I want to use some content that I sent out in a newsletter and post as a blog, but will this count as duplicate content?
-
I want to use some content that I sent out in a newsletter a while ago - adding it as a blog to my website.
The newsletter exists on a http://myemail.constantcontact.com URL and is being indexed by Google.
Will this count as duplicate content?
-
You've asked a great question, Wagada. The fact that the version of the content on Constant Contact's page has already been indexed does mean that you'll have a duplicate content challenge, but there are ways to address it.
The whole problem with duplicate content is not that it generates some kind of penalty, (it doesn't) it's just that search engines then have to decide which of the dupe pages they should point to in the search results.
The version you publish on your own site already has several things going for it, and you need to add additional signals to help the search engines prioritise your site's version. First, at least part of the rest of your site is probably already talking about the same topics, so there will be more relevance there than from the random topics on Constant Contact. Plus, if your newsletter is like most, it will be linking back to your site, giving the SEs another signal.
The biggest thing you can do to get your site's page considered as the canonical (primary) version is to get at least a few links pointing to it. Social media links can be very useful for this, especially from Google Plus, but a solid link or two from other sites will go a long way as well. Also, make sure your page does NOT link to the CC page - that way there's a clear authority signal that only travels one way.
For future reference, if you're going to publish newsletter content on your own site, there are a couple of steps to take in preparation.
- Publish the content on your own site a day or a couple of days in advance
- Use the Fetch and Render tool in GSC to help it get crawled and indexed before sending the newsletter (SEs take "first published" date into account when trying to ascertain which page to return in results.)
- Make sure it's strongly-linked internally - maybe even put a link to the newsletter content page on your homepage before sending the newsletter
- Get a few incoming links to the newly-published page before the newsletter goes out.
- Use the newly published page's address in the newsletter's preheader text link where it says "If not showing up well in your email, you can read this in your browser" so the dupe page actually links back to the page you want to be considered primary.
- Or best yet, do the above and also turn off the newsletter archive on Constant Contact altogether and make the prepublished page on your site the only version. This is the best, but obviously takes a bit more work and preparation to pre-publish. It also offers the massive benefit of delivering those newsletter viewers who do want to read in a browser to your own pages where you can induce further activity/conversions. Though it should be said that in the newsletters I've managed, very few people click the "view in browser" links anymore anyway.
Hope all that makes sense?
Paul
-
While a good solution if it were possible, unfortunately ESPs like Constant Contact don't give you any way to alter the content of the of their pages. And canonical tags must be in the or they'll be ignored.
-
Gaston is right, Great answer Gaston
-
hello,
Yeap, it will be duplicate content.
Add a canonical tag from that myemail site to the blog post and issue resolved.Hope it helps.
Best luck.
GR.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will having duplicate content on four websites cause a problem?
A client of ours has four websites for different shops they run in the surrounding area. Each website has original content as well as duplicate content. This is for things like product advice which needs to be the same Will having duplicate content on these four websites cause a problem? How can it be mitigated? We can't refer the visitor to another website to get the product information as this will break the user experience, and of course shopping cart sessions will not pass on.
Content Development | | Rebecca.Holloway0 -
Locating Guest Blogging Niches
Hey Folks, Does anybody have advice on tools I could use to locate blogs on specific topics? My plan is to approach the webmasters and offer guest blogging services. I know I could just do a google search for something like "KEYWORD blogs" but I thought I'd see if there is anything more sophisticated out there. Thanks, Rich
Content Development | | Rich-O0 -
Duplicate listings content
I've been listing our business on various business and wedding directories most of which require a short description of the business. I've written up a "boilerplate" description which is fairly similar to one we have on the site. If I use this content on multiple listings sites will it cause me issues with google seeing it as duplicate content and finding it difficult to decide which pages to rank?Most of these sites are supplier directories so I don't expect people to site search them for our business they are much more likely to browse categories but will it affect organic results for our actual website? Should I be writing a different piece of copy for each listing which requires a company description to avoid any issues?
Content Development | | EdoubleD
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!0 -
Is framed content on another domain duplicate content?
I've read a number of articles and am getting opposing answers. I've been checking pages of Photo.net in copyscape for duplicate content. I'm finding a number of domains have the site iframed onto them. I was wondering why copyscape could read the content if the search engines supposedly didn't crawl iframes. Copyscape said Google can read the content. I just want to know if these sites need to remove the iframe (is it hurting Photo.net)? Thanks. Examples: http://www.copyscape.com/?q=http%3A%2F%2Fphoto.net%2Freviews%2F
Content Development | | cakelady0 -
Should I delete old or unrelevant posts in my blog? (Panda Update question)
I have a website where I post articles every few weeks.. Should I remove the outdated and unrevelant posts? I fear that google might punish my website in the Panda update.
Content Development | | wellnesswooz0 -
Simple question: How many words optimal for blog posts
Hello, We're adding a blog to one of our sites. How many words should be in a blog post for it to be optimal for the search engines? If it varies from industry to industry, please give a couple of examples. We were going to do 500 words but that seems a bit long. Thanks!
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
How to best take advantage of content being used on another site?
We've never syndicated content or done "article marketing". Another site contacted us and requested to use the content on several of our webpages. The other site is a fairly prestigious nonprofit in our industry. We don't mind them using our content, but we want to get the most benefit out of it. There are two ways the occur to me: Have them create pages with the exact same text as on our pages, but put in the header of those pages Just have them create pages with the text from our pages with embedded links back to our other pages. Each page they create will say "Content courtesy of XXX" Does anyone have opinions on which way is best, or another approach?
Content Development | | DanCrean0 -
Duplicate Content Penalty
If our pages are to have roughly 30% of non-original textual content, can we be penalized by Google? Or are we OK as long as this non-original content is relevant to the pages?
Content Development | | Quidsi0