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Duplicate Content and Outside Blogs

If you don't care to read about all the technical details below, just set up your Outside Blog on a custom domain (ie, jonwashburn.com), not just a sub-domain (jon.activerain.com) and trust us that it's going to kick SEO butt. For those of you who like first hand info, here you go.

In case you haven't heard, we launched outside blogs yesterday, June 25th, 2008. We are really excited to have a platform that our members can utilize to seamlessly syndicate their content across multiple domains, allows for individual branding and at the same time exposes their content to high volumes of traffic. A common question surrounding the release of Outside Blogs centers on the issue of duplicate content, how the search engines handle duplicate content (specifically Google), and how we will structure both your ActiveRain blogs and your outside blogs to provide you the most exposure.

First, let's clear up a little bit of terminology. There are four seperate places that your blog post can show up.

Your ActiveRain blog (activerain.com/blogs/arbob)
Localism
Sub-domain blog (activebob.activerain.com)
Outside Blog (jonwashburn.com)

This part is VERY IMPORTANT and will take care of duplicate content for one of the four. We will be adding no-index tags to all sub-domain blogs. Considering the SEO power of ActiveRain.com, sub-domains will not perform as well as your primary domain for the purposes of search engine placement. With that in mind, it makes little sense to have the content showing up on a sub-domain (i.e., activebob.activerain.com) and have the sub-domain indexed, rather than the content be indexed on the primary domain (activerain.com/arbob). Therefore, the primary purpose of a sub-domain will be strictly for offline branding. But in all cases, a custom, member-owned domain will serve that purpose even better. As such, we really encourage our members to invest the $8 to get your own custom domain set up.

Now we are left with three places that your blog post will show up. There is lots of information about how google handles duplicate content and what it will look at to determine what will show up in the search results. As it relates to what will be happening on ActiveRain/Localism/Outside Blogs we want to look at what Google identifies as the originating source. Here is an excerpt from the Google Webmaster Blog from June 9th of 2008:

In cases when you are syndicating your content but also want to make sure your site is identified as the original source,it's useful to ask your syndication partners to include a link back to your original content.

(There is also a great article written by Vanessa Fox, formerly of Google, about ranking as the original source for content you syndicate.)

We can tell Google what the originating source is. What do you want to be the originating source and what do you want Google to index? It will be up to you. Here is how it will work:

Originating Source is:

ActiveRain: If you don't syndicate your post to your outside blog, and you don't geo-target it so that it shows up on Localism, ActiveRain will get credit as the originating source, because the post won't show up anywhere else.

Outside Blog: If you syndicate your post to your outside blog and you do not geo-target it, your outside blog will show up as the originating source. (since the post is not geo-targeted, it will not appear on Localism). Your syndication partner (your ActiveRain blog) will have a link back to your original content (outside blog)

Localism: If you Geo-tag your post, Localism will be credited as the original source; your ActiveRain blog and your outside blog will link back to the post on Localism, indicating to Google that Localism is the original source. (If you've made it this far, you're probably wondering why the heck you would want the current version of Localism as your original source. If you can keep a secret...the new Localism might be coming out the second week in July...but I'll deny it if you tell anyone)

You control it!

Posted by Bob Stewart - ActiveRain on 06/26/2008 05:44 PM

Comments (145)

outside blogs, duplicate content

Originally posted at: ActiveBob.....It's always Raining!: Duplicate Content and Outside Blogs

Post is included in group: Outside Blogs

145 Comments on Duplicate Content and Outside Blogs

JUN

2008

Geez, I'm going to have to get my head around this stuff. I've learned a lot about SEO in my time on AR but have a looooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg way to go. I need to hire one of you folks as my 'in-house techie'. Thanks for the info Bob.

Bob, I tried to set it up this morning and followed the instructions using my own domain for pointing the nameservers, but when I click on my domain name, it takes me to the Localism homepage, not my outside blog. Any help? Or should I be bugging Brad?

I am still trying to understand it but I guess I have to put my hands on this..This is great! now I have to keep busy again..Thanks!

"I need to hire one of you folks as my 'in-house techie'"

Jason, When you signed up for ActiveRain you got our whole team as your in house techies. And the best news is that we charge $0 per hour.

I'd encourage people interested to read the two google posts linked to from within Bob's post. There are a lot of misconceptions about duplicate content and duplicate content "penalties". It's really just in the search engines best interest to only include one copy of a piece of content and to make the determination which copy to include.

http://www.vanessafoxnude.com/2008/05/14/ranking-as-the-original-source-for-content-you-syndicate/

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/duplicate-content-due-to-scrapers.html

Thank you for the info, I'm bookmarking to go over it later. You guys make it so easy, thanks so much!!!!

Thanks for clarifying, appreciate it

I have a blog on my website from word press

would this be considered an outside blog or do I open a whole different can of worms

between wordpress and Ar ???

should I just go to go daddy and register one?

looking forward to the answer

Thank you in advance

Anne Hensel

Bob....read this 3 times and my eyes are crossing....

I thought I was smart until I read that article. I have ALOT of homework to do. Thanks for posting!

Dena Roberts

c/o Kristine Devine

WOW, Bob. Trying to break my brain....????

QUESTIONS, please. Since AR has a Google Page Rank of about 6 and my Outside Blog under MyName.com has a page rank of (likely) ZERO, how would I expect to get a better google result at MyName.com than at ActiveRain.com/MyName?

ALSO... If I have a up n running website (mine is DennisVolzInsurance.com) can I put my Outside Blog there somehow on a page called maybe.... DennisVolzInsurance.com/blog ? Better GOOGLE result? Same?

Thanks for the answers..... dv

Ahhh...I have an outside blog that I have several RSS subscribers for. I would have loved to put it on the AR platform to start with. I probably wouldn't have had to work as hard to get it up in the rankings.

I think it's too late to switch over, but I do encourage others to have an outside blog.

Thanks for this post. I've already been in one discussion about duplicate content and there can be a lot of confusion on the subject. Obviously for now the real Google Juice is from the AR.com/blogs/user blog posts so I would recommend those who are looking for the SEO aspects to continue to use AR as the originating source. Obviously you could build traction in your "Outside Blog" but it will take a while to build up the link juice that your existing blog already has on AR.

Those are my comments.

Glenn Sanford
--
Founder / CEO
BuyerTours Realty &
Working The Magic LLC
Check out Real Estate SEO blog

So what does that mean LOL....I'll try and then I'll call and then try and then call and I'm stuck anyway.

seamlessly or seemlessly?

Dennis,

The beauty of this is that you can write your post on AR, have it sent to your outside blog with a link from your AR blog (with a higher page rank) and start to build credibility to your outside blog.

We will have another post explaining the specifics of how this will work coming most likely tomorrow. Great question though.

Hmm very interesting Bob!! I am going to have to dive further into this...thx bro! (this comment is my reminder ;P)

Anonymous,

Thank you. I got third place in my third grade spelling bee. Had I got first, I probably would have got it right. I appreciate the correction.

Hey Bob,

I have to disagree on the no-follow attribute actually, you shouldn't leave a no-follow on a blog being syndicated because it does drop off search traffic for all involved. AR should be pointing originating links back to outside blogs with specific domains.

Dennis- As far as PR outweighing things, PR is only established in the form of relevant keyword strings. It greatly diminishes if the keywords in a post are not correlated to how Google sees ActiveRain. So www.sanfranciscorealestate.com would still rank better at PR 3 for san fran real estate than AR would at PR 6, mostly since the number of related links pointing at it are focused on the relevancy of San Francisco.

I actually synidicate content on my blog all over the net, including here on AR every now and then. There are additional steps you can take to prevent Google from indexing syndicated content in the wrong time frame. For instance it is just as effective to post articles 48 hours later here on AR after you have it posted and indexed on your site.

ActiveRain could also probably automatically post syndicated articles differently or just use a proper redirect on the summary/description of a pre-existing article. Likewise, AR could just include a post dated author link to the originating source (preferably with a alternate keyword description if you want to focus on SEO benefits)

Good point Jonathan, I owe you guys & gals BIG! Thanks:-)

Bob, Jon and Matt- Ok, so if I understand this right...I can set up my new AR Outside Blog, and if the Follow-me tags are turned off it gets the credit....if not then it is AR or Localism. Is this right?

Q- Currently I get good Google Juice.....that is attributed to AR. So, if I do the Outside Blog I will have the same good juice....but it will either say AR, or domanin (jonwashburn.com).....will it do both?

Q- I just made an Outside Blog on wordpress a little over a week ago....Google already indexed it, and I am working on the SEO stuff.....I chose NOT to use the same infor on AR as there....so the Q! is: if I have that one, the new AR Outside one, and my regular AR one......will links back and forth help me?

Q- I asked before.....will the new one have spellcheck???? I can't do anything without spellcheck with my hurry up and type mentality :) :)

Statement: Thanks all of you.....and I am watching for the answers here, there and everywhere...:) Oh, and if there are spelling errors excuse them...the spellchecker works about 1 in 100 times :)

Barry,

Oops, a no index tag is what I meant. I will make a correction in the post.

This is really going to do my head in. I'm going to have to approach this in baby steps! Thanks for the explanation, I do appreciate it. It's just going to take some time for it to all make sense for me, lol!

"We will be adding no-index tags to all sub-domain blogs"

Ah, le sigh. this makes me a little less excited about the development. I guess I should shuffle around to getting a new domain name for the blog...

One thing i'm confused about... you talk about Outside Blogs, like the words are describing more than our current outside blogs which is confusing. Are you saying we can syndicate to our own outside blogs rather than an active rain Outside Blog? I really can't handle any more blogs - I already have half a dozen.

Thanks,

Marcus.

Marcus,

Sorry for the confusion. When we are referencing 'Outside Blogs' we are talking only about blogs powered by content from ActiveRain. Currently if you have a blog hosted on another platform (wordpress for instance) you will not be able to syndicate content to it.

Bob, can you change the RSS logo - #1, it looks like a little guy sitting on the toilet and #2, you have to click on it to know what it is...just my 2 cents - I'm putting this here since there are 251 comments on Brad's page. :)

By the way - I LOVE THIS and THANK YOU AR TECHIES!!!!!!

Father Of Kelan...

I have to park...I'm pooped from working off the REAL Brownies that Lenn Harley baked from scratch for us. I also just finished reading 258 comments and now I feel like my head is going to explode :)

TLW...ROAR!

It is very nice when I can finally real something and understand it without having to re-read.

LOL...

"and if you believe that..."

I'm eating this line by line!!! - Great Info to be used in all other aspects we drive on the WWW.

Connor

Great Info. Thanks.

How acn I better control the way comtent appears on my blog posts on AR, without having to go to HTML coding. I woooul like to do things like wrap text around graphics, control font face and size, and be able to add things like varied background graphics on the page to make it pop.

I always collect the stock graphic art and clipart for my posts, including fair use credits for sources, like any good wirter should, but i want my posts to stand out thematilly better, and I'd like to have more control over the display of the content.

Thanks,

Lou

Bob - Where do I go, or who do I call to pay the $8 for the domain "through" AR?

Bob, thanks fro writing in an understandable way! I get it!!! I like the toilet - ok, now that I look it is probalby a bench.

Wow - lots to ponder here. I have some observations...

Vanessa Fox - "Ask your syndication partners to block their version of your article (via robots.txt or a robots meta tag). Whenever I suggest this, people laugh and tell me that the sites they are syndicating to would never agree to this as they want the content so they can rank for it. I can completely understand this. But as someone who's providing your content for syndication, you should then just realize you're in a competition with your syndication partners for ranking and it's quite possible they can outrank you."

This advice is unreasonable, impractical, and borderline silliness. For starters, most syndications of your feeds are going to be done by some big players (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Technorati). Intermediate syndication players are going to number in the dozens or possibly hundreds. Attempting to control this aspect of open (and wanted) syndication is pure foolishness because no business person has the time, and most of these syndicators won't even give you the time of day, let alone apply custom search crawler blocks to your feed. Vanessa is right about one thing - they'll laugh, but it won't be because they want to rank high for your content.

"If you are able to, put together a syndication agreement that states they get your content as a benefit for their readers, not as a way to acquire search traffic for that content, then you can keep control of ranking for what you've written and they can provide a benefit to their audience."

More bad advice. The added downside of constraining the use of your feeds through a specifc terms-of-service restriction is that the syndicators would [likely] pass on your content altogether -- they will simply blacklist your domain in their crawlers if they fear they may risk violating terms of use for your content. If they pass on your content, you only make it easier for a competitor to occupy the content landscape for subjects that you write about. You must ask yourself - Would I rather be invisible (door #1), or would I rather have my message reaching larger audiences with the added caveat that a syndicator might rank higher than my teensy-weensy blog and therefore attract many thousands of people to my content and ultimately to my teensy weensy blog? (door #2) Sheesh - c'mon folks - who wants what's behind door #1? Anybody?

"Don't Give Away Your Control"

It's hard to believe I'm reading this. The Web 2.0 movement and the foundation of participation in the blogosphere is all about relinquishing control to content consumers of all kinds! The content consumers -- from large aggregators all the way down to individual home buyers -- are finally getting the upper hand and exerting a degree of influence; voting with their subscribe buttons. Any attempt to control a feed that you openly publish in XML format, with the implicit authority that people should use it as they see fit, will be met with a resounding, um -- sorry, I'll get my content elsewhere, but thanks anyway, see ya, bye. It's nearly impossible to give up control to something you have little control over in the first place. Openly public XML content is in a format that's intended to be transformed and utilized in ways that cannot be fully anticipated, so brace yourself.

Bob Stewart - "Therefore, the primary purpose of a sub-domain will be strictly for offline branding."

I can see why people are confused - I consider myself a bright fellow, but this sentence seems contradictory. What the h*** does "offline branding" mean? Brand marketing (and "branding") is about visibility. "Offline" [anything] is about invisibility (i.e., things that aren't online). Please explain how this term was coined and why it has anything to do with the issue of duplicate content risk.

"We will be adding no-follow tags to all sub-domain blogs."

What about search engines that don't honor NOFOLLOW? Is there a higher risk of duplicate content penalties in these engines? Does this mean that when I add a link (in my HTML edit mode), you will come in behind me and edit that link to include the NOFOLLOW tag? What about links in my sub-domain blog that are encapsulated in other Web 2.0 services such as say... a Widget or a Google Gadget? Will you reinstrument those links as well?

In my view (and it's severely biased, but I believe for good reason), atomizing your content base and domains in ways that create even the remote possibility that search engines (and/or humans) will mistake the intentions of authoritative location (i.e., to not game the engines with duplicate content), is a bad idea. Bob and Vanessa's comments are well intentioned and correct in as much as there should be only one authoritative location for all your businesses content. However, the broad collection of ActiveRain services being offered appears to be putting everyone (that uses them) at risk for making some mistakes. It further seems (based on Google's advice) that there's only one way to use this collection of services properly, and many ways to do it wrong.

I'm not trying to rain on the Outside Blogs idea; it just seems that the complexity of options will likely lead to some confused and [perhaps] disappointed members.

Bob- Sounds and looks like you are really expanding into some good stuff. I am anxiously awaiting the new Localism. Has Active Rain always been the 'content author' when we write posts on AR?

This has all been very confusing to me, however thank you for bringing it to my attention. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know.

Bill,

Thank you for your comments. Our team has a pretty solid understanding of how to make our members content visible. It looks like much of your contention is with Vanessa's (former director for Google’s webmaster tools) post that I linked to. I also linked to and used content from the google webmasters blog. We will use the knowledge we have obtained from past experience to continue to get exposure for the content of our members as well continue to follow the best practices as Google lays them out.

It won't be that complex for our members. They have the same options they had before today, except now they can create a blog outside of ActiveRain through the ActiveRain interface.

As far as my comment about offline branding, all that was meant is that if our members choose not to set up their own personal domain, they are better off to just keep their ActiveRain blog, or potentially use a more customized sub-domain in marketing that is not done online. For instance, if they don't have their own domain, they could set up a sub-domain blog and have the content flow there, to be used to market on postcards to their farm. mycommunity.activerain.com could have a personalized banner specific to that community and their postcards could direct people to that sub-domain.

We'll have lots of posts coming out in the coming days and weeks (as will our members) with great ideas of how to utilize this new feature, I GUARANTEE IT!

Katerina,

Yes, AR has been the original source. With the launch of Localism (mid July) you will have the ability to decide. The new localism is going to blow your socks off!! I'm playing with it right now and I have lost my socks.......

(hey, does anyone see my socks?)

More than a few people have made a comment similar to Lisa Friedman,

"sometimes you don't know what you don't know"

Here is my response to that. We have people here that do know and if you look at our track record, I believe we have established that if you don't know, we can help you. We have many members who are utiiizing our product to increase their business. We take that VERY SERIOUSLY and we will continue to put our members interests first and foremost in everything we do.

Ok Bob...I am on vacation and this is just a little too much stuff...I did buy a domain today and hopefully it will be activated in the near future... as for the rest, I am on overload...Will have to read this again later when I get home! If I am still lost, I am calling you on Monday Bob!

Okay, getting a headache now. This is a lot of info to soak up for the technically challenged. (Me!). I liked Jason Sardi's idea of hiring one of you to teach us, lol. I think I'll tackle this after the Makeover2takeover challenge has come to an end....Hey, don't get ANY ideas about making this a challenge!

I can't wait to see the new Localism site. WOW! Sounds so exciting. Should we get some "sock garters" so we don't lose our socks like you did?

I love the new look to the Outside Blogs, much cleaner and more streamlined than the Beta test versions. The ability to pull comments really does give the blog credibility in my opinion. What I really like though, is the choice as to whether or not to post an entry to my Outside blog or not. As you say, we control it....control is good.

Great explanation -- I've been VERY curious how the AR "outside blog" was going to play with the search engines.

Bob,

Dummies is my first language...english my second...when will the 'dummies' version of this post be out??? LOL Thanks, Fran

Hi Bob...I'm moving to Bellevue, WA and parking on your front steps.

Have mercy on an old lady! I am so excited but so bewildered.

Kathleen

P.S. Can someone give me the name of a good (which means excellent) REALTOR in Bellevue?

Bob: I've GOT to do some more homework on this--I don't understand alot of this and DO understand the value of SEO but, am not sure if I'm REALLY doing what needs to be done--I did get from this that I need an outside blog!!!

Debe in Charlotte

Maybe I need to go out and get ARLane... And boy, there might be some people reading into that on my contest... psych.

Bob I have to start checking more into this stuff and take more advantage of what is being offered. This offers more exposure and more exposure equals more business.

Bob, a question I would have is this: I already have an outside blog entitled: ComeToSunnyAz.com which has a PR-3 rating. Can I somehow blend the two....meaning hook up with the AR outside Blog that you're describing? I think I would get better exposure - obviously - if I were hooked with AR. I'm pretty unclear as to how this actually works, so please forgive if this is a silly question. BTW? Love your photo with your little one. ;-)

Hi Bob - Now that you've explained it, it makes sense from the branding and originating source perspectives. We just need to be selective when choosing our syndication options in order to best leverage Google's indexing.

Wonderful news!... but somewhat confusing. So what is my best option for the outside blog:

1. blog.mauihunter.com ( I get the impression this one sucks)

2. mauihunter.com or....

3. mauihunter.com/blog ( which one of these is the better choice)

I appreciate your response. You guys rock.

nice post and a very smart way to do less work and get more bang for you efforts.

Bob, Thank yo for the information. I am still a little fuzzy on this outside blog stuff but I am sure I will figure it out. I am looking forward to the Localism roll out.

Oh boy, I'll have to read this a few more times and hopefully it'll become a little clearer. Looks like I'm not alone. :)

Thanks for the info, Bob. I get it, or I think I've got it. We appreicate all the info you guys can share. Bow to get that blog set up - that means #6. Yikes.

Jeff

wow, very cool.

can't wait to get started playing with the new AR toys.

Georgina,

mauihunter.com is your best option.

I have the same question as Anne//// Im a wordpress girl and active rain

the reason AR is that I love all the sincere togetherness it is real

Im a lonely blogger out there without the social/info group Thanks Lynne Pope

teamatthebeach.com

Annes comment//////

between wordpress and Ar ???

should I just go to go daddy and register one?

looking forward to the answer

Thank you in advance

Anne Hensel

WoW Bob.... Active Rain is continuing to do wonderful things. Keep up the great things you do and we all get to enjoy the benefits.

I need to figure out this outside blog.

Bob, Today is my anniversary and I am supposed to be celebrating this great event in my life. So as soon as the celebrations are over I am going to jump all over this new "Outside Blog"!!!!

This was very informational, thank you for sharing

Thanks Bob... now I have some homework to do, but not until the garden gets watered, get my blog on, entertain dinner guests, shmooze it up at a grand opening, and celebrate my anniversary this weekend (in Wailea - woohoo).

Thanks for clarifying that - about the possibility of duplicate content. I have to re-read it.

There is one advantage of using a sub-domain for a blog. If you have a high ranking website setting the blog to be a sub-domain means that some of the PR / trustrank will get passed to the blog, giving it a head start. Please note that this is related to blogs in general not to the active rain setup.

Bob...Please help me too.

My choices (so far):

KatesLakeAnna.com
KateElim.com
LakeAnnaCountry.com/blog (LakeAnnaCountry.com is my web site)

Kathleen (aka Kate)

Bob - What happened to the original team of Outside Blog testers, did that whole thing fall apart or what? My post always seemed to run off the page...meaning I need to conform and use the editor within AR and nothing else such as Texpad or Frontpage etc... What about us guys that want to place colors and text and other HTML any hope for us in the future for a stronger editor with more options?

I THINK THE RSS FEED HAS TO GO!! LOL sorry Bob

call me dirty minded, but it's the first thing I saw

Maybe we should just trust that you know what you are doing and jump in but I need to understand before thanks for trying to inform me on the benefits.

I get it! Thank you for the explanation..So it is kind of like robbing peter to pay paul and so on and so on, but I do get it:)

Thanks for the info. I am looking forward using these links to my website.

birding center

From all the results I've seen over the last few months, the original AR blogs are very powerful and really show better than almost anyone's personal blogs do. What I recommend to my clients is that they have their own blog on their own website, AND they have a blog here and post DIFFERENT information on both.

Someone mentioned that the AR blog would not be as closely "themed" to a locality as a blog put on a website about that locality. My experience is that "real estate" is the theme. With AR's authority status in Google, posts to an AR blog will often show up in first page results for some of the longer search terms. Sometimes a personal (by that I mean a part of your website, not about your cats) blog will also show well, but usually the AR posts are better.

I have actually said numerous times that I was astounded at the power that an Active Rain hosted blog has. This post is about who is HOSTING the blog...is it going to remain on Active Rain, or do you pay the $8 and it becomes an actual part of your website.

My best advice is to put a Blogger or Wordpress blog on your website, and continue to use AR as you have been. I've never tried the "sub-domain" version and don't see the need for that anyway. Good that you are no-indexing those versions. I'm not sure whether the Localism thing is better or not...I would think it would just better depend on whether you are writing for customers (Localism) or for other Realtors exclusively.

As an aside, Wordpress blogs are good, but they are complicated. I prefer Blogger, and since Google owns it, how can it get better? In either case, be sure to utilize the social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and pull the feeds into there as well. It really adds to the SEO power of your blog posts.

Anyway, AR kicks butt!

Jan

Bob- I 'm thanking you for this post but I don't really understand it. I think the bottom line is I need to get a domain and set up my outside blog. Maybe it doesn't matter if I understand it as long as I just do it.

I wasn't logged in when I wrote the comment above from "Jan". Hopefully I can rectify that here.

Thanks.

Oh my goodness this blog lost me at hello...just kidding. This is great information and I will have to reread it again just to get my head around it but thank you for posts like these as they are very informative

I always thought that duplicate content was more of a problem when dealing wiht multiple domain names pointing to the same sight. Let's say you have 3 blogs but you have 10 domain names pointing at each - then it might be a problem. Maybe I'm totally off on this. But if I'm right, does anyone know the outer limit for this type of duplication? I'm NO SEO expert, just asking. So PLEASE don't take my comment to heart unless someone who knows more than me responds in the positive!

I can't decide if I'm more or less confused. But are you saying Localism is officially out of Beta? Or is it just Localism 1.2, or something like that?

Bob

I have a question. I have my own website www.terrylynch.com. My Active Rain blog is titled therealestatetruth. I created a subdomain on my server "therealestatetruth.terrylynch.com" and had it forwarded to therrealestateruth.activerain.com. The question is...am I better off this way than just using the Active Rain subdomain or did I just waste my time and need to register another domain name to get any benefit here.

JUN

2008

HI Bob,

Talk about Blind Faith..I'm in, with my outside Blog and my own domain http://www.realestatevictoriabcblog.com should be redirected soon. My only concern, I went with 760 x 105 Banner as the 742x105 would not load.

What's this about Localisim?

Thanks, I'm hanging onto my hat and hoping I'm did not jump on to soon! :O)

Cheers

I bought one domain at Go D, 'mesquitenvrealestateblog.com' but that is as far as I got.

Parked here in total confusion, waiting for some one to turn the light on!

I feel like I need this to be translated to me. Anywhere we can read more detailed and also step by step instructions? Thanks, Mihaela

Bob, thank you for the clarification. I am happy to say I actually understood most of that.

Wow, there is much to digest here between the post and then the comments. Must bookmark and come back when can re-read this all again and digest more.

Thanks for yout tasking the time to provide us with this information in the Active Rain network. AR is the new "cyber backbone" of the industry, and with it's uplink to Localism.com it will transfrom the marketplace. Agents who don't see which way the cyberwind is blowing are going to find themselves at a considerable disadvantage inside of three to five years.

So if I linked it to my neal-bloom.com then how do I see it?

BOB - Thanks for the explanation, but I'm still a bit confused about a few things. I'll give you a call to discuss them.

Thanks for this blog. It is becoming a little more clear to me. Sometimes it is better not to worry so much about the why and just know something works. Still concerned as Google is so stealthy about how they spider sites.

Bonner

How would your new product help a well established blogger like me. Currently I come up number one on page one of google for some real important search terms. My blog has become my brand and my business with close to 1500 posts and a couple thousand photos. It is in the top 13,000 on Technorati with an authroity of 330 or somthing like that.

Thanks for the great information. I need to set up my domain - I have one already, just need to get it working for the blog - something for a day I can concentrate for more than 5 minutes!

There is an extremely simple way to tell Google who the original author is... simply create links from the syndicated version to the original. Matt Cutts has talked about this a million times. And SEO's have syndicated articles for years to create links and extra entry points to a site.

Google doesn't care if you syndicate, they just don't like it when they can't figure out who the original author is... That's the whole issue. Make it simple for them and create the link.

OK! I really need to get on board with my first blog and move onto the next! All good info and time to get going!

So the "sub domain" blogs won't get indexed at all. If I want to ad unique content to my "outside blog" first, and haven't set up a unique domain name, then that info won't be indexed?

After reviewing the outside blogs a bit more --- see one thing that is troubling. Unless we are wrong in what we think is happening on the outside blog, it seems that on the right hand panel there is a link to the community where the agent is from that links to the Localism postings for that area. And when clicking to go there, there are all the blogs from all agents in that community. Is there a way to disconnect this feature from the "ouside blog"? Can't imagine that agents really want to have all their competitors linked to their "outside blog". With Active Rain blogs it is a "community" of blogs and so agents put up with the competition all around. But with an "outside blog" one has the perceived notion that the "outside blog" is exclusive and "for them".... but with the link to all the other agents and their posts in the agent's community on the blog, the exclusivity is diminished. If there is a way to remove this link on the "outside blog" hope we can determine how to do this.

Very interesting stuff. I'm waiting to read a response to Teresa Boardmans' question. Thanks for your efforts to bring clairity to this topic.

Bob & Carolin,

Allowing members the option to disable that link is a good idea. I plan to add that to the list of things to be done, but before I commit 100% I am going to run the idea by my team. That link was actually just an afterthought by our developer, but after he put it in the idea grew on me.

Justin you are exactly right: "Google doesn't care if you syndicate, they just don't like it when they can't figure out who the original author is... That's the whole issue. Make it simple for them and create the link."

That is our plan. Every post will have links back to the "original" author.

Teresa, Adding another website, that will quickly rank on the first page of Google website, to your mix of already successful website never hurts. It is only $8 a year and maybe 20 minutes to get started.

First, to answer Ruth Marie Hicks...

"I always thought that duplicate content was more of a problem when dealing wiht multiple domain names pointing to the same sight. Let's say you have 3 blogs but you have 10 domain names pointing at each - then it might be a problem. Maybe I'm totally off on this. But if I'm right, does anyone know the outer limit for this type of duplication? I'm NO SEO expert, just asking. So PLEASE don't take my comment to heart unless someone who knows more than me responds in the positive!"

Duplicate content doesn't mean extra domain names pointing to the same website, Ruth. That's a bad idea anyway, and unless done with what is called a 301 redirect, it can get all the names and the website itself penalized or banished in the search engines. If you want to buy multiple domains, feel free, but don't point them at your website. That's a big no-no.

Duplicate content is having the same text on two different websites...be it blogs, articles or whatever. Only one site is going to get credit for the content, and if you confuse them, the search engines may not give it to either of them. Usually the one with the most authority will get the credit, though.

Now I have a question! Can we have both blogs on our AR account? Can I keep the one I have now under the AR name and also have an outside blog set up, or are they going to over-ride each other and all the content of the old one goes to the outside one that I set up?

Thanks for the new apps, Jonathan.

Jan

This sounds way too good to be true! Thanks again!

Bob, I will admit that I have not read all of the comments above yet but I have a question.. I think that I read somewhere that the outside blog is yours as long as you are a member of AR..NOW, I don't have any intentions of leaving the Rain but is that true?? God bless,

Cheryl,

If you were to leave ActiveRain we would find some way to get your content to you, and if you set up a custom domain, you would still control that domain......but if you were no longer a member of ActiveRain then you would not have access to the blog publishing platform which populates your domain, so yes, it is true.

We are pretty flexible and our terms of service leave ownership of the content you produce in your hands, you just allow us to drive consumers to that content.

Bob - thanks a bunch.. I may attach one of my domain names...

Bob - As the majority of my posts are more Localism-type posts, I'm concerned that Localism will be seen as the originating source. Will this be a temporary thing while Localism is relaunched, or will this be permanent?

Of course, we could choose not to add posts to Localism, but it seems as though we want to be on Localism. I know...it's free yet we want it all!

It's exciting about the new changes! One thing I can't help but wonder if is on the way is a way for ActiveRain to pull content from our seperate personal blogs to bring it all together. ie. My personal blogsite is Murphy, North Carolina Real Estate and News. Is there a way to pull content from my site I post and have it show up on my Active Rain blog?

Jonathan and Bob,

I'm trying to do this, however...like many of the other's...I don't understand lot's of what you guy's say. Remember...you are the pro's at this and many of us do not understand.

I tried again today and I cannot add a picture to my header...I've added one to the side bar...but even if I click over and ever again...it goes nowhere...doesn't even give me an option to add...so what to do?

BOB, what an undertaking...you guys really took on a lot and I don't know how you have enough time in the day to get all the other things done with AR without working on helping everyone with this new project of blogs. You guys are AMAZING!

Clear as mud for me, but I will study it a little more and try to make sense of it all.

JUN

2008

Information overload for someone. I don't know how to begin this at all. Do I really have to buy another domain. Can I use the domain I currently have? Please help this confused soul...

I'm with most of you. I really have to sit down and think about then when I get some time and figure it all out.

WOW... Info overload like many (breathe... just think baby steps). Sounds like a deal for only 8$ and 20 min of set up? I am bookmarking for some quiet time.

Ok, got the outside domain purchased and servers pointed...now time to wait for AR..

JUN

2008

Bob - This has really been exciting! I've learned many new things because of it. I can't wait to see the new localism. I do have one question about our title or what goes up top of our new blog. Should we use something in our title like 'Lexington Real Estate' to help with our SEO instead of some fun name? I want to do what is best to drive traffic to my new blog.

Great information Bob! Thanks and will bookmark it!

Thanks,

Tom Davis

World Class Delaware Realtor

No more waiting...its active now!!!! www.myrtlebeachhomesblog.com

Jeremy - I checked out your new blog - outstanding! I want one.

The video was fun to watch - way to flip that pan, no I won't try it at home!

I missed TLW's brownie one - will have to find it.

JUN

2008

Hi Bob - I'm planning on getting a new domain set up for this. I guess my only question (or confusion) is, when I write the post here on AR I have the option of checking the "post to Localism" box as well as the new "post to outside blog" box.

If I check both boxes as well as post it on AR all in one fell swoop... which is getting credit for being the source and do I then have to go to the other locations and link back to whichever one I want to have credit as being the source?

I think much of the confusion would be alleviated if you guys could give us a section where it has a box next to AR, outside blog, and localism and you check which box gets the origination cred and the other two get the content but are automatically link back to whichever you want as the source. Does that make sense?

Did I miss something? Is this already happening?

Kathy,

That is essentially what will start happening. It will automatically make the link to the original source for you. It isn't doing that right now, but when the new localism is released, it will.

JUL

2008

I have a web site (jerrycalvin.com), and thought I would go to word press. Now, after all the above, I'm really confused as to whether I ought to continue or just stop the world until I can understand what, how and why I ought to choose one way over another.

If I decide to go one way, can I just change it later, or do I lose everything I created?

Thanks,

Jerry Calvin

Exit Realty Experts

Jerrycalvin@jerrycalvin.com

www.jerrycalvin.com

seo is a great tool for my site... I hope this helps

JUL

2008

I'm just going to continue posting to localism until I can figure out the fine points of SEO...

JUL

2008

I got my first phone call from the outside blog... very very cool... thanks a million to all those who've labored so hard on this new feature.

Jonathan- I had no problem setting up my outside blog - thanks for making it easy.

I posted a blog and sent it to AR, Localism and outside blog. When I did a site search of my outside blog, Google had not indexed it.

If I understood your explanation (as highly unlikely as that may be), by geo-tagging the post, Localism got credit as the original source.

* If I continue to do that, does that mean my outside blog will not be indexed?

* Is that a problem? Am I likely to get more Google juice from Localism (new version, naturally)?

* Other than by links to it, how will anyone find my outside blog?

It's all very exciting, but I need some guidance on how to maximize the potential for the greatest exposure.

JUL

Whew. What a lot of information.

I do understand (sort of) why I should have an outside blog. If nothing else it gave me something to do with the other domain name I registered. So I now have an outside blog at http://www.deannatroupe.com

At first I just had that domain name pointing to my other personal site since I couldn't really figure out what to do with it. I got married so I had to register my married name, but my single name still had google juice that I couldn't bear to give up. This way both domain names are doing some good work (I think) .

Bob - I will be setting aside time to start the new blog this week! You guys are really fantastic!!!!Thanks!!!

Bob, one more question about our outside blogs. Will they show up as a redirect?

DeAnna,

I just asked Matt and he says, no. He said if you set them up with your DNS provider, it will not be a redirect.

Hi Bob...my AR Outside Blog has been up for over a week now, When I post other posts here on AR Isee instant results in Google...Thanks. However for some reason my New outside blog is not showing up, any where I thought it would be on Google, any suggestions? I.e. real estate victoria bc blog, victoria bc real estate blog victoria real estate blog

Thanks...have an awesome day!

JUL

Bob - hmmm - don't know that I understand it all. How can we show a post to be originated in our "outside blog" and still show up i Localism?

JUL

Correct me if im wrong, its seems like duplicating to an outside blog (giving your outside blog/website the credit) would kinda defeate the purpose of SEO and AR. Unless you have a massive website that can compete in the highly competitve keywords of real estate then to me it would make more sense to either keep the blog on AR or Localism so that AR gets the credit and your AR blog post will be SEO and ranked high on search engines. If someone with a 10 page real estate website and no links back posts to their outside blog the chances of it showing up in search is slim to none (unless the keyword has no competition). With AR having hundreds of thousands of pages of content and links back, that same blog post on AR (if AR is getting the credit) might rank very high even in competitve terms because of the compensating factors AR brings to the table of having massive related content and links back.

Am I looking at this wrong or is there a real reason we should be posting to an outside blog?????

Bob - Guess anything new is confusing. Hope I'm not going to be the last to figure all this out. I'm usually ten miles behind everyone else.

R-U-4 Hire?

JUL

Bob,

Thank you for all of your hard work. I am a Boomer reading this and really trying to wrap my brain around all of this technical stuff. I am definitely more of a "creative type" and not a "techie type." My head is absolutely spinning trying to understand all of this. I think I will delegate my son to help me and figure it out. He loves this kind of stuff and I feel like he is speaking a foreign language. It looks like I am not the only one that feels a little out of place and overwhelmed at this stage of the game!

Thanks for trying to help us "non techie types" out!

Have a Colorful Day!

JUL

This is GREAT info, it's just hard to keep up with all of this!! OK...I will come back to this when it is not the end of a longggg day...thanks:-)

JUL

Bob,

So if I have an outside blog and duplicate content onto my AR outside blog, it's better to keep the AR blog as a subdomain so that Google doesn't think I'm duplicating content? It will still show up on Localism.comfor the most part as my outside blog is a community blog. Will there be any conflict in terms of duplicate content on Localism.com neighborhood blogs and my own outside community blog? I don't want Google to downrank me for using my own content.

Thanks,

Gail

JUL

Hi Bob, thanks for the advice. I have so much to learn. You should write a separate column for newbies.

Rich

AUG

Great info. As a Newbie this is all new to me but I will keep reading and rereading your blog posts until I "get it". Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us 'less fortunate's.

SEP

OK...came back and have my outside blog all set up....with the help of Brad! Thanks so much for this post.

OCT

I'm not a techie. I set up my outside blog by trial and error and it seems to work. I have my blog on localism, my outside blog, my website and active rain and don't ask me how I did it. I haven't the foggiest. Thanks for the info.

I forgot to log in. That's me.

OCT

Hey just a quick question should you submit your Ouside Blog to Google, yahoo and so on?

Thanks,

Ken

Do we know why Google Alerts only picks up the inside-AR blog and not the outside blogs? Is this something that will be fixed? Right now, it seems Google is only seeing the AR blog and not the outside blogs.

DEC

Very good info... but daaaaaaaannnng. I will have to hire a techie to blog for me. Or hire an agent to sell for me. Maybe I can find a happy medium and work it all out. Probably----moving on.

DEC

Good post and explanation as to who's on first, second and third! Thanks for the good details.

JAN

Thanks, you have answered a lot of my questions in this writing.

JAN

Love, love, love the information! Very helpful- thank you!

Bob, Brad directed me over here to read about duplicate content and I think Justin's comment sums up the whole issue of whether or not to do duplicate content pretty succinctly:

Google doesn't care if you syndicate, they just don't like it when they can't figure out who the original author is... That's the whole issue. Make it simple for them and create the link.

06/27/2008 09:59 AM

by Justin Smith - Blogging Coach {Blogging, SEO, SEM, SMO} (Real Estate Tomato)

FEB

That is super-informational, I'm setting up an outside blog in the next week and will be setting up shop reading as many blogs as possible this week.

MAR

HELP! I went to upgrade my blog to the $19.95/mo. outside blog, but now I have two blogs, one with all my content in it and the link still says (Upgrade) and another blog that has no content in it. How do I get rid of the one I just created and upgrade the original?? Help!

JUN

I like getting new tips, but I am a good distanjce away on the learning curve to use some of this.

Ay least I can refer back from time to time. So much to learn...

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