Duplicate Content - Blog Rewriting

[StoryScout]

I have a client who has requested a rewrite of 250 blog articles for his IT company. The blogs are dispersed on a variety of platforms: his own website's blog, a business innovation website, and an IT website.

He wants to have each article optimised with keyword phrases and then posted onto his new website thrice weekly. All of this is in an effort to attract some potential customers to his new site and also to establish his company as a leader in its field.

To what extent would I need to rewrite each article so as to avoid duplicating the content?

Would there even be an issue if I did not rewrite the articles and merely optimised them with keywords?

Would the articles need to be completely taken by all current publishers?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[OnlineAssetPartners]

Hi guys, have a client in a similar situation and working through best option for them...would appreciate any comments or feedback...

Current Status - client has two websites each targeting different countries: .co.nz and .com.au

With the exception of a few products that are offered separately between NZ and AU, the sites are the same. In essence duplicate content. This is due to current platform limitations (the way their web company has built the site it is same site showing in each region on separate domains with option to change products between regions using inventory an integrated inventory tool).

The great news is they are currently rebuilding their websites onto a new platform with two unique versions of the site…which will be great for ongoing SEO - ie we can really drill into creating separate sets of page, product, template content and meta data etc.

They also have a magazine running on Word Press Blog using sub-domains associated with the regional root domain. E.g.
magazine.domain.co.nz and magazine.domainname.com.au

Again, with a few exceptions, this is also duplicated for both countries…ie sub domains assigned to the same site. Again duplicate content.

Question: The magazine being built on Word Press has to date been geared at offering an “FAQ” type engagement with visitors....visitors can submit questions via module which are then answered in Word Press blog posts. There are also links from main site menu away to the magazine...so not ideal for conversion. Client wants to bring this FAQ type feature back to the two main sites and can now do so during new site rebuilds.

There is also some SEO juice in the magazine as in essence it is a large Word Press blog. I am trying to work through what would be the best option for transferring all of the FAQ answers/articles (content) from magazine FAQs to the two new main sites...so over time the two new main sites obtain that SEO strength.

Option 1

Leave magazine as it is so that main sites continue to get benefits of referral traffic to main sites and sales as result of the referrals. Also retains the links from magazine to main site (although links are from a sub-domain of the same domain)

Rewrite a brand new version of each magazine article for new NZ site

Rewrite a brand new version of each magazine article for new AU site

(Bearing in mind stringent Panda rules etc – mixing up titles so unique, unique content and posting etc to avoid Panda penalties)

Option 2

Take down magazine site and implement 301 redirects + one new version of the articles.

Move all magazine articles across to the highest performing region (NZ by far) and 301 redirect from NZ magazine to the new NZ site with corresponding articles. 301 redirects take care of the indexed pages to retain traffic and rankings for the NZ magazine articles.

Rewrite a brand new version of each magazine article and add to the new AU site and 301 redirect from AU magazine articles to the new version on AU site. 301 redirects take care of any indexed AU magazine articles...but there may be some fluctuation in rankings as the content is now completely different (brand new).

Could there be any issue with loss of the internal backlinks? impacts SEO strength that magazine subdomain to main site might give?

Other Options?

Appreciate any thoughts or comments... thanks in advance...

[Philip-DiPatrizio]

I would steer clear of removing 250 blog posts from the other web properties.  They may be driving traffic to those websites.

The client is requesting 250 particular blog posts to be rewritten.  This isn't the best content strategy in the world, but that's what you're being asked to do, so the BEST way to handle it is to completely rewrite every post so they are 100% unique.

If you were to remove the blog posts from the other websites and simply post them on the new website, you're running the risk of taking traffic away from the already established websites.

"Would google pick up on the fact that these blogs are already appearing elsewhere on the web and thereby penalise the new site for posting material that is already indexed by Google?" -- Yes, you run the risk of being penalized by Panda with such a large amount of duplicate content.  Google wants to rank websites that provide value to visitors.  If a website is entirely made up of content that already exists on another website, you're providing no added value to visitors.  Again, you could remove the content from the other websites and 301 redirect to the new one.... but you're taking a lot of value away from those websites if you do that.

[StoryScout]

Hi Phillip,

Sorry - I meant to write: Would all of the blogs need to be removed from the website on which they are appearing?

So is the best course of action to have the articles taken off the platforms on which they appear before going ahead and putting them up on the new site?

Also could you explain how the new site might get hit by panda i.e. would google pick up on the fact that these blogs are already appearing elsewhere on the web and thereby penalise the new site for posting material that is already indexed by Google?

Thanks a million Phillip.

[Philip-DiPatrizio]

If you don't make them VERY unique from the originals, the new site won't perform very well.  If the new site consists of nothing but 250 blog posts that were already discovered on other websites, you won't get good results.  Simply keyword optimizing the posts won't be enough.  They should be entirely re-written to avoid potential problems with Panda.

I'm not sure what you mean by this -- Would the articles need to be completely taken by all current publishers?