Member Avatar for flaxseoguru

We are developing a travel site. There will be cities and towns. Each city will have as content:
-google map
-photos from flickr
-article about the city from free article site
-user generated content (not in all places).

Before any user publish anything about the city, only first things will be there.

Can be those copied articles a problem from SEO point of view?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Hsekhar

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Initial pages made from a Google Map embed, Flickr photos and third‑party articles will be treated by search engines as low-value unless each city page gains original, locally useful signals. outlined that setup; and raised duplicate-content concerns and others (, , , ) discussed editing and uniqueness. The practical path is not simply “rewrite or not” — it is to make each page demonstrably the best local source for that place.

Recommended mitigations and editorial/technical checklist:

  • Verify license and terms for every free article and every Flickr image before reuse; require visible attribution where required and avoid images that forbid commercial reuse.
  • If republishing someone else’s article only with permission, ask the source to apply a rel=canonical to their original or include a clear link back; if the site must host the content, add a unique local lead (150–300+ original words) plus at least two proprietary elements (local tips, hours, events, business listings, original photos or user reviews).
  • Use structured data (Schema.org Place/TouristAttraction, image properties, geo coordinates) so pages signal unique local intent beyond the syndicated text.
  • Prevent large batches of thin pages: either consolidate small towns into regional guides or hold pages from being indexed until sufficient unique content exists (meta robots noindex or block by sitemap until enriched).
  • Moderate and encourage quality user content (reviews, photos) while filtering spam; UGC turns a templated page into distinct, indexable content.

If search visibility problems appear, inspect affected URLs in Google Search Console for canonicalization and indexing status, and confirm that canonical tags, sitemaps, and robot directives match the intended source. For further reading on how Google treats duplicate and syndicated content, see Google Search Central and consult Flickr’s Creative Commons info and Schema.org Place/TouristAttraction for markup details:

Google: Duplicate content

Flickr Creative Commons
Schema.org: TouristAttraction

Recommended Answers

All 8 Replies

Member Avatar for ithelp

Google will find duplicate articles in your website and devalue your web site's SERP.

Member Avatar for Robdale

If you edit the article properly and changed the targeted keywords in the articles as per your requirements and title of the article, then it is ok. But still i will suggest you to write some unique articles it will help you better in SERP's.

Member Avatar for revenue

If you edit the article properly and changed the targeted keywords in the articles as per your requirements and title of the article, then it is ok. But still i will suggest you to write some unique articles it will help you better in SERP's.

I agree with this . And also its better if we use the free articles for our reference only so we can make new articles from the free articles topic

Member Avatar for Robdale

Yes, rather than copying articles and editing them why not to use the Reprint Articles that are available free on web. Many sites provides free articles that we can use on our website, the only thing is if you put their link on your website you will be able to use their articles for free.

Member Avatar for marabe7.com

Any duplicate content will be bad in your site ranking, try to change some words especially in the Title .

Member Avatar for martynb

Agreed! I find it better to write your own articles then use free ones, this way you can target your own specific keywords.

Member Avatar for Robdale

I don't think there is anything wrong to use the free articles, but one should take care that the title must be unique and the article must be edited properly,

Member Avatar for Hsekhar

If you use them "As Is", It's a total waste of time even copying them and updating your site with the content. But If you use them after rewriting, you won't have any problem from search engines. But using the same article is USELESS.

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