One of the major problems online is duplicate content. Google has warned us numerous times about keeping content unique and with the recent updates duplicate content sites have seen a huge drop in their rankings. However, even if you’re a website that published the most relevant high quality content, you can still fall victim to non-duplicate content. For example, this problem is linked directly with “guest posting†and NOT making it clear that you own the content. Even though it’s hard to control who copy and pastes your content on multiple sites, it’s much easier to control guest bloggers on your site from doing it. I’ve been guest posting on a handful of blogs and never post my content anywhere else. Why? First, it’s been made clear that once I submit the blog owner has complete control over it. Next, I’ll gain very little by pasting unoriginal content on other websites. For example,
- Lose guest blogging opportunity
- Some blog owners pay per post so that’s money down the drain
- Credibility goes down the drain
For someone like me who is trying to build a brand the last thing I want to do is destroy it by accepting and publishing unoriginal content. However, there are some authors that don’t care and will write a guest post then start publishing the same piece of content on their own site or even on other people’s sites.
Let’s jump into the basics…
Rule #2- Own Your Content
It’s hard to moderate content submitted then published on your website. However, there are some proactive steps you can take to avoid falling victim to duplicate content before and after publishing. I own “4†article directories and do the following before publishing content.
First, copy and paste paragraph in Google with quotation marks around entire text and this will display any results that currently have the EXACT same paragraph. This is a much lengthier process compared to using a plagiarism tool like: smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker. This toll will allow you to analyze text up to 1,500 words and will display the % unique. However the problem is NOT really with checking content before publishing as it is checking after.
There is NO alert that tells you when duplicate content has been detected once it’s published. I tried to utilize this plug-in by WordPress: Plagiarism – which checks your contents (posts and pages) against the web for in-advertant duplicate content before postings. However, this plug-in did a poor job of detecting tests which I conducted using duplicate content. I was left doing audits on my own…
How to Perform Audits – Manually
This is a very lengthy process as it’s performed manually. However, if you’re going to be accepting guests’ posts you need to start performing them. The length it takes will depend on how many guest posts you have published on your site. First, it’s important you let the author know duplicate content will NOT be tolerated and this will lead to termination of future guest blogging opportunities. If the author is series then they’ll have no problem keeping submitted content unique. However, you do have those that are in it for the short haul. Follow these steps going forward…
First, you can periodically go through a list of guest posts selecting them and then performing a search either Google or using a plagiarism check. This method requires you manually doing searches and checks which is why it’s best spread over a couple of weeks. The good news with this method is by the time you come around to certain guest posts they would have been indexed by Google and will display duplicate content if detected. Next,
How to Perform Audits – Automatically
I came a across a cool tool that would perform a complete site audit. However, it is bit pricing and won’t be an option for those with little money to invest. Raven Tools site auditor finds and reports on pages that have duplicate content and will display the results in an easy to understand control panel. You can then go through re-checking them and take the steps necessary to remove post and user from publishing again.
There is a cheaper method which is buying a simple Fiverr.com gig for $5. I have yet to check out how well they work, but from the reviews, the seller seems to do a great job. The gig will analyze all your web pages looking for broken links, duplicate content, canonical issues and all other errors that can cause problems with search engines. The gig sends you a complete report that you can analyze and take the necessary actions to remove author and content from your blog.
Do a quick search in Fiverr.com for “check for duplicate content†and you’ll get a list of gigs relevant to your search.
Wrapping It Up…
Accepting guest posts for your blog is a great way to engage your audience with unique content. You have fresh ideas that are great to build your brand. However, you do need to keep a close eye on some of your authors who are newbie’s because they might NOT have the right intentions in mind. The good news is that once you find a handful of credible bloggers you can keep them in rotation knowing that their content is original and high quality.