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Syndicated Content and/or Duplicate Content

by LList
11 replies
I've done a lot of research regarding syndicated content and how that relates to being dinged for duplicate content (by Google). I'm still confused.

I'm planning on my Website having a mixture of original content, guest posts by niche experts, PLR articles, and niche relevant syndicated content from (i.e. CNN, etc...). By placing that content on my site (syndicating, w/ links back to the authority site).

What I understand is that Google will only rank the site that has the most traffic (i.e. the authority news site in this case) and will give them more Google "love", however, as long as everything else on my site is related to that same niche content, I shouldn't be put in the penalty box. That was my understanding. What I'm gathering is the big duplicate content ding is when you put up a bunch of sites (for affiliate offers, etc...) and copied the same articles on all of them or duplicating content on your own site, that's where I thought the "ding" came in. I thought I'd double check and ask the forum since I'm no expert and I want to be right about this.

It would provide great value to my site visitors to have all this scattered information all in one spot so they can easily get to the data they need. That's why this question is really important to me.

Thanks for your advice! :confused::confused:
#and or or #content #duplicate #duplicate content #syndicated #syndicated content
  • Profile picture of the author Beverley Boorer
    You certainly wouldn't want to have duplicate content on your own site - what would be the point of that? and unless all your sites are all in the same niche, then I would think that using the same content on them all would be plain silly. What if the content you used had nothing to do with the niche? It certainly wouldn't help get targeted visitors.
    Apart from that, if you have lots of content that you want to offer to your visitors, without having duplicate content, you can easily create an ebook or pdf file for them to download and then just have some of the content on the website.
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    • Profile picture of the author LList
      Hi Beverley!

      Thanks for your response. I don't think my post was clear though, sorry about that.

      I have one website. I have 18 years experience in my specific niche. My website is a newspaper/magazine format whereby my site visitors come there looking for specific information and learn. I do sell from my site as well, but I give a ton of content for free. What I was asking is will I be dinged by Google if I start syndicating content from news authority sites. The content I'd syndicate would be very specific and only be about my site's niche subject.

      For example, if my site where about Investments and I blogged about that and I also included relevant syndicated articles from Money Magazine or Kiplinger, etc..., that's what I'm specifically referring to.

      Will my site be dinged or not ranked because I did that?

      Thanks again for responding!
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by LList View Post

        I don’t think my post was clear
        It wasn't.

        Partly because of its typeface's offputting size and color, and partly because you've confused duplicate content with syndicated content, a little. Publishing on your site content which has previously been published on other sites is not "duplicate content" and will not get you penalized. (In theory, that content won't help you much, on the SEO front, either, but that isn't always exactly the case in reality and isn't why people so commonly use such content anyway, of course). You're asking about content "duplicated" across different domains. That isn't "duplicate content". It's syndicated content. "Duplicate content" is multiple copies within one domain. (I know lots of people don't think it means that at all: they'll all wrong. It's endlessly clarified by Google but they choose to ignore that, or they're just unaware of it, or they're selling something that's a perceived solution to a non-existent problem and want their potential customers to believe that there's some sort of "duplicate content penalty" and that "syndicated content" is a form of "duplicate content" - all of which is wrong).

        The difference is explained here (and in many threads in this forum): Article Marketers – Lay the Duplicate Content Myth To Rest Once and For All - Internet Marketing and Publishing Blog

        Originally Posted by LList View Post

        What I was asking is will I be dinged by Google if I start syndicating content from news authority sites. The content I’d syndicate would be very specific and only be about my site’s niche subject.
        No, you won't. Plenty of people do this and none of them is dinged for it (not by Google, anyway).

        Don't forget that you need permission to reproduce content from anyone else's site (unless the content is expressly there for that specific purpose, as is the case with an article directory for which the details of the permissions granted are set out in the terms of service)!

        This thread probably belongs here, really: Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum (though admittedly it may not get very helpful answers there, I'm afraid, as the confusion on this point is so very widespread ).
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by LList View Post

        For example, if my site where about Investments and I blogged about that and I also included relevant syndicated articles from Money Magazine or Kiplinger, etc..., that's what I'm specifically referring to.
        With 18 years of niche experience, I hope you learned along the way that simply copying articles from sites like Money or Kiplinger is not "syndicating" them. Unless you have permission (and can prove it), simply ripping content from authority sites, even with attribution, is copyright infringement. Should the site you "syndicate" from object, consequences could range from a simple takedown notice to having your host shut your site down to heavy monetary damages should the rights-holder decide you're worth suing.
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        • Profile picture of the author LList
          Alexa,

          Thank you so much. That's exactly what I thought. I had done a lot of research and that's what I found as well. I appreciate the additional article you provided as I hadn't seen that one.

          Thanks again for your thoughtful response.
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          • Profile picture of the author LList
            JohnMcCabe,

            Exactly! I was just using those sites mentioned as examples. The specific sites I'm referring to I have agreements with. Thanks!
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            • Profile picture of the author LList
              Oops, forgot to mention I will also be giving credit to the source as well as links to finish reading the article that go back to the source's site. The whole point is to provide relevant content and value to my site readers.

              Thanks again for the great responses.
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              • Profile picture of the author LList
                Kevin,

                Thank you for that great example. You completely understand what I'm going for. I don't mind being out ranked in the search engines as the authority sites are a little different than my site and my visitors will come to my site for different reasons overall. I think I have enough from all your generous responses that I feel safe in what I'm doing.

                Thanks again!
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              • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
                I completely disagree with some prior posts. "Syndicated content" is "duplicate content" even on different domains. It's the same article, so it is a duplicate, no matter what label you want to give it. Unless Google is forced to display multiple versions of an article (for instance, you are searching for a specific quote), Google will not display all the "syndicated" versions. Maybe not even the original article.

                The winner in search is often whose site has the highest PageRank.

                Even worse, Google will transfer the PR from the copied articles to whichever one it ranks the highest or believes is the original.

                That said, the concern about duplicate content is for search engine rankings.

                For syndicated content it should be a non-issue. If you have an article on your website, and then Acme also publishes the article on their website, you are hoping Acme's readers will see the article, read it, and then visit your website or search you out further. Acme, for its part, is not trying to gain search rankings but only wants to provide informative information for its regular users.

                Think of magazines or newspapers. If an article is reprinted in five different newspapers each paper benefits because they are providing useful information to their readers. They are not using the article to try and draw web traffic.

                "Syndication" then, has nothing to do with SEO. If you are concerned about duplicate content that means you have an SEO concern. If so, do not syndicate your articles. Maybe you rewrite them for possible posting on other sites.


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                • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
                  Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

                  I completely disagree with some prior posts. "Syndicated content" is "duplicate content" even on different domains. It's the same article, so it is a duplicate, no matter what label you want to give it. Unless Google is forced to display multiple versions of an article (for instance, you are searching for a specific quote), Google will not display all the "syndicated" versions. Maybe not even the original article.

                  The winner in search is often whose site has the highest PageRank.

                  Even worse, Google will transfer the PR from the copied articles to whichever one it ranks the highest or believes is the original.

                  That said, the concern about duplicate content is for search engine rankings.
                  With the growing use of personalized search, geotargeting and social signals, it's even more complicated. Even with exact search, people is different locales with different histories will get different results. Another reason not to be overly concerned with duplication of content on multiple sites, IMO.

                  Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post

                  For syndicated content it should be a non-issue. If you have an article on your website, and then Acme also publishes the article on their website, you are hoping Acme's readers will see the article, read it, and then visit your website or search you out further. Acme, for its part, is not trying to gain search rankings but only wants to provide informative information for its regular users.

                  Think of magazines or newspapers. If an article is reprinted in five different newspapers each paper benefits because they are providing useful information to their readers. They are not using the article to try and draw web traffic.

                  "Syndication" then, has nothing to do with SEO. If you are concerned about duplicate content that means you have an SEO concern. If so, do not syndicate your articles. Maybe you rewrite them for possible posting on other sites.
                  This, however, is dead on...
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin McNally
    Agree with others be careful where you get content from but many sites do publish duplicate content if it is from related niches.

    Syndicated content and duplicate content are much the same in theory= exact copy of same content.

    You should be fine to publish related articles but the site seen with the most authority ( or seo, backlinks etc.. ) will outrank your site for these articles so you are maybe just doing this for branding purposes at first.

    I am currently working with a niche site owner who will ask for content on events coming up and when I research the topic there are numerous websites on page one with the exact same content ( often taken from press releases ).

    The only difference with these sites is their SEO set up ( ie blog, html etc ) and the related content and links on the page and backlinks coming in. Many of these sites are regarded as big authority websites and don't seem to be penalised for duplicate content. But these sites also have many other unique articles.
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