Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Copy/pasting the article from another website and referencing correctly not to get penalized
-
Hi all
I am looking at copy/pasting an article from another website which is very relevant to my business, is there a standard practise/best practise for SEO to do this and ensure Google doesn't think i am plagerizing content etc.. Link to source down the bottom? Using Quotations... making a page noindex or no follow etc?
-
rel=canonical is a good alternative to noindex. Both will prevent the article on your site from going into the index of Google or other search engines who honor rel=canonical. From what I have seen, noindex works quicker.
The advantage of rel=canonical is that much of the link value of the article with the rel=canonical will be transferred to the specified source article. I have used it on content that I own and have published on two domains. The copy that receives the benefit of rel=canonical ranks better than expected.
-
If the article is public domain then there is no legal problem with republishing it verbatim with attribution.
If you have written a unique summary of substantive length of a public domain article then there is no need to noindex, worry about duplicate content, or a potential Panda problem. That is best practice for reuse of public domain.
-
What is your opinion of doing everything you said but, skipping the no-index and pointing the canonical at the original publishers site?
-
Thanks for that, I've done my own summary of the article and how it relates to my business.
Just to be more specific so I know for future reference, the article is from an Australian Government body and a non profit organization who's goal is for this to be seen by as many people as possible, is this possibly the exception to the rule of contacting for permission?
Link to article:
http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/news/2015/05/new-look-healthy-eating-pyramid-help-tackle-nutrition-confusion -
is there a standard practise/best practise for SEO to do this and ensure Google doesn't think i am plagerizing content etc
The best practice is to contact the author of the content and obtain permission. That is the legal way to do it. Otherwise you are committing copyright infringement which can land you in court. If the owner files a DMCA with google (millions of pages get a DMCA each month) your page will be removed from the SERPs. If you get a few DMCAs filed against you, it is possible that your whole site will be removed from the SERPs.
If you start republishing a lot of articles, even with permission, without setting them to noindex, then google will see your site as a duplicate content site and will either filter your site from the SERPs or hit you with a Panda problem.
Even better practice is to write unique content for your website. Then nobody is going to take you to court, nobody will file DMCA, google will not filter you, and google will not Panda you. If you can do that repeatedly with excellent content that visitors love then you will be in a position to make buckets of money.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Endless Scrolling and prev/next
Hi, We have a new website on https://www.neakriti.gr We have asked for endless scrolling between our articles, so when we get at the end of one article, the next loads. Looking at the produced html code I saw the articles contain and to other articles. When I asked the development team why this happens, I got a reply that its needed for the endless scroll of the articles. But to my understanding "prev" and "next" is only used on pagination cases, and endless scroll between articles has nothing to do pagination. Here is an example article
Branding | | ioannis.anifantakis
https://www.neakriti.gr/article/ellada-nea/1524252/fthinoporinos-o-kairos-tin-tetarti-stin-kriti-deite-analutika-tin-prognosi/ If you "view html code" on that article you will see this "next", "prev" declarations to other articles. Can anyone please let me know if the declaration of "prev" and "next" articles should stay or if I should ask the development team to remove it? Thanks0 -
Best Directories to Get Listed On?
Hello, I'm looking for a list of the best, most trusted, SEO friendly directories to list my company on. Can you guys please provide some directories that you have seen help increase your rankings and also drive targeted traffic? No Black Hat directories, only high quality ones. Thanks!
Branding | | Prime850 -
1 Website, 2 Business Names, 2 Locations
I took on a dentist office as an SEO client. They have 1 website, 2 business names and 2 locations. Each location has it's own business name. They are both within the same city as well. I'm not exactly sure where to start with them since they have 2 different business names. If it were 1 name with multiple locations I would just create a Contact Us page for each one, but is that the best thing to do when the location names are different? Should I create a different website for each location or is that smart because then they are competing against each other? Any help from the community on the direction I should take would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | SilhouetteBS0 -
Google auto-correct affecting one of my keywords
Hi there, I have a keyword "finao montreal" that used to rank 8 or 9 in Google serp. All of a sudden it dropped under the top 50 results, I was wondering why and I found out that Google now auto-corrects "finao montreal" to "final montreal". Finao is a well know brand of custom high-end photo albums and I find it strange that Google corrects it. Anyone has an idea on what to do with this situation? Is there a way to provide Google some feedback about the autocorrect?
Branding | | valadas0 -
Best Way To Get Twitter Followers
What does the forum think the best way to get Twitter Followers is? I'm talking from the perspective from a fairly unknown brand where there's no obvious reason for someone to follow.
Branding | | PeterAlexLeigh0 -
Video's Pros and Cons - YouTube vs My website or both?
This isn't really a question per say, but more of a request for advise. We are in the process of creating videos for our travel website. They are more informational and do not promote any products as such. I am aware of the options, and I am leaning towards creating a pro account with Vimeo so that the videos are available only on our website. The reason for this is so that we can at least get credit for our work, as when they are on you tube, anybody can syndicate the video without linking to our website. I am also aware that there are allot of searches happening on YouTube, and it may be worse if we choose not to upload our videos there as we would loose out on a big audience. it would be GREAT if we had the best of both options. And i had an idea i want to get your opinions on. Create the video and upload onto our website with "lower competitive" title / meta / body. Submit the video on YouTube with a "Higher competitive" keyword / title /meta and description. When someone finds our video, they might search YouTube to avoid linking back and wont find it, (although it is there getting traffic from a similar keyword) Branding is the number 1 objective for these videos, so you tube + many other video sites would be the way to go. However, i would also like our own "private" video blog on our site so that if web masters like the video, we can give them the option of embedding it on there site (like SEOMOZ do it on there whiteboard Fridays) Your comments and suggestions will be muchly appreciated. Greg
Branding | | AndreVanKets0 -
Google Displays Domain / URL Above Description?
I am seeing a new SERP format from Google. (new for me at least) In the past the title tag would display as the first line of a listing, followed by description and domain / URL. Today I see the domain / URL as the second line. This is placing an emphasis on "Who". If you have a big brand or a great URL this might be helpful to your CTR. Are you seeing this? What do you think of it?
Branding | | EGOL0
