They were paying attention to GA but lapsed and when they checked back in, saw a drop in traffic. Great point about that "critical" message.. The developers did force a crawl and I'm hoping you are correct about the time it might take.
Posts made by gfiedel
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RE: Longevity of robot.txt files on Google rankings
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RE: Longevity of robot.txt files on Google rankings
Thank you methodicalweb. Great suggestions.
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RE: Longevity of robot.txt files on Google rankings
Thanks, Travis. You've offered a lot of very interesting points.
I will double-check that they have looked at the server log files, but I'm pretty confident that they have done that.
They did assure me that the proper redirects were done but I'm not sure what they did regarding extensions. There was also a server change.....
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RE: Longevity of robot.txt files on Google rankings
Thanks for clarifying KeriMorgret. Much appreciated. As are all your thoughts. I will definitely suggest that the monitoring software be used to avoid any future problems. This was such an unnecessary and frustrating experience.
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RE: Longevity of robot.txt files on Google rankings
Thanks so much for your response KeriMorgret. I'm not sure I fully understand your suggestion unless you are saying that it would have alerted the dev team to the problem? I will pass this on to them and thank you if that is what your intention was.
The developer removed the robot.txt file which fixed the problem and I am trying to ascertain if there is a general expectation on how something like this - a de-indexing - gets reversed within the Google algorithm.
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Longevity of robot.txt files on Google rankings
This may be a difficult question to answer without a ton more information, but I'm curious if there's any general thought that could shed some light on the following scenario I've recently heard about and wish to be able to offer some sound advice:
An extremely reputable non-profit site with excellent ranking had gone through a re-design and change-over into WordPress. A robots.txt file was used during development on the dev site on the dev server.
Two months later it was noticed through GA that traffic was way down to the site. It was then discovered that the robot.txt file hadn't been removed and the new site (same content, same nav) went live with it in place. It was removed and a site index forced. How long might it take for the site to re-appear and regain past standing in the SERPs if rankings have been damaged. What would the expected recovery time be?
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RE: What Are The Hazards to Changing Over to Responsive Web Design?
Wow! Thanks, Jeff. Can't tell you how much we appreciate your efforts here. It's great to have the wider based testing in addition to our own. Thanks also for your footer suggestion. We always used to have footer links and when we changed over to WordPress, because our menus are html now, we dropped them. But you offer a great reason to put them back in. We need to make a widget spot for that and I am considering some text changes for the Home page, so we won't be launching the Responsive site until those are completed. Thanks again!!!
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RE: What Are The Hazards to Changing Over to Responsive Web Design?
Thanks so much, Peter. We actually do have a redesign percolating but that's for later and not to be mixed up with this switch to Responsive. ;o)
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RE: What Are The Hazards to Changing Over to Responsive Web Design?
Hi Jeff,
Here is the link to the dev site: websitetestingserver.com/fateImportant to note is that I just learned that the dev site isn't fully up to date with our current, live site: http://www.fateyes.com.
For instance, the blog directory is several months behind and some of the thumbnail images are missing. This has to be corrected. Not sure why they didn't bring it all over. So before we replace it, it will be fully updated and reviewed. Also, the social counts are missing and/or off but I imagine those will correct to the live site once the transfer is made.
Not sure if this renders your taking a look ill-timed and if it would be better to wait until I can have the guys get it tip top. Please let me know what you think. Thanks again!!! Your help is much appreciated.
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RE: What Are The Hazards to Changing Over to Responsive Web Design?
Thanks so much, Jeff. I would love to post the link and have you take a look. That would be a terrific help. I don't have the address but as soon as my partner gets back in, I'll ask him for it and post it here.
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What Are The Hazards to Changing Over to Responsive Web Design?
We have recently re-programmed our website to Responsive Web Design. All the URLs have remained the same, all the content is unchanged. We have this new version sitting on a development server and are finding ourselves hesitant to make the changeover. Our rankings are great currently, and our question is whether or not there are any risks that we will incur by making this change. We would appreciate any advice on how to implement this change safely. Or if that's it's even possible to insure that there won't be ranking losses.
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RE: Rank Tracker Inconsistencies
Hi Miranda,
I never heard anymore from the team or you on this. Any news?Thanks!!
Gina -
RE: Moz is reporting a broken link error but GWT is not
Thank you Everett. We are not using either of those plugins.
BUT! Your explanation about the double quotes got me thinking in the right direction. This blog post has an embedded infographic and when i was installing it, I had to correct a number of double quotes in the link to make the graphic appear. However, I didn't see that the attribution link had the double quotes also. So it's all solved now! Thank you again.
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RE: Moz is reporting a broken link error but GWT is not
Thank you Robnnl. That makes sense about GWMT.
I would love to go to the linking page and solve it but I can't find where it's coming from. Clicking through to the error in Moz gives me no other information beyond the URL. It does not give me the page it's coming from. And if I don't know where the link is originating from I can't set a redirect.
Forgive me, but I don't understand how it could be an issue with an external site yet showing up as an error on my site. Moz is telling me it's on my site, aren't they?
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Moz is reporting a broken link error but GWT is not
My latest Moz report is showing a 404 for: http://www.fateyes.com/how-will-googles-hummingbird-affect-your-search-ranking/”ht
(and showing the link this way with the characters after the last / which are not part of the page URL)Google Webmaster Tools says we have no errors. I'm wondering why there is this descrepancy and I'm wondering how I can track down where this link is originating from on our site. I've tried downloading screamingfrog and deeptrawl to no avail (java issues). I've also tried a couple of services online and installed Broken Link Checker plugin with no luck finding it.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
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Rank Tracker Inconsistencies
My rank tracker reports are odd. The 'Changes From Last Week' don't align with the numbers in the other reports I have been getting. For instance, it will say +3 for a particular search term and show the Latest Ranking to be the same as it has been for a couple of weeks. There has been no +3 to the ranking according to the reports.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks!
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RE: Social Media Integration plugin switch
Thank you Christopher and Vadim. This is what I was hoping to hear. I like the idea that I'm not stuck with what I've got and am free to switch it up, but it was too risky to just play around with. I'm looking forward to checking out sharedcount.
I think it's pretty interesting that I couldn't find this information anywhere. Maybe I was approaching the search wrong.
Thanks again!
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Social Media Integration plugin switch
I am wondering what would happen if I switched my plugin for social media integration on my WordPress site. For instance, if I have been using Sociable for a long time and have accumulated +1's, likes, shares etc. and then I switch to Flare or Social Stickers, what will happen to all my counts?
Thanks so much! I haven't been able to find any documentation on this.
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RE: Duplicate Content issue: Amazon book review & company blog
Thanks so much for the thorough answer, Paul. I was hoping I would get answers like these so I can go ahead. I appreciate your comments about ranking although, I am not sure I am concerned about that so much in this instance. I'll have to give it some thought.
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RE: Duplicate Content issue: Amazon book review & company blog
Thank you, Martijn. Just the answer I was hoping to hear.
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Duplicate Content issue: Amazon book review & company blog
Can my site be penalized for including a book review verbatim in my blog that I also post on Amazon? What are the steps I need to take? I have written a book review that I want to post on Amazon. I am also planning to create a blog post and include the exact text of the review within the post which I will then also promote on my social channels. What do I need to watch out for in terms of duplicate content? Is there a sequence I should follow? We have the rel=canonical tag on our site which is WordPress.
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RE: Bing Ranking Factors
Thank you for all the comprehensive information OverflowSEO. I am still wondering how I can be #2 in Google and drop to "not in top 50" in Bing. A 44 point drop in one week. Any thoughts on that specifically?
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Bing Ranking Factors
I'm curious about the relationship (or lack of ) between Google rankings and Bing rankings. We took a huge hit last winter with Google and have since gotten back up to the top 3 and have been holding steady on all our most important terms. Most of our losses since regaining Google, have been with Bing. This week, we dropped 44 points on Bing and Yahoo! for our most important term.
Are there known factors for Bing ranking? If so, can anyone please enlighten me? And does anyone think Bing rankings even matter these days?
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RE: Any value to shoehorning less applicable rich snippets into a page?
Hi,
Jumping in with an additional, related question-
-what do you think about rich snippets for location and/or phone number?
Thanks!
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RE: Linkbuilding actions?
Other than finding site owners of good sites willing to include your link within the content on their site without an exchange, the kinds of links you are describing aren't really your best bet in terms of high quality links that will impact your standing. While these tactics aren't necessarily bad practice per se, they each have their cautions and they won't earn you especially potent links.
Watch out for the link exchange route- only do this within your niche with sites that have an indisputable relevance and connection to what your website is about. Forums are great to participate and learn in, and you stand to develop some strong relationships that way, but don't count on links within the forum to benefit your link portfolio. Same for blog comments even if they are follow links.
What is raising my curiosity the most here, is why your client has website in an industry she or he doesn't know enough about to create content? Is this a new business endeavor in a field they have yet to understand or participate in?
Here's my real answer to your questions:
It's not all about links. Having a successful business and website is about offering something of value.
My best suggestion is for you both to spend your time developing knowledge and confidence to write about kite surfing and related topics. Read like crazy. Research and learn. Gain knowledge and build opinions and a viewpoint to write from. You can write about related topics also- what are kite surfers interested in? Great locations for kite surfing, other related water sports, equipment, lessons, stories about kite surfing experiences, dolphins, beaches, dangers.....
Creating compelling and helpful content and publicizing it on your social accounts and anywhere else you can will give your readers an opportunity to share and link to your site is the way to earn quality links.
Hope this is helpful, Juan.
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RE: Expand your google plus circle
Hi TorontoV,
I'm not sure why you say one cannot promote posts on Google+. Are you talking about paid promotion like in FB? Or are you talking about promoting your Blog posts in G+?
Adding to what Matt said, which is great advice:
In G+, you can promote anything you wish to from your home page or profile. Write the comment, include your link to your post and make it Public and also choose whatever Circles you want it to reach. I find it naturally reaches way more users than FB.
As far as self-promotion inside Communities goes, make sure you check the guidelines of the Community before promoting your own posts. In some Communities, it's frowned upon. You can also write a post specifically asking the modorators what the policy is. Some may delete your post and/or ban you from the Community if they feel you've done it too often. It's important to respect the guidelines if you want to build relationships.
What I have found is that if you participate in Communities in good faith and do your promotions publicly, your fellow Community folks will see your post, know who you are and will more likely click through because you've spent time engaging within the Community. And as you build your Circles, more and more people will see what you post, click through and comment on it. Also, make sure to comment on posts at your Home page level so you are getting to know people you wouldn't ordinarily.
Just keep at it. It takes time, but I have found it to be much more fruitful than FB overall.
Hope this is helpful and not just a bunch of early morning talkativeness.
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RE: Directories in the linkbuilding strategy
If you are focusing any of your strategy on local search there are worthwhile directories to look at using such as Yelp, foursquare, hotfrog, bing, google+, citysearch, superpage, YP, localize, info group. Regardless of the value that comes directly from these links, there are other more indirect but valuable results of being listed and getting reviews on the review directories.
SEOMoz getlisted.org is a great free tool for these.
Also, if there are any reputable niche or industry directories that relate to your business, those are worth investigating.
Hope this helps.
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RE: When Should I Ignore the Error Crawl Report
Hi Christina,
I'm not really the one to answer this kind of question, but I do know that between errors, notices and warnings, errors are the ones that shouldn't be ignored.
The right folks will be able to offer better help if you supply the URLs and/or offer more detailed information. What are the errors? What kinds of pages are they?
You also might want to post the question to a wider group of subjects and be sure to include Reporting.
I'm sure you will get good assistance with this. Good luck!
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RE: Oh my gosh a gender change
I like those! They each work for me.
How about JourniZen?
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RE: Oh my gosh a gender change
That's a really valid point, Chris. There could be some messes to clean up with that kind of imprecise assignment. And who knows, there could be some PC, gender harassment kind of stuff attached to it also. While we're on the subject, there may be some terms that aren't gender specific at all like Voyager but that just doesn't describe it like Journeyman does.
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Oh my gosh a gender change
When I wasn't looking, I became a "Journeyman". Hooray for me, but I kinda liked being female. ;o)
Is there such a thing as a Journeywoman?
(couldn't resist- please excuse me if anyone objects to completely inappropriate "questions")
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RE: Any successes getting SEO/link vendors clean up Penguin-related problems they helped create?
I just want the popcorn. I will donate the slurpee to whoever wants it.
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RE: Any successes getting SEO/link vendors clean up Penguin-related problems they helped create?
I made a request for assistance in getting links that I feel weren't procured in our best interest or within Google's current guidelines. Our vendor offered to use the disavow tool on my behalf saying that was the quickest way, but from everything I've read, this was premature and could due potentially do more harm than good. I turned down their offer. I didn't want to perpetuate their lack of good sense and expertise by continuing to depend on them.
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RE: Email, phone, address on banner
I agree with David. The last thing you want is for your visitors to have to search for how to get in touch. Best rule of thumb- hand that to them on a platter. Make it easy. I also agree that it should be text, not a graphic.
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RE: SERPs recovery? When can I believe it?
Hi Everett,
Thanks for your response. This situation has continued to develop since I posted my question.
Our positions for critical keywords has continued to improve dramatically with yet more improved rankings reported early this week and again yesterday. We're now #1 for 3 keywords, 2 for a couple and 4 for a few more. Increases for additional keywords also.
Positions in Bing and Yahoo have gone up and down by relatively small amounts, mostly down this week but still holding on page 1 for those I care about other than "Gina Fiedel" which dropped 5 for Bing and Yahoo this week down to #14 and up to #6 on Google.
Immediately after I first posted this question, we did change one of the more worrisome site-wide citation links to the name of our company only (removing the keywords from anchor text), but left it in the footer for the time being. -we didn't do more due to internal issues that aren't worth mentioning here or I'll start venting- although, as time has gone by and we're doing so well, I'm afraid to rock the boat even though I know the advice from Russ and Mash was otherwise and I'm kinda embarrassed we haven't gone after it thoroughly yet. I guess I also felt that spacing the removals might make sense. The positions did drop a tiny bit when we did that but bounced back and as I mentioned, are continuing to improve.
Now to answer your question directly, Everett: We never received any messages in GWT and had no proof of penalty-manual or otherwise, so we did not file a reinclusion request. Our company name continued to rank #1 throughout the whole thing. It was only a couple of keywords that were effected. I now feel it may have been a manual penalty for those keywords (see below).More info:
Just prior to the bounce back I found and got removed some inbound links that were really spammy with duplicated content in an article supposedly authored by an employee that never existed, a completely fictitiously named and imaginary person. (thank you http://www.linkdetox.com).I also believe I overused those keywords on our Home page and had obviously re-wrote that right away but further tweaked it just prior to the bounce back.
Probably most importantly is that I started a blog and have been adding thoughtful, quality content and engaging much more on social sites and promoting the blog posts on social sites.
I am happy you chose to respond to my question at this belated time because it's a whopping good reminder of Russ and Mash's (and now yours as well) advice......
Oh! And one more thing! We will not continue putting site-wide footer links on client sites when we launch them. We will NOT be perpetuating that mistake.
Thanks!
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RE: Need help locating a 404 link
Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your time on this.
I just found it. Couldn't use your key command (on a Mac), but went through it more methodically and found one 'true' in column 'D'.
Sorry my eyes weren't sharp enough first time through.
Thanks again.
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RE: Need help locating a 404 link
I'm on a Mac, so can't use Xenu's... :o(
Broken Link Checker finds the link but doesn't give me a clue as to where it's coming from..
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RE: Need help locating a 404 link
Thanks, Lynn.
I exported the csv from the report page that shows the error and also from the drilled down report page and cannot even find the offending link or URL in the csv. It's not showing any 4XX's. They are all "false".
Any thoughts, please?
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Need help locating a 404 link
My reports are showing a 404 error for a link to a page in our WP site for which we changed the URL months ago. I can't find where the link is coming from. I used Screaming Frog, but can't find where it might tell me the origin of the link, only that it exists. I am pretty sure it's internal.
Can someone please tell me how to find the originating page so I can remove the link without having to comb through every page of the site to look for it?
Thanks!
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RE: Blog commenting
Everything Jesse said and...
Ultimately, we are building relationships and also building our authorship. Eventually, that will add to the big picture of earning links.
In my humble opinion, adding thoughtful, relevant comments on blogs benefits the blog owner, their authority and your relationship with them and in turn will eventually do the same for you.
I also notice that it is a good practice arena for continually developing better communication skills which will add to your ability to create great content. Which will, in turn....It's a win win in my opinion.
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RE: Lost Ranking For My Primary Page
Jesse, I really like your webmaster letter instructions. Great attitude and tone. I think I'll have to be a bit nicer next time I need to do it. I wasn't not nice, but I like your idea of extra nice.
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RE: Lost Ranking For My Primary Page
Hi Glenn,
Ouch. That's pretty crummy.
I'm curious is those links have as the anchor text the keywords in question. That may be an important point. But even if they are not causing the current situation, it can't be good to leave intact for the future.
Linkdetox doesn't remove links. It points them out to you and provides an email contact in many cases. Then, it's up to you to follow through and write to the webmaster.
I recommend doing that step and supplementing by visiting the site and leaving a contact request there as well by using whatever contact method they supply. Include as much info as you can- i copied and pasted some of the offending material in my requests. And then cross your fingers. My experience has been that most of these requests fall on dead ears or no ears.
The other critical piece is to keep a detailed record of your efforts in case (i hope this won't be necessary) you need to plead your case to Google in a reconsideration. Not sure if this is a scenario that this would come up, but it's best to be prepared.
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RE: Lost Ranking For My Primary Page
Gosh, Glenn. That is exactly how it was for us. Just 2 keywords dropped. Everything else was the same.
As I said, I don't know exactly what fixed mine, but one thing I did not long before the listing reappeared, was to use http://www.linkdetox.com.
I located one really bizarre link on an article submission site that I did not do myself, that had duplicate content to an article on my site and fictitious author names. I got it removed. I was doing other things simultaneously, but there's a chance that was it even though I'm not sure it had the keywords as anchor text.
Give link detox a try just in case.
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RE: Lost Ranking For My Primary Page
Hi Glen,
This has a familiar ring to it regarding my own experience with On-Page Reports. In fact, it brings up a caution I'd like to share with fellow MOZers, especially newly arrived folks. Watch out for those report cards. They are seductive and can be harmful if one over-focuses on them.
When I first subscribed to SEOMOZ, I had seen a small drop in my SERPs for the most critical keyword for my Home page.
I just loved those on-page reports because they addressed something I felt I had some control over and was familiar with executing. They offered something I could DO when i didnt understand what was happening. I went a little overboard trying to get 'A's' on my reports. And with each slight position SERP improvement, I got more greedy and did more. And I succeeded with getting A's.
AND/BUT as a result (or at least partially), my page dropped completely out of sight to "not in the top 50". But those keywords had A's! I now believe I overstuffed those keywords and while for a week or so, it improved my ranking, it then settled down to a completely plummeted spot. I now think i I had gone over the line.
In reality, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise (lost business aside) because it forced me to learn a whole bunch of good stuff and to get off my butt on things I'd procrastinated.
My rankings are back and I'll never know the exact cause of the drop, but I no longer look for high grades on my Reportcards. In fact, even with my rankings back, I think the grades are pretty stinky. I now have a 'C' for that term (and even an F for a term ranking OK) and that's just fine.
The point of this story is that it's better to focus on developing great content, publisize it on your social accounts and work towards earning quality links. The grades don't mean as much as you may think.
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RE: Guest blogging & duplicate content
My cat's cuter than your cat. (or he used to be before he died)
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RE: Guest blogging & duplicate content
Thank you everyone. So glad my un-embarrassed part convinced my embarrassed part to just dive in and ask the question. This was all a lot of help. And because I'm in a bit of that cycle you describe, Philip, I have some second-line questions now.
Tom, I just love that the part in my question that was most poignant to you was the concern I have towards the hosting blogger. Seems to me if the generosity is extended by an invitation or acceptance, it's important to consider whatever consequences there could potentially be created by our actions. That stuck out in your response.
Also Tom, you bring up something else that I've been "confused" about: syndicated content. Here I go again with the potentially embarrassing questions:
- What is the difference between duplicated content vs syndicated content?
- Why is syndicated not considered duplicated?
- And then there's....for instance, the old, now dangerous practice of article submissions which creates duplicated content if that same content or article is on your website. How is that not considered syndicated? Does it simply rely on the basic intent of the site you are submitting the article to?
One more: please tell me if I'm getting this correctly and which would be best. If one were to guest blog and believe the content would be especially relevant to their own followers it's OK to post the same post on their own blog but best to noindex OR rel=cononical it passing up potential juice for yourself, but still getting to offer up the content.
Using snippets makes sense. I've been doing those across the board for my own blog and have occasionally wondered if any of that could be considered duplicate content if I use a quote from the blog post or if I repeat the same snippet...does any of that matter?
Once again, Thank You. I love getting help and really appreciate it.