Syndication – Good, Duplicate Content – Bad. What to Do? by Donna Huber

 Ever since Google started cracking down on blogs that had duplicate content, I have wondered how syndication played into it. In legacy media, being a syndicated columnist was a huge feat. The columnist reached greater audiences with the same content.

Then there are the news stories that play over and over on every television station and every newspaper. Even as the legacy media moved online, the practice continued. Online news sites like Huffington Post even reposts content from other sites.

I've asked around in various groups what makes syndication okay for sites like a newspaper, but not a general blog like mine? Early answers were that they were somehow exempt from Google's algorithm. Not fully understanding, I searched the web and Google's own information and all I got was some technical mumbo jumbo that all I took away from was syndication was okay but not duplicate content.

I got into another discussion yesterday with an author who read an article about the benefits of syndication, but wasn't sure how it differed from duplicate content. It got me thinking and again I went searching for answers. I ran across the most helpful article to date on the subject at Search Engine Journal.

To bottom line the article - it's all about the quality. You really should read the article for yourself, but I'll highlight a few things I took away from it and some thoughts on syndication as it applies in the book blogging world.

Quality Matters

A lot of bloggers and authors are doing book blasts or sponsored giveaway posts. These posts usually only contain "canned" information. The whole point of the post is to be an advertisement. Ads = low quality. It is likely that Google will view these types of post more as duplicate content than syndication.

►More: Book Blasts, Blog Blitz, Sponsored Giveaway

What is a high quality post? One that contains meaningful information is usually of high quality. Meaningful content may be timeless, usually answers a question the reader has on the subject, and/or provides insight possibly not found elsewhere. Interviews and guest articles usually are good examples of high quality content.

But content alone does not make the post high quality. It must be well written: free of grammar and spelling errors, contain clear and concise language, structured to be highly readable.

How to Syndicate

After reading this post, authors may be thinking "Great! I have that awesome post I wrote on my tour last month. I can syndicate that." Not so fast. You may be running into a rights issue. Who "owns" that content? When I developed my Submission Guidelines, I consulted literary magazines and other publications (both ones that have print issues and ones that are online only) to determine how they handled content submissions. Most had language detailing the rights and permissions. Even if money did not change hands over a post, it is still possible that a guest article you wrote belongs to the blogger. Just to avoid hard feelings if nothing else, I would advise authors to check with bloggers.

Bloggers, should you give permission to have a guest article syndicated by the author? While the decision is up to you, I would tend to say yes, you should. Again if you look at my Submission Guidelines, I state I have exclusive use rights for a certain period of time, after that time the author may reuse the article, but a link back to the original post on my blog is required. Why? Getting other sites to link to your blog is good for SEO purposes also it means that more readers will see your blog's name and since the post is of high enough quality to be reposted then it speaks well of the other content on your site.

Another option for syndication is to write an original article and then send it out to bloggers to post. You may first publish it to your own blog or you might not. Either way, make sure there is a bio and a link back to your website/blog. This option is open to more than just authors in the book writing sense. Bloggers can also have their own content syndicated. For example, most of my tips posts would make excellent content for syndication. I recommend including at the end of the article or somewhere unobtrusive, but visible, a statement to indicate it is a syndicated article. By indicating it is a syndicated article may encourage others who love the post to consider posting it on their own site.

Problems with Syndication

(or when does syndication cross the line to duplicate content)

According to Google, duplicate content is not grounds for action against a blog. So why have I been told not to post duplicate content? Mostly because there is a fine line between white hat SEO techniques and black hat SEO tricks. Did I lose you? White Hat = Good. Black Hat = Bad. Anything that attempts to manipulate search engine algorithms is bad. Duplicate content can become black hat if it looks like a linking scheme (meaning you are more interested in having a site post a link to your site than the content you are providing in the article). That's why the most important thing to remember is QUALITY.

Bloggers may be thinking "hey, I never have to write another post. I can just post syndicated articles all the time." I'm not sure if that would be a wise move. I think that the algorithm looks at the ratio between original content and duplicate content when determining if a site is trying to artificially influence search engine ranking (how high on the list a site is when someone searches for a subject).  Adding in a few original posts will also keep your readers interested. It is no secret that many book blogs share the same readers so if you only have content they can also find on another site they may stop visiting your site all together.

A third problem with using syndicated articles is related to the problem above. If 10 blogs post the same article then Google's search algorithm decides which blog gets the top billing when returning search results. A couple of things play into it. One, the site that posted the article first may get pushed higher. Two, sites with better page rank get higher billing. I'm sure there are other factors, but you get the idea. The other sites may rank higher than yours in search and therefore your blog isn't "found" by new readers.

Speaking of page rank… That is another problem you can run into with syndicated posts. If you have 10 blogs that have a lower page rank than you pointing to yours through a link then that might not be so good for you. And possibly worse you are linking to sites with lower page rank. What is page rank? It is a scoring system that Google uses to rank your site's content. The better the content the higher the rank. You linking to a site is seen as an endorsement of sorts. I don't fully understand page rank, so I'll leave it at that. An option you have is to make the links "nofollow".

►More: Choosing doFollow or noFollow

Bottom line: syndicated content can be great for both bloggers and authors, if you used appropriately. Use it for good not evil by devoting the extra time to making sure that one post is worth being syndicated.

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the blogger behind Girl Who Reads and author of the how-to manual Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

Original post: http://www.girl-who-reads.com/2014/04/syndication-good-duplicate-content-bad.html

Hello! I'm Allie!

I'm part of The Reintroduce Myself blogfest, so today I'm posting a short blog about me and my little corner of the world.

At Fresh Pot (of TEA, people) I like to feature online creativity. I've had jewelry-makers, photographers, and artists on, showcasing their work and inspirations. Of course, I also invite writers on  and review books, both traditionally published and Indie.

I intersperse all the creative deliciousness of my guests with blogs about being a mom (like the fact that my kid nearly missed the bus this morning because she couldn't decide which M&M Lipsmacker to use). 

I've been known to post a recipe or two, like this one for my uncles famous carrot soup. Plus, if you have been looking for how to make Fuller's Walnut Cake, search no further. I've got your back.

Today I'm also celebrating 100,000 hits, so grab a beverage and join the party! 

I'm delighted to be in the blogfest with some of my favorite bloggers, including Krista McLaughlin, Hart Johnson, and Stephen Swartz. There are loads of other cool-looking blogs at the Linky Links, found at the bottom of this page. Best believe I'll be checking them out. After all, how can I resist a blog called One Magic Bean Buyer?

Hello to the browsers and new readers!

Welcome to my Interverse

Enter my rocket, and come with me into deep space. In our capsule, we hover over a large galaxy. It has no shape. It's not a spiral, or even a Sombrero Galaxy. It exists, perhaps, in five dimensions.

The Sombrero Galaxy

The atmosphere is, of course, the Clouds - those nuggets of info that rain down at the touch of a button. I'm still learning the strange ways of Clouds.


Underneath lies a huge, sprawling, messy planet, much like Asimov's Trantor. There is the internet, of course, with large sites and blogspots. They grow, dwindle, disappear, reappear in breathtaking fashion and speed.

Trantor

They all interact with the Facebook Ocean and the Twitter River. Transport between sites and the social media waters is instantaneous and constant. Those who learn how to apparate between the two, and those who can set up their own train stations along the way, will get good results.


A map of this planet is ever-changing, ever-growing. There is danger at areas all over the social media waters and the actual nets themselves. Even in the Clouds, I'm sure, we could say, Here There Be Dragons.

Here There Be Dragons

To further confound things, we all have our own version of that planet. Our planets intermingle with other versions. Mine, for example, has a pretty large Twitter river, a somewhat deep Facebook Ocean, and this tiny little blog as a village hub. My LinkedIn continent is represented, at the moment, by mere postcards. MySpace Mountain has fallen off the edge. Goodreads is a bit of a jungle. And sites like Amazon tower over all, meting out rules and punishments at will.


I like to envision my own version of the Interverse. I can see my Twitter river, muddied at times with too much marketing, cleared up with human interaction, and then polluted again when I grow lazy. My little blog village sells its wares and constantly needs to be updated. There are other blog villages to visit in order to keep mine healthy and growing. 


If I look at it like that, in moments of - insanity? - then it's not all so overwhelming. It's my little slice of eternity.

Social Media for Authors, Pt. 1: A New Star in the Twitterverse

Over the next few weeks, some of the authors at FIBP and I will be running a continuing series on how to work social media  to increase your author network and drive traffic to your  blogs. In doing so, that will get more eyes on your book and hopefully drive sales.


Each blog focuses on a particular aspect of the social media network. Today’s post, for example, highlights Twitter as an important portion of your toolkit for reaching readers. We should point out, however, that all forms of networking can interact: Twitter can highlight blog posts, blogging can take readers to sites like Goodreads, and Facebook can be a central hub for it all. In fact, each individual author can design a network that reflects her own marketing goals.

******

When I finished my book,  agents and publishers never called or rang the doorbell. Once I was live on Amazon, the throngs of people clamoring to shell out three clams for my book also failed to materialize. I had to go and get them, one at a time.


One of the main tools I use to do that is Twitter. It’s a great resource for writers - in fact, I would hazard a guess that a lot of tweeps out there are writers.


When I started marketing, I had 17 followers. I now have close to 700, three months later. If you are starting off from scratch,  I suggest you use your writer’s name as your twitter username, or your name + author if it’s not available. Go to Twitter .com and build a profile. Be certain to upload a nice photo – one that looks good humored or that has a bit of sass to it.


Include a short bio that  mentions what your connection is to writing, as well as a link to your blogspot (more on that later.) The next step is to get a whole boatload of followers.


I built a following by participating in #WW or #WriterWednesday, and #FF or  #FollowFriday. If you put some of your followers’  names in a tweet and add those hashtags, they will do the same for  you. They’ll know you have done that because they will click on the @Mentions, which will bring up all the tweets with their names in them.

At a certain point the following will just start building on its own, especially if you take the time to say thank you to every new follower. 


You can do the same thing. Click on @Mentions after you have been on for a few days and you’ll see who has mentioned you in a tweet. Tweet them back and say thank you. That gets both of your names out there even more.


That brings us to the magic RT, or retweet. If someone puts up a mention of a book or a blog in a tweet, be certain to retweet it for them. Do it often enough, and you’ll pick up a lot of thank yous. When you put up a blog or book link, people will do the same for you.


While all of this is going on, be certain to tweet about funny thing that happen to you, random thoughts as a writer, snippets from your day – fun things to read. If you go overboard with the marketing and retweets and #FF’s,, your tweet list  will look like one sea of red links, and you won’t get as many followers. Who wants  to get in touch with someone who talks like an infomercial all the time?


The more time you spend on Twitter, the more followers you will get. Don’t let it take over  your life, though. You have  books and blogs to write after all.


Which brings us back to that blog link you put into your profile. Remember how you told new followers that you would check out their links? And how you did? And how you liked some of them enough to follow their blogs so you could read them each week?


Well, some of your new followers will be doing that  to you as well. Through the use of Twitter, you will increase your blog readership. This is how social media will begin bleed over  across formats, in a good way.


Not only that, but as you look at your new  followers’  blogs and read their tweets, you’ll find new  opportunities. There are writers out there looking for guest bloggers and people to interview and books to feature. They might as well feature your book.


BTW - as a reminder, you only have 140 characters to tweet in. You’ll need to shorten some of those looooong  links.  You can do that at bit.ly, or at a host of other shortening sites. I like Bit.ly because it stores  your shortened links and copies them to your clipboard when you need them again.


As a final tip, now on #WW (Writer  Wednesday) I feature a few select friends, instead of long lists of @writername and @whoosis.  Here’s an example:


#WW @danielleraver - She’s funny, talented, and a tech whiz. Her book Brother, Betrayed is at http://amzn.to/jZxiSk

I actually tweeted that, by the way.


A tweet like that  gets a lot of attention - well, more than strings of @writernames, and the people I mention in those tweets get a real kick out of it. 


In my opinion, being classy, having a thick skin, and respecting the other authors out there will get you a lot further  in the Tweetiverse than any automatic Followback software. But I think that’s true of most of the aspects of being a writer.


Look for the next aspect of social media at Philosophies of a Young Heart by Danielle Raver, author of Brother, Betrayed, appearing next week.