UPDATE: Please make sure to read the comments for this post as they provide you with a more nuanced description of what actually happens. Seems I kinda jumped the gun on this one.Â
Yes, apparently so.
A few people I know have recently decided to stop feeding content from their blogs into their profiles on social networks.
I have considered doing the same for a while, seeing as duplicating could very well lead to a ban from almighty Google, but so far, I’m still duplicating.
Why, you may ask?
Well, the main resaon is that I like being a part of different contexts online. As a person who works with the internet and is passionate about social software, I feel obligated to being so. Also, I communicate with a lot of different people who seem to prefer different services for reading and writing content. That being said, there is no way in hell I can find the time to think up original content specifically for each service – and why should I? If I find something interesting, I should put it right here, right – on my own blog?
Therefore, I feed my content into various services, and cross my fingers. So far, I haven’t been banned by Google, and incidentally, I might add that the main drivers of traffic for appoulsen.dk are exactly the networks that I feed my content into. So if I decided to cater to the wishes of Google I might actually lose readers. And I don’t want that now, do I?
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5 Comments
Stop! Google doesn’t ban you for publishing same content on several url’s. Google just (sometimes) removes the duplicate content from their index, leaving one version intact.
You don’t get banned – but you might disappear in Google – and the problem is Andreas – (do correct me if I am wrong?) that there is no way of telling if Google will remove the content from one site or the other? I mean – I really like kforum – but not enough to give them credit for all my writings?
Otherwise I totally agree with Asbjørn – it is fine to be visible in more than one context
Sorry for the poor choice of words. I stand corrected. Should’ve written something along the lines of ‘duplicating could very well lead to Google only indexing one version of my content – without me having an influence on which one’. Thanx for the clarification.
Adding to your note about what drives trafic, could it actually be that some forums are more important and/or relevant to what you do and thus to be in than being on Google with ones own site ? And thus provide the justification for duplicating away? I know the thought about ditching – or down prioritizing – all mighty Google might be hideous, but still?…
At least from my P.O.V. there are networks that are way more important to me than searches, but then again – I’m not running a business from this site – I like to think I’m sparring with fellow web-afficionados and engaging in conversations with friends – so I guess it very much depends.