8 replies to this topic

[DJKay]

We are a specialized information publisher. We have several sites and products all around a specific set of information that applies to a type of technology. We have one product where we have third party vetted articles/knowledge base. We also have another product which is an online community that serves the technology professionals that work with this technology.

We are piping in content from the online knowledgebases to the articles/publications part of the community site. We have canonical link rels on the article content in our online knowledgebase sites. We don't yet have canonical link rels on the content being piped into the online community. So I need some opinions on the following:

1) Are we going to get hurt by piping in the content via a duplicate content penalty? Its already ours we are just using it on another site of ours. I don't think its a big deal but I promised I would ask, I just want to get it right.

2) If we put canonical link rels on the content that is being piped in from the knowledgebases to the online community, will it cause the community site to drop in rankings [I don't think so..there are so many things that effect site rankings, but I promised I would get another opinion]

My real concern here is protecting the content so it does not get scraped and then end up in the serps under a domain that is not ours which gets ranked higher than one of our domains.

Thanks in advance. DJKay

[Jill]

Are we going to get hurt by piping in the content via a duplicate content penalty?

No. There's no such thing as a duplicate content penalty.

If we put canonical link rels on the content that is being piped in from the knowledgebases to the online community, will it cause the community site to drop in rankings

If I understand you correctly, it will cause the knowledgebase content to not be indexed. Only the online community content will be.

[DJKay]

No. There's no such thing as a duplicate content penalty.
If I understand you correctly, it will cause the knowledgebase content to not be indexed. Only the online community content will be.

No, the knowledge base content is indexed [they are actually what we call article abstracts], they are not the full article. You cannot get the full article unless you are logged in to the knowledge base. The content we are piping into the online community are the article abstracts from the online knowledge bases.

In reading your post, are you saying that if we put canonical link rels on the article abstracts being piped from the knowledge base to the online community that they will not be indexed as part of the community site? That is my understanding of it...because if we do it, the canonical link rel attributes/authenticates that the content to the online knowledgebase site.

Thanks in advance for helping me make sure I understand this correctly. DJKay

Edited by DJKay, 14 June 2011 - 02:16 PM.

[Jill]

I'm still confused.

Will the canonical link element tell Google that the true URL is the knowledge base abstract URL or the community site URL?

[DJKay]

I'm still confused.

Will the canonical link element tell Google that the true URL is the knowledge base abstract URL or the community site URL?

Right now, the canonical link element is on the knowledge bases.

We have not as of yet, applied canonical link rels to the article abstracts that are being pulled into the articles section of the community site. So, will we hurt the ranking of the community site by applying the canonical link rels to the articles (attributed back to the knowledgebases) pulled in there?

Is it something to be concerned about? What are the pros and cons?

Sorry..it took so long to get back to you, its been a busy last few days. Thanks in advance. DJKay

[Jill]

So, will we hurt the ranking of the community site by applying the canonical link rels to the articles (attributed back to the knowledgebases) pulled in there?

They will not be able to be indexed if you're telling Google that their true existence is the knowledge base URL. That's the whole point of the canonical.

[DJKay]

They will not be able to be indexed if you're telling Google that their true existence is the knowledge base URL. That's the whole point of the canonical.

Okay, got that they won't be indexed when the crawler comes to the online community if we put them on the article abstracts in the community. I guess the question is does it hurt the community site? Again, they are all our sites. Its all our content but will the community site take a hit?

Are you intimating that it just won't get 'attributed' to the community but won't cause the community site to take a hit? Email/forum communication is tricky some times? Or maybe your answer is your not sure? That's okay, I am not sure either and its why I am asking the question...in the end, we are going to need to test it probably.

Maybe another way to ask the question...is...if you had your SEO/SEM articles on a different domain [not highrankings.com] , in a knowledge base, where you sold subscriptions to that knowledge base [ a product idea for you I am sure you already thought of at some time or another ] and you wanted to have a section in this forum where you piped in the content, would you put a canonical link rel on the articles that you were piping in to the forum? Would you not worry about it and just do it?

Again..I do appreciate you posting back and forth, all insights, comments and feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance. DJKay

Edited by DJKay, 17 June 2011 - 12:47 PM.

[Jill]

It will hurt it in the sense that it's pages won't be indexed. The canonical link element is like a redirect.

Would I do it in a similar situation? I can't think of of any reason why it would be the smart way to do things, but I'm still not sure I'm following you correctly.

Why do are you even considering it. Are you mistakenly thinking there's a dupe content penalty?

[DJKay]

I am not sure what 'it' is. If you are asking why we would put canonical link rels on the article abstracts being piped in to the online community, because it belongs to the knowledge base site.

So, I think your saying NOT to put canonical link rels on the article abstracts being piped in from the knowledgebase to the online community. Okay, Thanks.