Q&A: Will article syndication hurt my site's search rankings?

QUESTION: I've heard of a "duplicate content penalty" if articles from my site appear elsewhere. Does this mean when I submit articles to www.ezinearticles.com that the sites downloading and displaying my articles are actually lowering my stats in search engines such as Google?

I want to promote my book's Web site more, but I certainly don't want to harm it by doing the wrong thing.

ANSWER: There's no one-size-fits-all answer here. It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. And there are a lot of moving parts: Google and the other search engines are constantly changing their business practices.

Some search-engine optimization experts believe article syndication indeed results in a duplicate content penalty, while other experts insist that the "penalty" is a myth. Only you will be able to decide which applies in your case.

There's nothing inherently wrong with submitting articles to ezinarticles.com and the similar content sites (or blogs). Generally, online content syndication is a good form of free advertising. Remember, though, if the content you syndicate is substantially the same as something that appears on your site, Google may put your page into its "supplemental" index. And then, most searchers won't find that content on your site, they'll find it elsewhere.

So, what's the problem? Maybe nothing. But depending on your situation, here are a few potential pitfalls:

• The reader won't be able to easily discover the other content that appears on your site. (Your syndicated article may have a link back to your domain, but there is no guarantee that the reader will follow it. They may be distracted by the advertising or other content on ezinearticles.com or elsewhere.)

• Perhaps you have advertising or affiliate programs on your site that generate revenue. If your online readers are consuming your content elsewhere, they won't be exposed to the advertising and other marketing that you control.

• A reader who comes to your site is much more likely to subscribe to your RSS feed or e-mail newsletter than someone who consumes your content elsewhere. For some publishers, capturing that repeat reader or registering the e-mail address may be crucial to their business. Having that regular readership enables you to continually introduce new books or advertising programs, and benefit more from the effort put into creating content for your site.

Now, on the other hand, certain publishers might not mind the duplicate content "penalty" at all. Here's one example I can imagine: Let's say next month "ABC Books Inc." releases a biography of a singing star popular with teens. ABC Books is the first to market with a product about the singer. The book will probably sell strongly for a year or two. After that, there will probably be more competing books or (more likely) the singer will have faded from public view. In this case, ABC Books would be smart to hype the book now in every possible way, including content syndication. Teens who were interested in the book would likely purchase it, regardless of how they learned about it. Whether they discover ABC Books' Web site is inconsequential.

So it's a balancing act: How likely is it that you can prompt the reader of your online content to take the desired action with the words in your article alone? Is capturing their attention for a few moments and mentioning your title sufficient? Then you can probably accomplish this with article syndication.

But let's imagine another case. "Author X" is an author and a business consultant. People pay good money to hear this author speak at conferences, and they're willing to buy the author's other products, like audiotapes and DVDs. Readers might even be interested in hiring the author for one-on-one consulting. This author really benefits from being able to initiate a relationship with new readers. That's hard to do with an article syndication site. Sure, your syndicated article will have a link back to your site. But how do you know the reader is going to follow the link? It's just as likely they'll be distracted by other competing content or advertising on that other site.

Personally, I take a middle-of-the-road approach. I recycle some of the articles I put on my blog at other places -- such as MySpace, Gather.com, and ezinearticles.com. And then (where possible) I have a signup procedure on my syndicated articles with this language "If you like my articles, sign up here to receive them via e-mail." So, with some of my content, I'm degrading the SEO for my site. But at the same time I'm adding regular readers who might not have discovered my site otherwise.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors