you need just 1 piece of content to get unlimited traffic and backlinks since you can “syndicate to a tons of sites”? The answer is NO.
Although technically you can submit your article to as many sites as possible, the chances for all those sites to get indexed by Google is slim. Please note that there is no penalty from Google and that’s just how Google will treat the excessive syndicated content as supplemental index database, as shown below:
Having said that, you still be able to gain the benefit of having direct traffic from the sites you submitted to. If you would like to gain the backlinks that are indexed by Google, you need to provide unique content.
There are a number of platforms that support content syndication such as Ping.fm, Hellotxt.com and Pixelpipe.com. Each of them contains around 30++ social sites such as Facebook, Myspace, WordPress, FriendFeed, etc…that allow you to syndicate your content. You are more than welcomed to setup the account so that you can syndicate your content easily. If you would like to automate the task of submission, you can check out Bookmark Lover, one of the service I am using to help to syndicate my content to Ping, Hellotxt and Pixelpipe and other sites automatically to generate more traffic and backlinks to my site. I have been using it since its launch and there are quite a number of the updates (including April 2012) of the software and I am pretty happy with their support as well.
–> Watch the video of how Bookmark Lover Works And The Case Studies
I hope this post clears out the myth of duplicate content vs content syndication. As usual, leave me your comment below to share your thoughts on duplicate content, content syndication or any questions you have.
To Your Success,
Ming Jong Tey
Filed under Content by on Apr 20th, 2012. Comment. 
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Comments on Duplicate Content vs Content Syndication
Good information about duplicate content myths. The clarification about the domain name and similar pages is of great value for someone to learn if they do not realized what the difference is about. I just finished an analysis about web content and the effects of link building with unique articles. As this goes along very well with your article. My blog’s are soaring right now because of unique content and have to agree very much so that most of these article directory sites do not produce any results in the search engine results, but these directories do produce gains for your site after submitting your articles.
This topic is something that I have been looking for a long time. The battle between Content Syndication and Dupli content is never settled. Press releases been the most widely used method for content syndication also remains the biggest talked about topic under duplicate content issue. Your post shares some great insights about the topic.
Anoop Sudhakaran recently posted..Your Photos Contain a Lot More than Your Captures
Here is a link to what Google has to say about duplicate content and it includes this line “In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved”.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359
Now I know it says rare cases but I remember when the Panda update went live and how many article directories dropped in ranking, from your experience what is your take on this?
Karla Campos recently posted..iPad 3rd Gen Giveaway
Thank you so much for explaining this to me. I have been confused between duplicate content and content syndication. It has kept me away from writing articles so far. It was too much of a learning curve.
But now, coming to your post (for the first time) you have explained it well. This is what I love about being in a tribe. I always meet new people and learn new things.
I cannot take a course on everything, but coming to your blog has helped me so much.
I thank you,
Donna Merrill
Donna Merrill recently posted..How To Leverage Your Blog Content
@Link Worx Seo: Hope this will help people to differentiate between duplicate content and syndicated content.
Ming Jong recently posted..Generate Passive Income – Are You Doing It The Right Way?
@Anoop Sudhakaran: There is misunderstanding for duplicate content since the born of Google and just need to clear out the myth and move forward.
Ming Jong recently posted..Will ArticleRanks Power Up Your SEO Effort?
@Karla Campos: As usual, Google will never spell it out clearly to people so that we can have a proper guidance. So, I can’t really interpret the rare cases…
For the Panda, most of the article directories drop because of the quality of the content. To be honest, I still think the quality of the content in the article directories is inferior, comparing to a lot of blogs.
Even for EzineArticle, after the Panda, they have more stringent review process and lift the minimum amount of words to 400 instead of 300. They are trying their best to up the quality of the article. Despite the effort, article directory is no longer a good portal to rank on Google like it used to be. Similar thing happened earlier during the incipient phase of web2.0 (think the ranking of squidoo, hubpages). That’s my view…
Ming Jong recently posted..Is Warrior Forum WSO Turning Into ClickBank?
@Donna Merrill: Welcomed to my blog, Donna. This is one of the popular topic in SEO myths and just would love to see everyone is clear about this.
Ming Jong recently posted..Linkvana Review Plus Case Studies Results
Hi Ming, excellent explanation of duplicate content. It took me a long time to get this one through my head and the next problem is how to resolve those issues when they occur on your blog. Are you using a plugin for that? I try not create duplicate content but I’m not sure how to prevent it or how to prevent those pages from appearing in Google’s index. Looks like I don’t need to worry about it, but I still do. LOL! Thanks for the post Ming!
Ileane recently posted..How To Curate Content and Build Authority With Scoop.it
Great article. Points out the subtle difference between duplicate content and syndicating it
@Ileane: Hi Ileane, if I interpret correctly, you refer to the duplicate issue on the blog. This can be triggered by quite a number of reasons especially if you have some tracking happening in the blog (by plugin or script).
One of the thing is to use the canonical tag so that search engine recognize the page is actually a copy of the specific URL. Or you can put a noindex tag. For the problem generated via session ids or tracking etc…I think might need the help from the software provider…That’s getting too technical to me, lol…
Ming Jong recently posted..Google Algorithm Update February 2012 – Link Evaluation
Thank you for the article Ming, this has cleared up some misunderstanding for people, Google even said in one of their videos that they dont penalise duplicate content they just give the user the most applicable copy.
thank you for the info you posted and your responses to others’ questions. this was very helpful in demystifying the duplicate content issue.
@Wolfgang Bloomfield: Welcomed Wolfgang. That’s right, the “most applicable copy” is the key. However, if you have too much duplicate content, that will post a problem for Google to pick the most applicable copy.
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@payam: Welcomed. Glad to know that this post is doing its job
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This almost feels like stealing but it’s not! It is sharing and it is what the new online world is all about sharing. If you share it helps everybody it is better this way.
Elena Anne recently posted..How to Boost your Metabolism
It’s best though Ming to not put out too many duplicates, although a few copies wouldn’t matter that much.
“If you submitted your very same post to the article directories, this is NOT a duplicate content issue but content syndication”
“This content syndication will result in multiple backlinks to your website and direct traffic to your site because you have increased the exposure of your website.”
Ok so submitting to these “article directories” is a WASTE of TIME
1) those links will be devalued soon if they are not already. Since you and 1 billion other people are spamming them
2)You wont get any traffic because the only people visiting those “article marketing” sites are spammers. Have you ever seen one of those websites/articles show up in a Search Result? I haven’t!!!!!!
@Elena Anne: Content sharing is the key. Sharing is with a link back to the original source to acknowledge the reference.
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@Wolfgang Bloomfield: The idea is to have unique content all the time though this is extremely time consuming. And that’s where spinning / re-writing come in.
Ming Jong recently posted..Get Tons of Traffic From Press Release
@Thomas: I did submitted a few of my blog post to EzineArticle and Articlebase and is still indexed by Google… http://ezinearticles.com/?Off-Page-SEO—12-Techniques-To-Build-Backlink-To-Your-Website&id=6407567 vs my post http://www.mingjongtey.com/seo/off-page-seo-12-techniques-to-build-backlink-to-your-website/.
I admit that I don’t visit article directory because I think the majority of the quality in EzineArticles is inferior comparing to a lot of blog. Having said that, I can’t deny the fact that it is of Alexa Rank of 316, which is still a super high traffic site and there are tons of people to look for information everyday.
Ming Jong recently posted..Generate Passive Income – Are You Doing It The Right Way?
Thanx for the info.
Content sharing without backlinks are evident through RSS. I found this plugin which eliminates the adverse effect. Readers From RSS 2 Blog. You can check it out too.
@Ming Jong:
Oh I am all about those high Alexa and PR directories. But in your post you are talking about submitting to mass article directories sing article submitting programs.
YOu cannot do that with sites like Ezine. There you have to submit by hand and be accepted.
Thus Ezine is not in the same league as other mass article directories! Also Ezine requires unique content.
Thomas recently posted..Free iCloud Storage for the Masses
Great post Ming
. I have been reading about this content syndication. ..I never thought that there is more to learn on how to syndicate in a right way.
thanks for the insights.
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@Amrik Virdi: Welcomed Amrik
Ming Jong recently posted..Duplicate Content vs Content Syndication
@Anne J: Cheers Anne. Also beware of content scrapping by others without acknowledgement. There are tons of scrapper out there doing this everyday. Will check out the plugin
Ming Jong recently posted..Will ArticleRanks Power Up Your SEO Effort?
@Thomas: This is a post about differentiating duplicate content and content syndication, not about how to syndicate your content like a ninja. If you are going to use any software to do syndication, spinning is a must to get the best out from it. Otherwise, most of the articles will be dropped to the Google Supp Index.
For Ezine article, they are after “Original” articles, not unique content. That’s why they accept my article. Feel free to compare the ezine link I posted in my last comment and my blog post.
Ming Jong recently posted..Is Warrior Forum WSO Turning Into ClickBank?
@Becca: Thanks Becca. Understand what duplicate content is will give you confident to do mass content syndication. Also, proper content syndication is another big topic, which is not covered in this post. I’ll cover that in future.
Ming Jong recently posted..Linkvana Review Plus Case Studies Results
Thanks for explaining about this duplicate content. One another example is central news services. Many news papers buys news from one agency and they post on their sites. These sites are highly ranked. Google don’t punish them for duplicate content.
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@Shalu Sharma: Absolutely, news service is a classic example. Like PRweb , it syndicates the PR to tons of high authority sites, with a link pointing back to the original news source.
Ming Jong recently posted..Google Algorithm Update February 2012 – Link Evaluation
@Ming, yes that’s another good example. Plus another thing, if it was not so then why is RSS feeds so important. No one will be using RSS feeds if duplicate content was being targeted.
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@Shalu Sharma: Actually, I have some reservation about RSS, because there are a lot of bots that utilized RSS to scrape content. So, I only set it to partial feed instead of full feed. Some of the bots will give you a backlink but some won’t.
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Hey Ming, you are right about RSS feeds. It’s a good idea to make sure that your RSS is showing excerpts rather than the whole article.
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Hi,
Last night i discuss with my friend, who is also a webmaster, on the topic of content syndication V/S content duplicacy and question answering on yahoo.com,
My friends says-
if you put the own website content in to the Que-Ans sites like as Yahoo Q/A, Wikipedia Q/A, Answerbag.com and social bookmarking sites like as Stumble and Digg, which is illegal, according to my Friends this is content copying, but according to my point of view this is content syndication.
Please help me who is right and Me or My Friend, and also describe the pramotion of our website content to other websites like as (Stumble, Digg, Facebook), is illegal or affect my yahoo search engine ranking .
I am still waiting friends.
Thanks :- Shivaji Singh Gehloat
@Shivaji Singh: Hi Shivaji, there is a point we need to take note, which is copying is not equal to syndication. My post is to differentiate duplicate content and content syndication but not about plagiarism.
First of all, we will need to check if the content is allowed to be copied / syndicated even when you give credit to the author. Majority of the blog content is copyrighted and that means they do not allow people to simply copy and paste without their acknowledgement. So, we can’t just take the content and submit to else where…
For social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, majority of the site do encourage people to submit / vote for their content. Also, when you submit content, always craft out your own description / comments for the post. If you are too lazy, you might take the first few sentences of the post and put them in and that should be fine since you are not using more than 10% (most likely).
For press release sites, article directories or videos sites, majority of them allow you to copy and paste the article / video as long as you give credit back to the author.
Hope this makes sense to you. Let me know if you need more clarification.
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Thanks Sir, for your valuable response.
Shivaji Singh
Shivaji Singh recently posted..Rich Snppets
A very good clerification on duplicate content and content syndication. The problem is simply that of listening to just every piece of advice that comes from others. I must say I’ve many of my articles being scrapped by some bloggers and article directories and I’m surprised that when I do a search sometimes these articles show up on the SERPs. Frankly, if what many are regarding as duplicate content is right then those articles shouldn’t be there in the SERPs.
I agree with you totally on the issue of syndication. Only thing is if you want good results, then you need to do a little re-writing of the article or post.
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@Chadrack: What I do now is to only have unique post on my money pages, i.e. I don’t syndicate any of the blog post content because there is still a risk of my syndicated content get ranker higher than my money pages, which is not I want.
Instead, I will use fresh article for syndication purpose to link back to my money pages or other important web 2.0 pages.
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Hi Ming Jong,
I was worry about duplicate content. After read your article I understand now. This is make sense.
Thanks for this information.
@HenLee: Hi HenLee, duplicate content is one of the myths in the online world. Glad to know that you find this useful
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Hi,
Thank you very much for the clarification.
You mention about using partial feed instead of full feed. How do you do that (using partial feeds)?
@Francis Q: You are welcomed. You can set the feed as summary viaSetting > Reading, choose summary for feed under WordPress.
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Thank you Ming for this awesome clarification.
Thus can I summarize it as:
1) We can solve the duplicate content problem by including canonical tag in our pages
2) We can share same article to as many websites as we can
Will it be useful in any way to publish the same article to many different websites? Do you believe that the backlinks will be counted?
@Suresh Khanal: Welcomed Suresh. Please see my response below:
1. For pages within our domain, I will always make sure they are unique. I will never “spin” the content for my blog post.
2. Yes you can. But I will recommend only submitting a short description instead of the whole article to attract people to visit my site if they want to view the full article. Eventually we want traffic to our site.
I suggest to make the your money post (can be your blog post) unique and not to submit to other site just for the sake of backlinks. Instead, create another articles and spin it for backlinks.
If you submit the same article to 100s of sites, some of the backlinks will not be counted and majority of them won’t be indexed by Google. They will only keep other pages under their supplementary index (this is not penalty).
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Thank you Ming for this head-spinning revelation. The myth about duplicate content is to the extreme that we are trying to create different excerpt on home pages and archive pages so that it will remain unique to the text in post. It was completely unnecessary effort.
You’ve noticed really important thing and came up with this brilliant idea. Keep it up!
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@Suresh Khanal: You are welcomed Suresh.
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Thanks for explaining that because I have actually been wondering if it is OK that some sites syndicate my blog!
@Scarlet: It depends on you. If you don’t mind, you can let them republish your blog post as long as they give you back a backlink. However, I will prefer to keep my blog post as unique as possible. For syndication, either use press release, article directories or other web 2.0 sources so that the people can only find your “unique content” on your site only. Good for monetization (you need people to come to your site) and SEO purpose.
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