Duplicate Blog Content

[Derrald]

Hey Mozzers!

I have a client who is a dentist, with multiple offices, and wants to use an identical blog post (including images, alt text, text, tags, everything pretty much) from one of his office's website on his other office's website to save time and mimic the success of the original content for his other office.

Everything I've researched says this is a HUGE no-no, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has tried to do something like this and if they were successful in doing so (implementing rel=cannonical or 301?). Also, if he is the owner of both sites and they both receive low traffic will Google even notice? My biggest worry is that if I did post the content on his other site, identically, that it would dilute the visibility of the original post, which has and is continuing to surpass our organic search goals...

The main goal though, is to drive traffic to BOTH sites via organic search using the same content. Would love to hear everyone's opinions if this is possible or unrealistic...

Thanks!

-D

[EGOL]

We have some content that is shared on multiple sites.  We use rel=canonical to attribute the content to the appropriate site and transfer link equity.  We are pleased with how it works.  The visitors to both domains can view that content without leaving the website.  The pages that have the rel=canonical code do not display in the SERPs.  The pages that receive the attribution receive a small ranking boost.

Using 301 will remove the page from the SERPs and transfer any visitor that clicks a link to it onto the site that you point the 301 to.  This is not desirable for most uses.  .

The main goal though, is to drive traffic to BOTH sites via organic search using the same content. Would love to hear everyone's opinions if this is possible or unrealistic...

If this is your goal, then the best thing to do is to write unique articles for each and every website.