Duplicate Content vs. Content Syndication

If arguably 75% of all Internet traffic ends up in a social network, (Flicker for photos, YouTube for video to articles, press releases, audio, you name it) then it really is a Content Game. So how do you win the content game online? This always bring to mind the thing with have heard forever and ever from all the SEO experts and that is  that duplicate content is bad. I would tend to agree. However, there is a new angle that you have to consider.

First, if you’re not sure about universal search in Google, pick any random term that you want to search, for instance, Social Media Marketing and see what it shows up in the top ten results. In order to own those spots you need to have a website, a blog, audio, video, photos, a press release, an article and it goes on and on). So, what about duplicate content and how is this relevant?

It goes back to how do we get our content found where 75% of all the traffic on the Internet is (and not on your website). Essentially, you need to bring your content to where the people are. But, if you duplicate the same content (say an article) all over the Internet, isn’t this duplicate content? This is where the lesson regarding duplicate content versus syndicated content must be learned.

I had the pleasure of seeing Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz.com, at the last AZIMA event and asked him this pointed question about duplicate content. He explained it like this. SEOmoz.com is a content rich site that licenses it’s content. So, if SEOmoz licenses an article to the Washington Post, they can essentially outrank SEOmoz for the same article. However, if they license the same article to 40 other websites or more and require all of them to link back to the original article on SEOmoz, we now have article syndication and SEOmoz will outrank all the other articles. Why?

The article is first published on SEOmoz.com. Then all the other article publishers are promoting this same article on their website while linking it back to be original source. In the eyes of Google, this mass incidence of the same article with links back to the original source is a textbook example for how article syndication works vs. duplicate content where the article is on just a few other sites looking like duplicate content.

Here is another tip: leverage your partner’s content (and experts you agree with) on topics you want to promote on your blog. It does not always need to be about you and/or your company. Make your blog a contributor network like HelpingThePoor.org.