I thought this might be of interest to those of you who are thinking about how to migrate your content from HP. I asked ChatGPT the following question:
I'm removing my articles from HubPages, which is shutting down. Here's my plan: move the article first to my WordPress website. Then add it to Medium with the Canonical Link set to point to my website version. Then delete the HubPages version. Are there any issues with this wrt SEO or Google thinking there's duplicate content?
ChatGPT:
Your plan is basically correct and should not cause SEO or duplicate-content problems — as long as the canonical is handled properly.
Two Things You Should Do to Avoid Indexing Confusion
(A) Make sure your WordPress article publishes FIRST
Even a few minutes earlier is fine. This makes your site the “first seen” version.
(B) After deleting the HubPages article, confirm it returns a 404 or 410
If HubPages goes offline, this happens automatically. If they leave a redirect, that’s also fine — you won’t be harmed. If HubPages content is still cached, you might briefly see duplicates. This is temporary. Google understands content migrations and handles them over a few weeks.
Google handles temporary coexistence just fine
When you publish the article on your WordPress site while the HubPages version is still indexed:
Google will simply detect that the same content appears in two places.
It does NOT penalize you.
It will choose one version as canonical (often the one with stronger signals, older indexation, or clearer intent).
Once the HubPages page is deleted, Google naturally switches to your WordPress version over time.
Duplicate content ≠ penalty
Google does not punish duplicate content across different sites. Instead, it:
Picks which version to rank
Consolidates signals
Drops the duplicates over time
A “duplicate content penalty” is a myth unless it involves spammy manipulation.
Your situation is a standard content migration, which Google is designed to handle.
What happens during the overlap
During the brief overlap period:
HubPages may continue to rank if it’s older and stronger.
Your WordPress page may take a little time to start ranking.
Once HubPages disappears, your WordPress version will naturally become the primary version. No harm occurs.
Adding Medium with a canonical tag makes it even cleaner
Medium’s canonical pointing to WordPress ensures:
Google sees WordPress as the “official/original” version
Medium is treated as a syndication. Medium won’t compete with your site. This avoids future duplicates.
Bottom line
It is completely safe to have your WordPress article live while the HubPages version still exists in Google’s index.
You're doing everything correctly.
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CAVEATS!
I then asked ChatGPT this:
Articles on Medium normally rank far higher than those on my website. Will setting the canonical tag to point to my website cause the Medium version to not rank as well?
ChatGPT:
Yes — setting the canonical to your website will normally prevent the Medium version from ranking as highly or at all. That’s exactly what a canonical tag is designed to do.
When Medium includes a canonical tag pointing to your WordPress article, Google is told:
“This Medium page is a copy. Please treat the WordPress URL as the primary version."
Because of this:
Google usually will NOT rank the Medium version.
Google will rank your WordPress version instead.
Any SEO authority Medium would have generated is passed to your WordPress article.
If your goal is: “I want the Medium version to rank higher than my own site”
Then do NOT use a canonical.
But the downside is:
Google may treat Medium as the original source.
Your own site may be outranked permanently.
Your site may not build authority from the article.
This is why most publishers DON'T do this.
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My bottom line:
Since revenue on Medium is based only on internal views, it's not important for the versions of my articles on Medium to rank for SEO since search views don't contribute monetarily. So, I'll go with setting the canonical link.
