Hey All....

So Im maintaining a very large network of websites. My thought it to have a few 'authority' type sites and try and direct my links towards those three sites. I was thinking of adding a library of articles.

Would it work if I included those articles on the smaller sites linking to the authority sites? Is it bad if the same article appears on different websites? I could set it up almost like a feed if that is better.


Thanks

Critter

Is it bad if the same article appears on different websites?

Hi Critter,

Articles can and do appear on multiple sites. The only problem is the duplicate content. The duplicate content IMO is not a penalty but one page may show well in the SERPs while the other is buried. You run the risk of which page will be displayed. If you are running the articles on your own sites then you may want to have them on the main site, and then show a snippet with a link from the secondary sites.

Is it bad if the same article appears on different websites?

From my experience, if the same articles are on different websites it will work as long as the content of the website is different. Since they will be part of a network of sites you own instead of other websites you sent the articles to, I would suggest making each website as individual as possible in terms of content to avoid any problems with duplicate content. If there is any way to vary the articles you have on each site that focus on the topic of that website, this would be even better.

I have noticed some of my articles which appear on about a half dozen sites or so all appear in the search results. just the layout differences between sites and whatnot currently seem to be enough to make each page unique in the eyes of a search engine.

when you get links back into your sites in the author box try to get your keywords in the link text.

articles are good for a couple reasons:

them being posted on other sites makes you look like an authority to the reader.
some other sites have a large reader base.
each site that hosts the article may be on different hosting blocks and adds independant votes back to the main sites.

if you have a huge network of sites make sure that you register domains via proxy and that you get a significant amount of external links from outside your sites to link into your network.

Articles can also publicize your business, possibly generating business from those new readers.

Hi
What about webrings? Are they any good for links?

http://x.webring.com Is there any point in joining any more than one web ring on this site?

The sites in the web rings should be amenable to reciprocal links?

jampers

webrings are groups of people that link together in a common industry.

i do not think they usually are programmed to provide links, and often even if they did it would not interest me.

the two main reasons i do not use them are

1.) they often look a bit unprofessional or mess up the site design
2.) i usually do not like to trade traffic with other random site
3.) the only way i could guarantee the other sites were not random is if I maintained the ring
4.) if I am maintaining the ring why not just trade links with the people?

webrings may work well for some niches, but not on all.

Hi
What about webrings? Are they any good for links?

http://x.webring.com Is there any point in joining any more than one web ring on this site?

The sites in the web rings should be amenable to reciprocal links?

jampers


Re: asking forum members to join the webring. It's not exactly 'unethical', but we discourage doing it in the topical dicussion forum.

Jampers, you may feel free to post this type of request in the Padded Room. Tell members to PM you if they are interested.