08/06/2017
What you Need to Know about Re-Publishing Content on LinkedIn or Medium
Have you written a great article that you want to re-publish of LinkedIn or Medium? Whilst there are some benefits to this, there are also some risks.
Have you written an article that you want to share with more people? Maybe you think it will benefit more people, or you are looking to get more traffic to your website. It takes dedication and skill to write a really great article which is informative, interesting, gives your website a higher ranking and increases traffic to your website.
So you wouldn't want to waste it.
By re-publishing your article on another site or blog such as LinkedIn or Medium, you can successfully give your article more reach, and ultimately get more people knowing about you and your business.
As well as the obvious benefits of re-publishing content on LinkedIn or Medium, there are also some risks attached. The main risk is that you can lose traffic and are in danger of being penalised for publishing duplicate content – and this can send you way down the Google rankings, jeopardising all of the work that you have put in to writing and publishing the article in the first place, and potentially affecting your website`s search rankings in the future.
So, bearing this is mind, how can you limit the risks that are associated with re-publishing an article of LinkedIn or Medium and see it working for you and your website?
Duplicate Content and Loss of Site Traffic
To be able to cut the risk of being penalised for duplicate content and losing site traffic it is important to understand what the rules are, and how to create your content and re-publish with these rules in mind.
The main problem with posting your article on a site such as LinkedIn or Medium is that it is more than likely that they have a higher authority than your site and therefore will appear in the search listings higher that your website.
In addition to this problem, your site could then be penalised for having duplicate content – having been `copied` from a site with more authority such as medium or LinkedIn.
According to Google - “If you syndicate your content on other sites, Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you'd prefer. However, it is helpful to ensure that each site on which your content is syndicated includes a link back to your original article. You can also ask those who use your syndicated material to use the noindex meta tag to prevent search engines from indexing their version of the content.”
Reducing the Risks
There are a number of ways that you can begin to reduce the risks that you run when re-publishing an article on a site which probably has a higher authority than yours – such as LinkedIn or Medium.
- Don't Publish Straightaway – Even if you are intending to publish your content in various places, don`t publish them all at the same time. This can confuse Google and make it difficult to decide which version they are going to index. It is recommended that you wait at least two weeks before re-publishing any content.
- Give readers a taste – If you are publishing your article on another site you need to find a way to direct readers to your site for you to be able to take advantage of the extra reach. One good way of doing this, which also helps to eliminate duplicate content is to publish just the first couple of paragraphs, followed by a `read more` link, which will take people directly through to your website.
- Think about who you`re aiming at – When you are deciding where to re-post your article it is important that you know who your target it. Firstly, this will help you to decide where you are going to re-publish – for example, the LinkedIn user profile is different to that of Medium. It isn’t recommended that you re-publish every single article that you write – stick to those which you think have the biggest reach and potential for the most shares, as well as articles which were already being successful after the first publication.
- Re-Write if Necessary – A fool-proof way of avoiding duplicate content is to re-write the article ensure that you don`t copy any text directly. This also gives you the chance to tailor your article to the exact audience that you are looking at presenting it to, changing the vocabulary and writing style if need be.
- Choose the right account – Make sure that you publish your article from the right account. For example, if you are writing an article giving your personal opinion, or about something personal that happened to you, consider publishing it from your persona account. If, however, it is more of a business opinion, something technical or more fact-based, you should think about publishing the article from your business account.
- Use rel=canonical link – By using rel=canonical link, you are telling the search engine which site is responsible for the article. For example, a link such as <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.yourcompany/blog/thebest/” /> will tell the search engine that `yourcompany` should be given the credit for that particular article. If you use the `import` button on Medium (and not just copy and paste your article), they will automatically add this in. They will also add a link at the end which will prove that yours was the original.
- Add Links and Optimise – It is always important to add more links to pages within your website and make sure that it is optimised at all times.
- Make some changes – Another way to cut out the risk of duplicate content is by making small changes, such as to the headlines or changing the photos that you use – make sure that you are legally using photos and not just one which you have found on the internet.
Of course, the best way to ensure that you don`t have duplicate content is by only using 100% original content. But it is possible – and with these tips you can be well on your way to a higher reach and consequently more traffic for your website without upsetting the search engines or lowering your traffic.
If you think that we can help you in avoiding duplicate content and helping to drive unprecedented amounts of traffic to your website, why not get in touch with Studioworx today – either by visiting our website https://www.studioworx.co.uk, calling us on +44 (0)1482 659 362 or sending us an [email protected].