Real Estate Forums

Jared · 05-10-2006, 06:13 PM

A few months back a developer and myself were considering a start up of a site for Articles and Content for Realtor web sites. We discovered recently that this may not be wise since google tends to lower your rank if articles appear on multiple sites.

I'm curious. Has anyone else looked into this further? I mean the number one issue I have with any site I create and or develop is the absolute lack of content on part of the agent or realtor. Sometimes I believe it would be easier to simply suggest a content writer be hired but some people take that personal.

I try to stress that although "Apperance is Golden, Content is KING!" sites sit inactive because of a lack of embracing this simple yet criticle element of the site design process.

I'm not a Realtor so I rarely if ever get asked to write page content as to articles and such. But I'm wondering if there would be a better collaborative solution to achieve the content issue without developing duplicate generic content all over the web. The last thing a guy wants is to be infected with something that reduces his ranking. (there's no shots for that.

)

Jared

mavahntooth · 05-11-2006, 01:51 AM

imho google wil not lower your rank incase they see your article have appeared in multiple sites. you must provide your article a link back to your site, so search engines will know where the article came from. plus you will have free inbound links that will help you to have a higher rank.

Portland Real Estate · 05-15-2006, 09:08 AM

Good advice, mavahntooth. I didn't know that. Curious though, what happens when the same article appears in multiple sites but each site has a link back to the various poster's main site. That is if I take a repeated content but change the link back to my site. How does google treat a case like that? Any penalty?

JimMessenger · 05-15-2006, 10:22 AM

Jared,

Your concerns are not without merit. I suggest site owners stay away from duplicate content. As of yet, none of the search engines have been able to determine who the original author of a document is. If a webmaster wishes to become a "trusted" site with the search engines that webmaster should not publish duplicate content.

Let's change the phrase to "Original" content is King!

frobn · 05-15-2006, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jared

I'm not a Realtor so I rarely if ever get asked to write page content as to articles and such. But I'm wondering if there would be a better collaborative solution to achieve the content issue without developing duplicate generic content all over the web. The last thing a guy wants is to be infected with something that reduces his ranking. (there's no shots for that.

)
Jared

I have been a long time advocate for articles I backed away for several months but now feel a bit better about them. The main thing is that the article not be duplicated on the same server. For anyone using articles check frequently that they do not go into the supplemental status at google, if they do get rid of the article. I am testing the use of a 100-150 word summary and the article itself in an iframe. I think that this is a superior way becasue the summary is original content.

Jared · 05-15-2006, 10:57 AM

Ok, well, then the idea of all this RSS seems to be moot then. I mean every site on the web wants to have pimps for its content so it seems. RSS and Syndicate my stuff sort of links are all over.

I'm curious if changing headlines and what not would help a bit. But none the less, good advise Jim and Frobn. I'll draft all my stuff as originals.

Jared

Miami Beach Condos · 05-15-2006, 05:25 PM

When you say duplicated content, you mean word for word duplication don't you? If I find an article and revamp it to fit my purposes, could that count as duplicate content?

frobn · 05-16-2006, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miami Beach Condos

When you say duplicated content, you mean word for word duplication don't you? If I find an article and revamp it to fit my purposes, could that count as duplicate content?

Jared was referring to word for word duplicated articles. When you take someone elses idea and EXPRESS it in a significant different way the content is considered original. If the expression is too similar then it may trigger copyright issues.

Miami Beach Condos · 05-16-2006, 10:12 AM

I thought so, just wanted to be clear.

LVH · 05-16-2006, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jared

Ok, well, then the idea of all this RSS seems to be moot then. I mean every site on the web wants to have pimps for its content so it seems. RSS and Syndicate my stuff sort of links are all over.

I'm curious if changing headlines and what not would help a bit. But none the less, good advise Jim and Frobn. I'll draft all my stuff as originals.

Jared

RSS works great in Yahoo and MSN but IMO Google doesnt like it. I know from a test I run that if you have the same content and change the title tags and descriptions Google has indexed both pages.