Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting Rand Fishkin, the renowned SEO expert and co-founder of Moz, in our studio. Our engaging conversation revolved around strategies and content creation, focusing on maximizing the SEO value of cross-posted content.
In today’s digital landscape, it’s not uncommon for content creators and marketers to share their work across multiple domains. However, this can lead to duplicate content issues and potentially harm search engine rankings. Fortunately, the Cross Domain Rel=Canonical protocol provides a solution, allowing you to maximize the SEO value of cross-posted content.
Here are some ways to utilize the Cross Domain Rel=Canonical protocol to enhance your content strategy:
- Managing multiple domains: If you run multiple domains and want to cross-post content, choose which one should receive the SEO benefits and rankings.
- Content reposting: If a publication wants to repost your content on their domain, request the use of the rel=canonical tag instead of (or in addition to) a link back to your site.
- Republishing content: Use the protocol to prevent penalties for republishing content from other sites without requiring them to remove the content from their domain.
- Content distribution networks: Utilize platforms like Medium as a distribution network for your content, avoiding the drawbacks of duplicate content.
To implement the Cross Domain Rel=Canonical protocol, follow these steps:
- Insert the rel=canonical tag in the <head> section of your webpage.
- Define the original source URL within the href attribute.
- Ensure that the content (text, images, etc.), headlines, and links within the content are identical on both pages.
- Allow for differences in URL, title, navigation, and site branding between the pages.
By leveraging the Cross Domain Rel=Canonical protocol, you can maximize the SEO value of your cross-posted content and maintain strong search engine rankings. Keep in mind that proper implementation requires attention to detail, so be sure to monitor your pages and make adjustments as needed.
