Nofollow links & content syndication

[bonnierSEO]

When syndicating content, I have heard/read that even if the piece you syndicate has a link back to your site (original post), the engines should be able to tell your post is the original because of the link that is pointing back. Is this the case when the links are "nofollow"? I think not, but I just would like to get someone else point of view. I think that if they don't want to follow the links, they should at least add noindex meta robots tags to the post so it doesn't create duplicate content...

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[DanDeceuster]

Google knows the original by using the rel=canonical tag. These work across domains as well. If you syndicate content, it doesn't even need to link back to you, nofollow or dofollow. All you need to do is have the rel=canonical tag to the original post and you're good.

[EGOL]

Don't bet on the search engines knowing who the originator of the content was.

Aside from the cross-domain canonical tag (in today's WhiteBoard Friday) they don't have a foolproof way to determine.

Often the most powerful site will rank highest for relevant queries... and often the author's site gets into supplemental.

[bonnierSEO]

Hi Daniel!

Thanks for your reply. So you think that having a nofollow link back to my original piece won't be an indication that my post is the original one?

Yes, I was thinking cross-domain rel canonical could be the way out.

Thanks again!

[bonnierSEO]

Thanks for your reply EGOL. That's exactly what I saw with one of the posts that had nofollow links. The sydication partner's version was ranking higher.