can I spin my own article? NO.

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Noel Tabb: I have a question. I am going to start my own blog soon and I am concerned with SEO. I want to know if I write my own high quality content, can I spin my own article? I want as many people to see my content as possible, but I do not want any penalties from Google. If I can spin my own articles how do I even do it? Is there software or do I have to do this manually? Thank you very much.
• 
  Blade S: Don't. It's bad for SEO, and if you overdo it, you can get penalized. Just write high quality content, share it, reach out to other bloggers, get yourself noticed, write some blog posts to get some traffic, etc.
  
  In SEO, it's better to take the long road, rather than the short and risky one. It will pay off in the end. Patience is a must in this industry.
• 
  Noel Tabb: Thank you very much. When I said spin I meant using my own material but posting that material to multiple sites, not spinning some thing written by someone. The material is all mine, I just want to post to more than one blog or website. Or maybe that does not matter and I could still be penalized. Thank you.
• 
  Blade S: If you post your article on other sites and blogs, especially on article directories, you will get penalized because it's duplicate content, even though they link back to you.
  
  Now, there's a way to repost on other sites/blogs without getting penalized. You need to tell the blog/site you're reposting to, to add a rel canonical tag to that article, so that Google can give you all the credit, and not to index the reposted article from that blog.
  
  Example: Let's say this is your article: domain(dot)com/high-quality-article/. Now, you want to repost that article on otherdomain(dot)com's blog. You'll have to convince them to add a rel canonical tag pointing to your original article from your blog.
  
  So, after you repost your article on their blog, they will have to insert this <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://domain(dot)com/high-quality-article/” /> in the page's source code.
  
  It's not hard to understand how the canonical tag works, but it's best to dig into it before starting to "play" with it. It can cause quite some damage if it's not properly used.
  
  Sites that use WordPress and Yoast can easily add canonical tags inside pages.
• 
  Noel Tabb: Thank you Blade. I was just reading about rel canonical, follow and no follow. Does this also count for social media sites, or is this just other blogs/sites. I am new to all this and I have been researching also. I just want to start things off the right way so as not to waste time doing everything wrong. I appreciate your help. Thank you.
• 
  Blade S: You're welcome! I'm glad to hear that you want to start the right way.
  
  The duplicate part also counts for social media. The canonical part, no. You can't add canonical tags on social media sites.
  
  On social media sites, like Facebook, G+, Twitter, etc., you'll basically share your posts' links, titles and a bit of catchy description.
• 
  Greg Baka: Hi +Blade S , I was nodding along with what you wrote, until the last paragraph. Canonical tags are only for webpages, there is no way to put them on social media posts. So for +Noel Tabb 's question, wouldn't it be more accurate to say that social media is just for sharing news of his articles (links to them really) - not for posting the entire article?
• 
  Blade S: Hi +Greg Baka
  I thought he was asking if a reposted article also counts as duplicate content on social media, or only on sites/blogs.
  
  That's why I said that this (the duplicate content part, not the canonical part) goes for social media as well. Guess I got the question wrong. Sorry.
  
  You can't add canonical tags on social media, of course.
  
  That's why I also gave the LinkedIn example. He could make an account and repost an article there, no? But he won't be able to add a canonical tag to his original post, therefore it will be considered duplicate content, even though it's on social media website.
  
  Hope I cleared things out now :D Sorry for the misunderstanding.
  
  I also edited that comment, so no one else misunderstands.
• 
  promoz seo: One line answer: No you can not.
• 
  Noel Tabb: Thank you +promoz seo ; everyone has been so helpful.