Do you feel a little anxious and wonder what will happen if your site is penalized for duplicate content? Maybe your site gets shut down or it gets deindexed by the search engines and no one can find you online anymore.

Since you’re reading this article, I’m willing to bet you don’t engage in any “black hat” SEO practices. I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to worry about being shut down by Google. This is particularly true about the content you repurpose and post on platforms other than your own site.

When I shared the results from my recent survey on repurposing content, I mentioned that after “lack of time,” the “fear of duplicate content” was cited by a high percentage of respondents.

During a guest spot on MaAnna Stephenson’s #WPBlab show, we discussed repurposing content and a viewer asked about issues with duplicate content when I mentioned republishing blog posts on LinkedIn. Here’s that clip:

(You can watch the entire show here.)

As you heard, there is no penalty for posting your content both on your blog and then on other platforms. This has been tested by many SEO experts.

The myth of duplicate content

The myth and fear of duplicate content penalties has been around for years. Yet, for years, Google has been telling us that it’s not a something you have to be worried about. The most egregious examples of duplicate content are usually related to people trying to game the system by creating many pages with the same or similar content to funnel people to their sales pages. But Google is smart and knows the games. 

They’re not trying to shut you down. You, the expert in your niche. You, who want to leverage the content you’ve worked so hard to create and want to get in front of new audiences.

If you can handle the tech-speak, here’s Google’s own statement on how to handle duplicate content:

Pay specific attention to the part I highlighted. You can read the complete article here.

Click Here to Get Your Free Repurposing Checklist

I’ve been using a couple different terms and want to make sure you’re clear on the difference between syndication and repurposing, as I mentioned in my article Repurposing Your Content – 13 Ways to Reach More People:

For example, when you copy the content from a blog post and repurpose it word for word on LinkedIn Publishing or Medium, that is syndication. When you do that, make sure to include a link at the end of the article letting the reader (and Google) know, that the original was posted on your site. Link to the actual article, not your home page.

Reformating that blog post into a slide deck and posting it on SlideShare, is an example of content repurposing. You can link to the original post for more details or another call to action.

Now, how to you feel about repurposing your content? I sincerely hope your fears of duplicate content penalties have been dispelled. If you want your expertise to be seen more widely so you can attract more people to your message, then, I urge you to integrate some repurposing into your content marketing strategy. 

Learn more about duplicate content

And, if you’re still concerned, here are some articles I found that explain the myths of duplicate content penalties:

Google’s Matt Cutts: Duplicate Content Won’t Hurt You, Unless It Is Spammy

Syndicated Content: Why, When & How

The Big Question: Does Duplicate Content Hurt You on Google?

What repurposing tactics are you going to experiment with now? Start with one. Make it a habit. Track your results. Then, try a new tactic. Easy!

The post Do You Suffer From a Fear of Duplicate Content? appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

Following is a guest post by my colleague, Dr. Rachna Jain, co-presenter for From Platform to Profit.

Content syndication is one of the missing pieces in most small business owners’ marketing blueprints. This, I believe, is because many people don’t know what content syndication is, how to do it, or why it even matters. 

1. It puts you in front of new people who might become clients. When you share your content consistently and strategically in social media, you will likely attract new potential clients.
2. It’s a way of creating leverage in your business. You can use technology to put you in front of hundreds or thousands of people much more quickly and inexpensively than it would take you to meet with each of those people individually. 
3. It builds your expert status. When people keep seeing and hearing about you everywhere, they naturally begin to view you as an authority. This, in turn, can create more opportunities for you in your business. 

So if you’re not yet utilizing content syndication as a regular part of your business, it’s time to give this serious consideration. And if you’d like some help getting started, please join Denise Wakeman and me for our new training: From Platform to Profit.

Denise here. Send me a tweet to let me know you read this post. Click the button below.

Tweet to @DeniseWakeman

About the Author: Dr. Rachna Jain is the founder of Profitable Popularity.  Rachna works with speakers, consultants, authors, and small business owners to develop and execute effective social media marketing  strategies. Her proprietary persuasive social media  process (sm) focuses on building influence, credibility and  visibility online. This translates into greater recognition, increased  website traffic, faster lead generation, a shorter sales cycle, and  more opportunity for her expert clientele. She blogs regularly at Profitable Popularity.

The post 3 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Content Syndication appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

(5:12 min)

Content syndication is a hot topic in social media, and there is a lot of confusion about what it is, and how to do it. In the most basic sense, content syndication refers to the process of efficiently distributing your content around the internet. Since effective content syndication does require a little bit of technical know-how, most people's eyes glaze over when they hear about it. The problem is that if you're ignoring the power of content syndication, you are only getting about 1/3rd of the value from your social media efforts as you could be.

Done correctly, content syndication can help you accomplish four main business goals.

1. It can help you generate more targeted visitors to your website and blog
2. it can help you improve your search engine positioning
3. it can help you build your following
4. it can build your expert status

All of these are valuable outcomes for a process which doesn't really take a lot of time.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is in creating content (for their sites, blogs, teleseminars or trainings) and then only using the content one or two times. This means that your time to create the content is only paying off minimally.

Far better to repurpose your content into multiple formats, and be able to use it multiple ways, so that you are getting maximum value from the time you spend creating the material in the first place. Repurposing efficiently and regularly is one of the key underpinnings of an effective content syndication strategy.

An example of repurposing your content would be to take a written blog post, convert to an audio (see audio option above – instant podcast), turn to a slideshow, and then convert to a video. Your one blog post then becomes deployable in multiple formats, and can be sent out to the various article, audio, and video sites. So, in essence, you get four times the value for your content. There are multiple other ways to repurpose your content, and you'll find, as I have, that once you get good at doing it, it's kind of addictive.

So now that you understand the background of content syndication, let's look at three easy ways you can get started:

1) Make use of RSS. RSS stands for "really simple syndication" and is one of the easiest and fastest ways to start syndicating your content. RSS is a technology which takes your content and puts it into a special format (you don't need the details) so that the content can be shared easily and republished across the internet. The majority of the open social sites use RSS. You can find the link to your RSS feed by searching for the RSS icon, which often looks like the icon at the beginning of this paragraph. Sometimes it's colored differently, but this symbol denotes the RSS feed. What the RSS feed represents is an aggregated container of that content. 

To actually start using RSS, you can take your RSS feeds (such as from your blog) and submit these to RSS search engines, such as Bloglines, Blogpulse, DayPop, and Feedster. (There are many others, this is just a partial list.) The idea is that the RSS format allows for content to be deployed and shared in a consistent and standardized way. When submitting your blog's RSS feed to these search engines, you are increasing the likelihood of your content being found, and, also, potentially giving others the option to republish your content with attribution to your site.

You can also submit RSS feeds from your Twitter account, as well as other social sites. There are specialized software programs that can help you rapidly submit your RSS feeds as well.

RSS submission is one of the easiest ways to get started with content syndication.

2) A second strategy for getting started with content syndication is to send your blog updates to your Twitter feed. If your blog is built on WordPress, you can configure a plugin such as Twitter Tools to send blog posts to your Twitterfeed. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site, especially if your titles are compelling, and you don't overtweet your new content. Since Twitter updates are searchable, you can find yourself getting first page ranking in Google for your content. This listing may not last, as tweets are constantly updated, but it's a good way to get your content out in front of more people.

3) A third simple strategy for content syndication is to import your blog posts into Facebook and Linked In. You can use the Notes application in Facebook to get your blog posts publishing in there, and you can use the WordPress application in LinkedIn to get your blog content published there as well. Again, if you focus on highly relevant content, and use strong titles, you will see clickthroughs to your site. Importing your content into these sites also helps establish your expertise and credibility, and can grow your brand following. [Update: it's no longer recommended to auto syndicate your content to Facebook, since automation is devalued by Facebook. Manually posting your blog links will generate more visibility for your content.]

While there are many other content syndication strategies you can use, these are three solid strategies to get you started. As you invest more fully in content syndication, you'll find that your online following grows, that you get more opportunities, and generate more leads into your business.

Content syndication is an important step in the chain of social media profitability. Get started using it today.

© Dr. Rachna Jain 

Dr. Rachna Jain is Chief Social Marketer at The Mindshare Corporation.  Rachna works with speakers, consultants, authors, and small business owners to develop and execute effective social media marketing  strategies. Her proprietary persuasive social media  process (sm) focuses on building influence, credibility and  visibility online. This translates into greater recognition, increased  website traffic, faster lead generation, a shorter sales cycle, and  more opportunity for her expert clientele. She blogs regularly at Profitable Popularity.

You can see this is the tip of the iceberg as far as content syndication goes. Learn how you can dominate your niche with content syndication!

This post was originally published on Build a Better Blog.

The post The Basics of Content Syndication [guest post] appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.