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If you want your website to rank in Google searches, and you want your audience to see you as an authority in your industry, you need clear, relevant, well-written content.
A common practice amongst bloggers is to draw inspiration from other relevant and valuable articles, which is great! Whose idea is truly original nowadays?
Crediting and referencing other reputable sources can actually boost your own credibility as well. It shows that you’re staying up-to-date on new developments in your industry.
Obviously, we don’t support the practice of copying and pasting other people’s articles. The consequences aren’t worth the convenience. First, you could get slapped with an expensive lawsuit. Second, copy-and-pasted content appears as duplicate content to Google, even if you link back to the original source. Google penalizes sites for duplicate content, and you don’t want that.
Never repost an entire article without permission from the original owner. Not only is this a breach of etiquette, it’s a theft of intellectual property.
If you find the content valuable and would like to include it in your own post, ask for permission to copy the text you need via email, contact form, or within the comments section of the post. You’ll be surprised that most bloggers will happily offer you their content free of charge.
Since copy and pasting other people’s content is a no-no, add a personal spin to it to make it original. Highlight key points and discuss why you found the information valuable. Most importantly, don’t forget to cite and link back to the original article!
When choosing the part of the article that resonated with you the most or quoting key passages, it’s best to limit yourself to approximately two paragraphs. Anything more and you’re better off paraphrasing the section or rewriting it entirely. Make it obvious that you’re directly quoting a section of text from another piece of content by using the block quote feature on your blog or by surrounding the text with quotation marks.
I hope these two points on the blog etiquette for reposting content that isn’t yours are useful. They may seem menial, but trust me – each makes a big difference in creating professional quality content. More importantly, it shows your users that you treat other people’s intellectual property with respect.
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