7 replies
Hi Warriors,

I have a new website which has information and articles on a certain type of business niche in America. It also acts as a sort of directory where I feature all the best businesses in this niche for particular areas of USA.

Wondering if you guys could offer some advice on what would be the best way to create these directory pages. What I really want to do is to provide content for about 5 businesses on each area page... ie, each page will be "Name of Business niche and Area". On each page will be featured 5 or so different businesses located in that area. I understand having unique content would be best, but that will take a ton of time and money, so I was hoping to just copy and paste a small amount of content from each business and provide a link back to their site. I believe that is called syndication?

Is doing it this way cause for concern with Google, or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks
#content #duplicate
  • Profile picture of the author @tjr
    Under what circumstances and conditions are you copying and pasting this content?
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  • Profile picture of the author hardworker2013
    There is something called "curated content" which tells Google you are taking content from another Website source: You should make sure to enter the source website link where you got the content from, so as to tell google it is not duplicated content.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Thanks to outsourcing, it will only cost you pennies for rewritten snippets

    You don't want to find out the HARD WAY just how CRUSHING Google's Panda penalty can be.

    Spend some measly chump change on rewriters from the Philippines or India and you should be good to go.
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    • Profile picture of the author @tjr
      Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      Thanks to outsourcing, it will only cost you pennies for rewritten snippets

      You don't want to find out the HARD WAY just how CRUSHING Google's Panda penalty can be.

      Spend some measly chump change on rewriters from the Philippines or India and you should be good to go.
      ...which can then show you just how much cheaply rewritten content will do to hurt your standing in Google as well.

      Look, I know you're on a blitz right now because you just changed up your signature and all; but at least put a little more thought and effort into this stuff.
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      • Profile picture of the author writeaway
        Originally Posted by @tjr View Post

        ...which can then show you just how much cheaply rewritten content will do to hurt your standing in Google as well.

        .
        Well, it goes without saying that you still have to review the snippets you outsourced. The key here is to maximize ROE (return on effort).
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex The Lion
    A lot of large businesses will have marketing staff employed and smaller businesses will be just as concerned about the appearance of their image as well. Therefore, maybe you could reach out to the businesses you are planning on featuring and ask if they will write you a paragraph about their business for you.

    They will likely be happy to have creative control of their summary, though ensure you notify your audience that the summaries were provided by the companies.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by RedWaterDub View Post

    . . . I was hoping to just copy and paste a small amount of content from each business and provide a link back to their site. I believe that is called syndication?

    Red Water Dub,

    No, that's not syndication.

    When you syndicate your content (from a blog, e-magazine, newsletter, etc) you "push" or send your content out to relevant sites that will publish your content as a service for their readers. Syndicating your content in this manner has several purposes including gaining exposure for your ideas, brand awareness for your business, and hopefully engaged readers that want to then go to your site and find more similar content that is of interest to them.

    It sounds to me like you want to create a niche portal or directory which is different from syndication.

    The best type of pages for what you want to do will be found in directory templates which you can find online, both free and paid. There are WordPress directory templates and you'll also find templates at the larger site template stores like ThemeForest, WooThemes, and TemplateMonster, etc.

    There are business models where you charge a fee to be listed in a niche directory and there are others that offer free listings. Some offer a free short listing of name and address but then charge a monthly fee if the business wants an expanded listing (phone number, hours of operation, logo added, sales blurb, etc.) This is not syndication and not duplicate content.

    Good luck to you,
    Steve
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