Avoiding duplicate content that is my own

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   Terri Paajanenposted 11 years ago

   I want to get back to publishing more on Hubpages and intend to use some of my existing articles that are on other sites. The other sites are also my own, but with recent problems with my hosting, I plan on dumping them altogether. So the content is to come here instead.
   
   If I delete my articles from their current homes, will Hubpages still pick them up through some sort of Google cache and mark them as duplicate when they are published here? Should I delete and then wait a few days... a week or more? 
   
   Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm a bit tired of running too many unproductive sites and would rather gather up my work in one place that pays out. But I don't want dupe flags all over the place.
   
   Thanks.

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Terri Paajanen! I'd wait a week before publishing articles that you have deleted from your other online properties. Seven days should be sufficient. It's nice to hear that you'll be utilizing our platform more!

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         wildernessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         One option might be to do the work of copying them over here, but not publishing them, during that week or so.  Kill two birds with one stone by doing the manual work while giving google time to clear it's cache at the same time.
         
         Do make certain that there are no stolen copies out there; if there are you can no long prove your ownership and the hub will truly be a duplicate and unpublished as a result.  Get those copies removed before unpublishing on your own site.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            +1
            
            However, I'm not sure your plan is such a good idea.   Putting all your eggs in one basket is always dangerous.   I don't think HubPages is going to disappear any time soon - but I'm sure the writers at Today.com didn't expect it to close down overnight either.   
            
            It's much wiser to have your articles spread over multiple sites, because then if something happens to one site, at least you still have the others. You can also drive traffic much more effectively, by ensuring that you interlink articles on the same subject on different sites (e.g. if you have a Hub about blue widgets, and a Squidoo lens about blue widgets, include a link from one to the other.  Then if you have an article on Xobba about blue widgets, link to the Hub and the Lens.  And so on).  Having an interlinked presence like that, across different sites, is actually an asset. 
            
            If you stick to sites that earn through Adsense, then all your income is still going into one account and therefore the individual thresholds don't affect you.   The only exception is HubPages where the HPEarnings program generally pays better than Adsense alone, but you could experiment and see if Adsense alone works better for you.

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               Terri Paajanenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for making some good points (thanks everyone, actually). I'll wait at least a week, then decide what to do with my material. Seems a real shame to waste all that work because of a perceived "duplication".

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I suggest using copyscape to check for stolen copies of your work before you unpublish anything.
                  
                  If that's all OK, bear in mind it can take a month or so for all copies of your work to disappear from the cache. You can use Google Webmaster tools to get it removed faster. 
                  
                  Another point - you mention some of the material is on your own blogs. Most people are finding that a good blog can do better than a rev-sharing site these days, as Google moves towards favouring "authority sites".  It looks like your blogs are each focussed on a single topic, which is a good start. You are probably trying to run too many, because to build an authority site, you really need to concentrate on two or three.  And you also need to monetize them properly - adsense is definitely not enough.
                  
                  Are you getting readers?

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                     Terri Paajanenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Some yes, some not so much. My main problem at the moment is keeping the sites running. I am constantly running into problems with hackers/spammers and I am really getting frustrated with web hosting in general. And partly I am feeling too spread out (exactly as you've said).
                     
                     Everyone is raising some good points and I have a few new things to think about. Perhaps I'll leave my content where it is and write new material altogether for some new hubs. Too many choices!!  :-D

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                        Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        What are your sites running on?  If you're using Wordpress, there are some very good plugins which will get rid of all the spam comments for you, automatically.  Hackers also shouldn't be an issue if you keep your Wordpress installation up to date.

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                           Terri Paajanenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           Well, I had been running a few of them with very outdated versions of Drupal (my fault on that) but my recent stint with problems was with a brand new install of wordpress. It's not the comments, its that someone/something gets into my account and sends out email spam through my email, which is outside of Wordpress. My hosts can never seem to help, and they only suggest "better passwords". I may have it under control at the moment, but I am concerned about having all of my work hosted in this way. Hence my interest in spreading things out a bit to places like Hubpages.

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                              Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                              If it's "outside of Wordpress", how do you feel your email problem is connected to your hosting?  There is no way someone could access your email through your website, unless you published it on there.
                              
                              It could just be that you don't have privacy enabled on your domain name ownership?  Or that you're using a Yahoo! email address (lots of Yahoo emails are being hacked, I had to give one of my Yahoo accounts up for that reason).

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      relacheposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      1) Potentially.  The worst-case scenario is that your articles got copied elsewhere and once deleted off your own site, the thieves now appear to possess the oldest versions online.
      
      2) Instead of blindly waiting around you should use the tools Google provides to have the content deindexed.

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   LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

   You can't do that.  HP will see it as duplicate content.

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      Terri Paajanenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's kind of my question though. If I delete an article from its original location, then it's no longer duplicate. Not really....  Are you saying that something stays "duplicate" forever even after deletion elsewhere??

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         Larry Fieldsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Terri,
         Here's another option. Make thoroughly revised (and slightly improved) versions of all the old articles on your other sites. Then publish the new versions on HP.
         
         Be sure that no sentence from article A is moved directly to hub B without some revision. Possible exception: quotes from famous people.
         
         Voila! No duplicate content headaches.

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            Terri Paajanenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks, that's becoming more of an option as I look into this more.

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   Shravan Picsoniaposted 11 years ago

   I think you must wait for a week after deleting the post! Then put that content on your hub!

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   bisnar6665posted 11 years ago

   How do press releases avoid duplicate content? Since each press release gets redistributed like crazy, are they being penalized?

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      Len Cannonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Good news sources don't just pass off the press release: they quote it, interpret it, provide context, and follow up on it. If you see someplace that just passes off a PR to the readers, stop reading because they don't have much respect for you.

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