Articles and websites

[photomom04]

I've been wondering this for awhile now and hope this is the right place to ask. Everyone says that submitting articles is a good thing to drive traffic to your websites and blogs. However if I write an article and it is on my website or blog and then I submit it to directories and it gets picked up by other websites, I will have a lot of duplicate content out there.

We have always heard that search engines don't like duplicate content so Im a little confused about how the whole article thing is supposed to work.

Can anyone explain this to me? Thanks! :huh:

[Audrey]

Connie,

I have a lot to say on this topic :kermie: LOL.

I believe when you study a topic, you really need to pick one "teacher" whose philosophies you agree with. It's fine to read other opinions, other articles, other books, but you can't follow the teachings of 10 different "experts"

Ok, having said that, the person I listen to when it comes to article marketing is Christopher Knight. He owns ezinearticles.com He teaches that you should submit some content to directories and save some content for your own site. I believe it's worth the investment to go to ezinearticles.com and read Chris's articles. http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Knight This is a link to all of his articles. He actually addresses every question you've asked.

So...you write an article. How is that one article going to best help you? Will it most help you to keep it on your site where only your visitors will see it? Or will it best help you to put it on ezinearticles.com where 1000 or 5000 others will read it, possibly pick it up and possibly share it with others?

Hope this helps Connie.

[photomom04]

I knew you would have an answer for me! I will try to get over there and do some reading but until then...from what I gather I was right in thinking that it is not in my best interest to put articles on my website AND submit them... :sun: Thanks!

[Audrey]

Connie,

If I only had one article and I had to choose what to do with it, I'd put in as many directories as I could.

If I only had 2 articles, and I had to choose, I'd put them both in directories. My site gets the "leftovers" LOL

I get tons and tons and tons of hits from my articles. And these folks coming to visit my site are folks who have an interes in what I sell because my articles are about what I sell :)

[Lori]

I've been wondering this for awhile now and hope this is the right place to ask. Everyone says that submitting articles is a good thing to drive traffic to your websites and blogs. However if I write an article and it is on my website or blog and then I submit it to directories and it gets picked up by other websites, I will have a lot of duplicate content out there.

We have always heard that search engines don't like duplicate content so Im a little confused about how the whole article thing is supposed to work.

Can anyone explain this to me? Thanks! :huh:

It's best to have completely unique content on your website. I've only recently learned this myself. You need to have as much unique content as possible. Distribute articles by all means, and even include those articles on your website... but reserve much of your content for your website alone.

There is no real 'duplicate content penalty'... but the search engine's will filter out duplicate content in search results.

Hope that helps :)

Lori

[Audrey]

There is no real 'duplicate content penalty'... but the search engine's will filter out duplicate content in search results

Lori,

What do you mean? If I type in the title to one of my articles, I'll get back 1000 sites, each carrying that article.

Sometimes when I'm searching for something really specific, I'll get back 100 sites each with someone else's article on that topic.

So, what do you mean that search engines filter out duplicate content?

[Lori]

Hi Audrey,

For something as specific as the full title to an article it makes sense to get the results you are getting. Although, it won't always be true depending on how competitive the keywords in the article title are.

In general the search engines are trying to deliver results that make sense to the user. So if you were searching for specific keyword phrases (which organic search engine traffic is more likely to be doing) there will be more competiting sites.

The search engines, if they are smart, will try not to deliver exactly the same results over and over again because clearly the user doesn't want to read the same thing over and over again.

What they generally do is try to 'filter' the results -- What that means to the best of my understanding is the duplicate content causes the engine to decide which of the duplicates has the most other factors going for it. They'll choose that one to show in their SERPs and filter out the rest.

Then they will deliver other results that seem applicable to the search.

A good example is your article, "How to Save Money on Scrapbooking Supplies". The terms in that title are obviously more competitive. So when you search on it (http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-12-2006-99022.asp) you will see your article show up in Buzzle but the rest of the results on the first page are not your article. No doubt if you keep on going you'll come across it many more times though... but in the first results there are other relevant results.

So... in this instance I personally would want MY site to show up with my article, rather then Buzzle. So if I was trying to optimize my site for those keyword terms then that is what is in question here...

On the other hand, the article distribution process is extremely helpful for the external link building campaign as well as the individual traffic the articles generate.

So that's why I feel it's important to do both.

I hope that makes sense. That's the newest information that I have, but I've been wrong before! :D

Lori

[Audrey]

Lori,

Thanks. Now I understand what you are saying. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[haley.e]

From what I've found, working on a bit of a delay works wonders. I write a new article for my own blog (or other sites) and then a month later I'll submit them to directories and article sites. From what I'm noticing, as long as they content is spidered and indexed FIRST at my site, and then all the article posting, etc link to my site, I don't get any penalty for the dupes.

[clpatten]

:D Thanks for that information haly.e! I have been writing on my blog on a regular basis. I knew there was an issue about duplication but didn't know the specifics.

[Jenita]

Hi,

You did't clearly mention whether you are submitting the url of your site or blog to directories or the articles to the directories. If you are submitting your url to directories then it will not be considered as duplicate content.