Duplicate Content or Fraternal Twins?

Most of you know I’m a single mom with four daughters and my youngest are twins.

The question I’ve gotten hundreds of times since they were born is, “Are they identical?”

The reason people have asked this so often is because my twins are what’s known as “look-alike fraternals”. Sometimes I can’t even tell them apart!

After nineteen years, I still can’t distinguish their voices over the phone.

Having fraternal twins reminds me of the issue of publishing duplicate content online.

It seems to be a big concern of bloggers and article marketers and anyone who fears getting penalized or labeled by search engines as a content deceiver.

Lisbeth Tanz of Savvy Freelance Writers did a fantastic job of defining duplicate content and outlining the steps you need to take to avoid any problems.  If you’ve been worried about this issue and you want to ease your mind, read Lis’s post, “The Myth of Duplicate Content”.

Keep in mind that syndication is always a good thing!

  • Thanks for stopping by, Helenee!. So glad you found some value in this post. I think it’s always best to have search engines index your work on your blog first. Then you can submit to as many article directories as you want.

    Have an awesome week and you’re welcome to knock on my door any time you like! 🙂

  • Thanks for the useful advice, girls. I suspected this, but I liked the specifications for the time you have to wait and for the percentage of “tweaking” needed to bypass the problem.

  • I was a WordCamp Utah and I was told that you must wait about a week from the time you publish information on your blog before you publish the same information in Ezine. It allows your blog to be indexed first.

    If you publish an article too close to when you write your post… Google will always pickup the site that has the highest rank…. which may not be a bad idea but you have to decide.

    I talked to a newspaper reporter who was standing in the “lunch line” and she and another fellow confirmed that it doesn’t take much to change your content. Title is the biggest change you need to make. They both said by changing the copy 20 per cent usually does the trick.

    You change it by changing your sentence structure and keyword locations.

    Thought I would add to Sheila’s comment.

    • Great to know, Kathy!

      And that’s what I tell people to do. I think it’s always best to publish content on your blog FIRST. Waiting a week (or two) after that to submit to article directories is wise.

      Sounds like you got a golden tip from that newspaper reporter at WordCamp!

      Melanie

  • Lizbeth did a great job explaining duplicate content and how to avoid it.

    One thing that I learned recently is to wait to submit your articles to the article directories. You want to make sure that you index for the article before they do. Because the article directories could have a higher page rank than you they could pick up the indexing before you.

    • Really helpful info, Sheila, and thanks so much for sharing!

      What I’ve been hearing all along is to always publish your content on your blog first before submitting it to article directories.

      Can’t wait to read your “oil dump” post! 🙂
      Melanie

  • SheilaAtwood

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