(Edit: A discussion has been had and steemit inc are looking at the situation. I have faith they will make the right decision for content creators. Until then, the below still stands.)
It has always bothered me that the bigger players such as Youtube & Udemy take such a large cut from content creators. Being a Udemy instructor can be hard at times. Courses are continuously discounted to €10 from which I earn €2.50. Although I did opt into their marketing and I can choose to opt-out at any time.
It’s the same thing on Youtube. If you monetize your content on Youtube, Youtube makes more than you. Its kinda a shit buzz, but content creators like me have been putting up with this for years. They bring traffic and infrastructure. We bring the content. They make loads of money, we make little.
Then I came across Steemit. A blockchain-based website where I could publish content. A place where the middleman didn’t take a cut of my rewards. A place where I had ownership of my content and no third party could remove.
Things have changed a lot since I joined here. So have my feelings about the blockchain and steemit.
Steemit.com is not steem. It is a website ran from the blockchain owned by a private entity. A for-profit private entity. They can do as they please with their website, and you or I have no control. Just like Youtube and just like Udemy.
That might not mean much to everyone, but if you are a content creator like me, that actually makes a living from this sort of stuff, this is important. The changes Steemit.com and steemit inc have made are not in favor of what I thought this blockchain was.
Its been a really busy year on steem. We had the HF and #newsteem arrived. There was a lot of focus on this and it kept people's attention for a long time. Long enough that the changes made and the impact this might have been overlooked by many. It almost feels like these changes were snook in the back door, while steem people were dealing with the other stuff.
What Changes?
First of all the ads. Yes, there was some discussion on this, but it never really went anywhere because at the end of the day, steemit inc own steemit.com. The bigger boys making money from my content, from your content. We cant opt-in and we can't opt-out. Steemit Inc is making money off your content and creations and my content and creations. At least Youtube and Udemy give you a cut.
I already hear you say ‘So don’t post to steemit.com’……..
Steemit.com is a backend for all of steem publications. Not matter where you post from, if it is on steem, it will be on steemit.com. Unless of course, the powers above decide to remove your postings from the condenser, which is possible and we have seen it happen. Therefore as it is possible, should we content creators not have the option to opt-in or out of our posts being published to Steemit.com?
This leads me to a second more recent more pressing change.
Canonical links.
HUH? What's that?
These are links that tell Google where the content originated. It's about ownership. It tells Google where the master copy of the publication is. Google don't tend to worry so much about duplicate content as long as the original can be located and identified.
A few weeks back steemit inc changed the links so that anything published to steemit.com shows as the original master copy. They did this by setting the links to canonical links. steemit.com shows as the original master copy even if posted through a tribe or app interface
Did I just lose ownership of my content? Well, it sure looks that way to me. Google is now ranking my Excel Posts higher on steemit.com than The Excel Club because steemit inc have change the links.
And wait, this is not just a problem for me, but a problem for tribes and anyone publishing to the steem blockchain. After all, if you publish on 3speak it still goes to steemit.com
The proof is in the traffic
I have been working my ass off this year on SEO and traffic. Each month I have outperformed my targets and September was no exception. I will be publishing my usual monthly business report for the month but the last 2 weeks have been a little more challenging than normal.
With the switch to canonical links, I have seen a downturn in my rankings, my traffic, and my impressions.
The chart below is my daily traffic chart. The first 7 days shows a typical pattern, with hardly any traffic at the weekends, and prior to this, it was increasing most weeks.
The chart below shows my impressions and clicks from Google over the last 3 months. Nice steady growth. Bar for the last two weeks. The downturn is not that much. But I am hoping to take action before it becomes a problem.
I know google has changed their algorithm, but that was a few weeks previous and I seemed to be doing well from that. So this is a big kick in the face.
The situation I find myself in is that not only are steemit inc making $$$ of my content, but they are also claiming ownership when it comes to SEO and Google. NOT COOL DUDES.
My Plan
I am hoping this post will raise some awareness of these changes and the impact they have. I understand Steemit inc can do what they like, but I would really like to take back some ownership of my content. As long as steemit,com has linked this way and have no option to opt-out of ads or Canonical links, they are doing what's been done to content creators for years. That kinda ruins the blockchain for me.
For that reason, until the links are changed back again, over the next few weeks I will be removing content posted via @theexcelclub by editing posts and only leaving snippets available. If people want to read it, they can visit my site where I do have control ( and its google add free hehehhehe)
In the meantime, I hope this post reaches the right people. I would like witnesses to consider if these link types should be a feature of the block, or left in control of steemit inc. (I'm not sure if that is even possible). I would like steemit inc to give us some opt-in or opt-out options and I would like you to consider how important content ownership is, and what that entails.
What's your plan? What do you think of these changes by steemit inc? Do you still feel like you own your content on steem? I would love to hear your comments, your feedback, your experiences below. Let's get the conversation started.
I wonder if this can be solved by encrypting the content so it's unintelligible on "unauthorized" front-ends but maybe include some clear-text teaser content that would be available on others.
Now, that you mention it. I'm not incredibly fond of the current arrangement.🤔
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I've been talking about encrypted tribes for several months. Hopefully the technical folks can figure out how to get it done.
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"I wonder if this can be solved by encrypting the content so it's unintelligible on "unauthorized" front-ends but maybe include some clear-text teaser content that would be available on others."
thats just way too much for me lol
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Where there is a will. There is way. 🙂
I would like to explore this further. Power to the people. ✊
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That's the way to do it. That way the author could even implement a paywall for their Steem content if they wanted to.
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I don't really see paywalls working, obviously depends on what the cost is. You have to use front-end X to view it? You have to upvote it? You have to tip the user for it? Either way it's enough someone does it and instantly releases it for free somewhere else on a copy front-end or whatever.
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In some cases, paywalls work fine. It's pretty normal monetization method for online newspapers.
That would be illegal to do without the permission of the author. My main point was, however, that the canonical link issue could be mitigated this way (by only showing a snippet of the original unencrypted).
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:D
Imagine decentralized webhosting services, decentralized image storage, decentralized everything. Oh it's illegal? Too bad you can't do shit about it, lol.
But yeah, if there is something to be gained from copying everything someone will do it. Same thing with the Steem blockchain, if witnesses would ever decide they needed to delete something from the chain and continue to do so, it would only take one person to copy the chain live so he'd have the content somewhere in case this would happen again in the future.
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Sure, it can be done using those methods. But it works for a lot of publications. I don’t see a lot of material like that easily accessible anywhere.
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I just made a comment about this last night! I think encrypted content would open a lot of interesting doors.
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Oblivious. Completely fucking oblivious.
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Perhaps I am oblivious to something but would you be able to help me figure it out?
I mean is it a problem to have some encrypted "premium" content that folks can only access from the site or sites the content creator chooses?
I mean I get that we should want to help StInc w ad revenue but I also get that people would want to generate traffic to their own front end or the ones that work out a profit sharing model.
It's kind of like a sort of paywall but the payment to access the content is the user accessing the content on that profit sharing front end. The other benefit is you are not limited to the 7 day payout window under that arrangement.
Seems to have potential. Condenser is not the end all be all, right?
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If you don’t like it, go somewhere else. You bring nothing but bitching and whining to Steemit anyways.
You had NOTHING to do with Steemit looking into this as everyone in Slack can see.
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I've actually never accepted SteemIT's ToS. Hmm 🤔 are they allowed to publish it?
Also, you can choose to be blocked from being visible on SteemIT by requesting to be added to GDPRUserList.js (a bit of a pain in the ass)
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"Also, you can choose to be blocked from being visible on SteemIT by requesting to be added to GDPRUserList.js"
^^^^ really....thats cool
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Yup. They did it to cover their asses for GDPR since accounts can't be deleted.
Link:
https://github.com/steemit/condenser/blob/master/src/app/utils/GDPRUserList.js
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If you'd like to join the list, I'm sure their privacy team would like to hear from you:
[email protected]
Although, I don't know if other platforms also use this list?
Tried SteemPeak, nope, they don't use the list!
Source: https://steempeak.com/steemit/@mateja.klaric/go-to-hell-steemit
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lol funny it's not used elsewhere. are there t&cs to be signed before you can use steempeak? also thats says you wont be able to log in. is that to steemit.com? like can you still access your wallet? I have a feeling the problem will be fixed and i won't have to take drastic action. I was hoping to use steem to propel my brand, not hamper its growth!
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Yeah SteemPeak has T&C's. 😭.
Yeah, that blocks you from logging into SteemIT. They could never lock you out of your account without your private key. Viva la blockchain!
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Viva la blockchain!
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Here's SteemPeak's TOS & Privacy Policy:
https://steempeak.com/about/terms
https://steempeak.com/about/privacy
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You can use the Steem Keychain browser add-on to access your money very easily.
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I was unaware of the canonical link issue, but the concept of ownership here has always been rather nebulous. The Steem blockchain has always been an open, public database of uncensored content that anyone can pull from. Anything we post here can be displayed as content on potentially thousands of different websites which may individually monetize as they see fit. Everyone needs to carefully consider their own monetization strategy and goals in light of this landscape.
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Yes agreed. Anyone can pull content and monetize it and I am fine with that. Google don't really care about duplicate content, the problem is with the links saying its steemits content and they make money from it. Doing both is unfair and if someone else were to pull the content, google would still see it as steemits. its a combination of both that is annoying me. I have my own monetized website, now google think the content belongs to steemit. I take the seo hit, which in turn will hit my revenue.
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The thing is, anybody can build a front end to the Steem blockchain and decorate it however they want, including with ads. It's really no different than if you built a web front end to usenet newsgroups (which was frequently done in the more ancient days of the internet).
You still have ownership of your content but what that means is necessarily limited by the nature of a blockchain. For instance, once something is put on the chain, it can never truly be deleted, ownership or not. You can of course delete a post but all versions are still part of the blockchain and can be accessed.
As far as the use of the canonical tag, what if every front end started using it? Seems like it would negate its value. I'm not even sure the canonical tag even really applies since it is that blockchain that is the true authority. But again, any front-end designer can do whatever they want. There's really no point complaining about it. In theory, a tribe could implement some kind of encryption as has been mentioned and that would probably take care of it. But then you are limiting the audience of your post which may not be desirable. Kind of defeats the point really...
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To be honest this is not a surprise to me. They want Steem(it) was promoted was only to attract the writers/bloggers.
They never really cared about plagiarism, originality.
This is business and advertisement is lying, a way to sell.
Steemit inc will not win the game, it is not better as Facebook. They forgot about their users, the bloggers/writers while focussed on their earnings.
I agree there should be opt-out and it is better to post elsewhere first. Many posts contain links so a snippet here with a link to your own side is fine enough. Plus you can mention is was published elsewhere first.
I am sorry to hear your earnings changed drastically. It will be one of the reasons why so many left. @fitinfunfood mentioned something about it in one of her posts.
I only invested here, thanks for waking me up.
Happy Friday 💕
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I agree that fraudulently reporting false canonicals is 100% unethical and should stop immediately.
That means you: @elipowell @andrarchy @doxie-tx @gerbino @justinw @roadscape @vandeberg
You are actively committing fraud by representing your site as the original publisher of other works.
STEEM as a blockchain is tricky since the source of the data is a publicly available blockchain. That is why proper canonical references are important to let the world know where the content was initially created and submitted.
If this isn't fixed, users will have to start using DMCA and GDPR legal tools.
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going down a legal road is not what I nor most people want to do. I have issued DMCAs before, as my content has been stolen and my courses sold on download sites. However this is a little different in that I published directly to steem my self. Also, to give steemit inc the benefit of the doubt here, I don't think this was malicious, most people dont have their own sites that are posting to steem.
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Going legal is definitely a last resort.
This wasn't an accident though. I believe this was the change that overwrote everyone else's canonicals:
https://github.com/steemit/condenser/pull/3515
Whether you are posting to your own custom, wordpress, steempeak, a nitrous site like palnet.io doesn't matter. What does matter is that you are using a site to publish content that is not steemit.com
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Good find on github! Yeah, no accident. We discussed this some days ago, but I don't see mention of one issue I noticed: that even if one publishes on a tribe website, the post timestamp shows that the steemit version is one block before the tribe version.
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I hadn't noticed that. That's even more diabolical.
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What are these tools you are talking bout?
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DMCA take down requests and eventual civil suits. I'm not up on GDPR enough to know what is built into that regulation.
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@nealmcspadden Thanks for taking the time to answer. I will ask.around a bit snd change my habits a bit more.
I wish you a great weekend ❤️
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I'll have to research this because I include my own canonical links when I cross-post from my blog and other platforms. SteemPress automatically includes a "posted from" link at the bottom of my posts back to my blog. I revise those and add rel=canonical tags to my blogs. Are you telling me that Steemit's rel=canonical tag override mine? If so, that's a problem.
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from what I understand, if their domain authority is higher then yes, steemits canonical tags do override. If you do explore this a little further can you come back to me and let me know what you find out. SEO is a minefield and I am always intersted in learning more
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Yes. I'll try to look into it today.
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@paulag, I just searched for 10 of my Steemit posts by title. Only 4 out of 10 ranked better using my web properties or other sites where I posted first. I have two websites that I own where I use SteemPress to cross-post to Steemit on a 10 or 20 minute delay (it started out 20 minutes and I changed it to 10). After it posts on Steemit, I go into the Steemit post and edit, adding a rel=canonical tag to the link pointing back to my domain. It looks like older posts could go either way. A higher percentage of older posts rank my websites higher than Steemit. However, it's the newer posts I'm concerned about--post HF22.
It's possible that my personal search is affecting the results, so this is not conclusive. I've spent more time on Steemit lately than I was spending before HF21.
Another thing I'm seeing is the SERP sometimes shows Steampeak or another front-end above Steemit, and above my own properties. I never use Steampeak. I don't use any of the web-based front ends. I only use SteemPress. Sometimes, I use Steemit's UI, but only because lately eSteem Surfer hasn't been publishing for me. I think that might have something to do with Keychain.
One interesting note, none of the posts I checked where I posted first on Narrative and cross-posted to Steemit have better rankings with Narrative. All the Steemit versions are on top.
Bottom line: This is going to need further investigation.
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I’d like to know more about manually adding canonical links to my Steempress articles.... maybe we could DM on discord some time? 😊🙏🏽
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Sure, look me up. blockurator#7537
Essentially, though, you don't have to do it in WordPress. You can get a plugin and add canonical links to all of your posts, but you should also come to Steemit and edit your post. All I do is take the URL of the post and create html brackets around "my blog" with that URL, then I add the rel="canonical" tag inside the brackets.
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Hmmmm .... tried to find you on Discord, but couldn't @blockurator.
Here's mine just in case I was doing something wrong: Raven [metametheus]#4772
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@paulag, I've written two new posts on Steemit where the original appeared elsewhere first. In both cases, the re-publication happened mere minutes later than the original. That's significant as it is unlikely that the original was indexed yet. Also, in both cases, I used the canonical link tag to point to the original article. Thirdly, my title on Steemit was slightly different than my title on Narrative. And fourthly, Narrative is only a few months old so Steemit has a significant head start on domain age. Here's what I found.
In one case, Google ranked the Narrative version on top. In the other, the Steemit version is on top. Still inconclusive.
I'm using the Brave browser with DuckDuckGo as my default search engine. But I conducted my searches using Google. I then conducted the same searches with Microsoft Edge, which I never use and where I am not logged into my Google account. Same results.
It's possible that some of Steemit's posts are outranking canonical content posted elsewhere, but it's also possible that Google is the reason why and not necessarily Steemit's attempt to control the search results. Here are the links to my Steemit posts in case you want to run your own experiment.
Story 1 and Story 2
I'm still testing.
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I just created my account here earlier today, hopeful that it could be supplemental & of course fun. I really don't know much about Steemit yet, aside from 1 or 2 people saying "You can make tons of money on there!"
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Tons of money? You cannot even earn enough to buy bread. You can invest tons of money that is the idea of Steemit inc.
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Well, I guess investing is still really good!
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Well, welcome!
Have you ever noticed... no matter what people say, it what was not said that you think would have been more useful when you look back a year from now. (it would not)
Go the the search link / bar at the top of the page. Opens a custom search page. Enter "new user". Start consuming insightful content that you shudder to think you might have overlooked.
There are more roles you can choose to fulfill here than it may appear. Different paths / different views. Go for what you want to do and not for what you might get.
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Quite true.
Thank you!
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"You can make tons of money on there!"
this is for sure the wrong message to give to people and if you are here for that reason, I wouldn't bother. but if you are here as you are passionate about your creations, or you are looking for a community to join, then this is an awesome place.
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Yeah, money is always the selling point for things like this though. I mean, yeah, it's nice to get compensation for all the work put into making videos & such, but that's not the main reason for doing it.
Thanks!
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a $trendotoken tip :-)
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Congratulations @accelerator, you are successfuly trended the post that shared by @paulag!
@paulag got 0.40748400 TRDO & @accelerator got 0.27165600 TRDO!
"Call TRDO, Your Comment Worth Something!"
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site
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I totally agree with you and it's really sad to see Steemit doing the same shit as Facebook and the traditional social media. I've been using Publish0x and so far I'm loving the experience. Have you heard about Publish0x? Do you have a personal opinion?
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I did look at it and it seems to be all about crypto which is not my topic so probably not the platform for me
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Actually it's more concentrated about crypto, but I've seen people talking about different things...
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Steemit Alexa ranking has tanked over the past couple of months--badly. Since they don’t give creators the tools to help increase their SEO on their own I see this as a response in trying to resolve things. Not to mention there are other front ends that provide a much better user experience.
A few months ago some of the top-ranking slots , if I recall for a topic like Steem Monsters, were not even from Steem.. While they are going by Splinterlands these days which there is a market full of other stuff with that name and you won’t find anything about the game itself just with that alone. It is quite shocking our own ecosystem is not a clear winner in ranking for all SM information (outside of their own website). This has started to change and I guess now we know why.
This is a massive issue for a bunch of other topics as well. You would think our platform be top-ranked but nope. Personal websites and larger aggregation sites are able to populate the top searches. They have the tools and know it’s worth the time to focus on SEO which is not something that happens a lot here. Nor are we rewarded for doing so in any direct fashion.
Even my own content has been tanking in ranking over the past few months the best I can tell for search results. Since I don’t any analytic page myself this personal feeling.
So if that is how they think they will fix the Alexa ranking I think they are missing out on giving people more tools and power to do so if they wish. You also have all the other sites that can pull from the blockchain I have seen in the past posts showing up for other sites, not from Steemit regarding my own content.
There are also situations like yours where you have a website that you prefer to get ranking over what is posted on the blockchain. In the past that should not have been hard even if it became popular here.
On top of that since anyone can set up a site and pull from the blockchain there are a bunch of sites that have income-earning opportunities from my content. Unlike me who can only get upvotes for a week they can run ads on that content for almost forever.
While sure within the blockchain it can be seen Enjar owns X and Z content. I have very little say over it what happens to itand who gets to profit from it. Let alone my barging tool is Stake and I alone can’t just renegotiate terms and conditions for use of my content here. Outside of something like using a tribe tag to have my content listed but even then they can pick whatever tags they want to pull from including generic ones.
So I get why they are trying to do something. While there is the benefit of them not needing to sell Steem if they earn enough off my content. I myself have been unprofitability with my own costs involved in content creator and I have been here for 30 months. If my own abilities are hindered trying to fix that long term issue all my eggs end up in the basket with the price of Steem. Which we have seen from how the platform is doing is not a good thing for any content creator in the short term.
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Oh @enjar, thank you for your amazing comment as always. Giving the creators the tools would rock, and could help solve the problem of ranking for steemit.com.
I actually dont really care if people profit from my content until it hampers my profit. SEO has a direct impact on my traffic and so bottom line and that part bothers me most.
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I saw recently that @steemleo were publicising the fact that a post had been produced on their interface. I presumed this was to raise their search ranking, but I guess that won’t happen at present 🤷🏼♂️
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your guess is correct, at present!
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That's where I got my info re canonical links too. Now I'm confused. So all roads lead back to steemit.com?
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Right now yea
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^This!
I never suggest my friends to use steempress for publishing their blog's content on Steem when they are writing blogs to monetize. But thank you for your idea of snippets... dunno how those posts will be received by the community here.
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steempress allows you to post snippets and to delay the post so google indexes your post first. however, indexing first does not work if the links of the original are set elsewhere and from what I understand from seo in this case, both sites will be penalized.
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What if u copy-paste after a few days on steemit? I don't think there is any way by which Steemit content will still show as original that way.
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Good question I like to know. Let's publish on @weku first or publish0x and next on Steem(it).
And what happens with posts posted with @appucs? They partlybuse EOS and partly Steem?
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I post to my own site first and have it indexed before it goes to steem. the problem is that steemit has the higher domain authority and so because we are both claiming ownership, google gives it to the site with the higher authority
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Hmm, that's new and kinda stupid. If someone posted the content earlier, then it should be the original one. Guess Google needs a wakeup call.
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it would be nice if we could grab a hold of google some times and give them a good shake
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Also the war with the minuses, this is an ultimatum to free thought, it all seems so bad and unprofessional with these changes that you have outlined.
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yep but look, it is what it is and now I have done this post, people are talking about it and I hope the problem will be resolved.
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Your powerful words give everyone great power to change things.
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Steemit should add an option in Steemit.com settings saying "Use canonical links" (and explaining what they are). By default it should be... hmm, checked or unchecked? Most steemians won't care and those who do will find the option and set it as they think is right for them. Probably.
By the way, Busy team remarked this a while ago and have a "rewrite links" option in their settings, to rewrite post links from steemit.com to busy.org. Haven't tried it.
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most people wont care, you are right, but if we are to try and attract serious bloggers and content creators, then we gotta have better options. a discussion has now been had so I am hopefull we will see action and changes. i was the first to give out, I will be the first to let everyone know when the problem is resolved too
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Upvoted and resteemed, thanks for your informative insights @paulag. Steemit is not what it was, the honeymoon is over and the battle for control is under way. Sad but true. What's a blogger to do?
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well voice up like this and changes can happen. that's what a blogger can do :-)
It was going untalked about, thats now changed.
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Wonderful you have the gift of the gab. You are touched by the winged messenger.
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I thought Gift of the gab was an Irish saying :-)
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Well, I am limiting my posting to steem now... Interesting post, thanks for sharing.
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you can post snippets via steempress. It wont limit the number posts, but the amount of the post I share on steem ( I only post once a week from my site) however, I am hopeful this problem will be resolved. The next thing I gotta find out is if these links are changed again, will google see that as some sort of warning signal or will it be plain sailing. SEO is a minefield.....
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Wow, I hadn’t really considered this...I agree, not cool. I’ve had similar doubts about ownership when it comes to photos...they sit on someone’s server, if that server goes down for whatever reason, bye bye pics, only the link is stored on the blockchain.
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yes images are not permanent on the blockchain, just a link to them. This was not something I considered because, well blogging is my thing, not images :-)
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Ugh.
Thanks to the awesome onboarding initiative by @steempress-io, I was really hoping to get a bunch of WordPress bloggers giving the #SteemPress plugin a go. However, knowing how much time & money some of them have devoted to their SEO, this would definitely be a deal breaker. 😦
I really appreciate you shouting out about this, @paulag. I'm hoping steemit.com will do something to fix the situation asap.
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I am so hoping to onboard a load of wp users too 😉 so let's hope the links are changed soon
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Yeah, that needs to change... I have been nervous about this for a long time which is why I have never posted my full blog posts on here. I always make what I call companion posts that are unique to Steem that link back to my main blog posts. I do this for another community site in my niche. This takes more time but has kept my content safe--the only place you can find my full blog posts are on my own site.
I had read that some people post their content to their site first, wait a week or so for google to index it and then post on other sites like steem. The thought is that this way google knows where it showed up first so even if 2 sites are claiming ownership google knows which was first. Does this work?
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with steempress you can delay your post to steem, however indexing first on your own website and then steemit claiming ownership will confuse google and so both site will be punished (from what i have been told by an seo expert)
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Good to know! I hope steemit fixes this... I know sites like Medium are careful to not claim ownership of people's content when it's imported in from a blog. I would hope steemit would do the samething...
Medium has an import tool and when that is used it tells medium not to claim ownership of the content. Here is Medium's page talking about it: https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/217991468-About-SEO-and-duplicate-content
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" This means that Medium can only boost — not cannibalize — your SEO."
^^^^^^^ this is what steemit should be doing
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Isn’t that what happens when you publish via Steempress? Doesn’t it set the canonical link as you wp blog?
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I'm don't think Steempress would be able to change the canonical link on steemit unless steemit let them. Perhaps @paulag can answer your question but I don't think it works that way at the moment. One question is not just steemit but all the other d.apps... I wonder how they are all handling this?
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What?!!??!?!? That was the reason the Steem blockchain attracted me;The fact that there was no single entity could claim ownership over my work. This is completely underhanded of Steemit and should be addressed. I am a bit shocked that this is the first time I have heard about canonical links, Great detective work Paula. To be honest I am surprised the witnesses let this change through it is centralising the blockchain. Resteemed
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it wasn't a change to the blockchain code and so the witnesses had nothing to do with it. its a front end thing.
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So does that mean that if I post from another front end there are no canonical links? Sorry for aiming fault at the witnesses, I misunderstood how this works.
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If u post to ANY front end, it will appear on steemit and so contain the steemit links. I'm not 100% sure if other apps also have this link, but if they do, steemit.com win because of domain authority.
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I am assuming they are doing this in order to earn more from their ad revenue, no? Are we sure we want to go down a path that may start cutting off their ad revenue? If they are not able to make enough via advertising, they will have to start selling more and more steem to make payroll, which will drive steem prices lower, and eventually they will probably have to lay off the developers if prices drop far enough, which wouldn't technically kill steem, but it would be pretty terrible for steemit going foward in terms of development. Is this something really worth pursuing or should we be trying to help steemit.com earn as much as possible from ad revenue and HOPE they eventually set up a way to distribute that back to creators as the site and revenue grows.
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yes, they need to increase revenue and with more revenue = hopefully less sell off of steem. I am good with the ads. However steemit is a centralized organisation, private and for profit. The are many other developers that run websites on the steem blockchain such as steempeak, so why would we pick steemit inc to help over the others? steemit inc already let go staff last year.
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Is it better to join via Steempeak?
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I would hope this canonical issue can be fixed. I'll try to make sure i bring this to the attention of anyone I know who can do something.
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I think it will be fixed...see the update on the top of the post :-)
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I'm sure this was inadvertent. I barely know anyone who truly understands canonical links and the incantations of Google Webmaster tools.
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Good speaking up, Paula.
If we don't keep them honest, nobody will.
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I don't really think it was about dishonesty. It was mentioned in the developers slack when it happened by steemit inc but no one ( including me) really picked up on it at the time. 3 weeks later I see an impact. going softly in here tends not to work, so I did this post. had I of dropped a little comment into slack, I dont think people would have paid as much attention.
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Clearly they are grabbing credit for something that is not their's.
It's a cheap trick to grab a little more for themselves.
It exposes their culture.
They don't mind half truths if it furthers their goals.
Par for their course, at this point.
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Most people have no idea what it means, that includes me. It is not really the kind of language the common people understand esp not if you have to translate it too in your own language.
If I ask questions I never receive an answer. That says enough.
How the team published the new great HF22 curation rewards blah bla was already a good example of how they think... I wonder how high the percentage of users is that earns more after the latest HF as before.
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You pointed it out clearly! That’s the reason why I launched dblog.io. It can’t fully solve the ownership problem, but with the token DBLOG, we can redistribute the profit back to the bloggers. I know it won’t be too easy to implement the idea to the point where all of us could be satisfied. But I found it is worth trying to give back the profit generated by the content to the bloggers.
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Hi @paulag!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 6.559 which ranks you at #158 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 105 contributions, your post is ranked at #1. Congratulations!
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
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Outranking the original content isn't always solved by canonicals, Google also looks at the domain authority and other metrics and the canonical is a suggestion. Why syndicated sites often do better is because they have a higher authority and the speed at which it loads is often superior to the independent site
While Canonicals could help, it's no guarantee the original source will always be credited higher. You will have to use your syndication as a click funnel. What many are doing is revamping their posts to be more high level with the original having more in-depth content.
It's more work but it also helps you build a click funnel and if you know how to structure content you can use the syndicated post for long-tail targetting while the main post goes for high volume keywords
As for the tribe outranking story, you also competing with busy and steempeak. In these cases You can add original post links in content but these social sites need to start building their own CRM tools to own their audiences
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If steemit and the other apps could give us the tools to improve our own posts seo, it would aid steemit.com (and other front ends) massively.
I have been micro managing my seo this year( as much as you can micro manage something no one really understands), with great results. I have tried different things and watch what's working and not. The only change during this period was the change steemit inc made to the links. Yes I could be wrong but it's a bit of a coincidence dont you think.
I post to my site first, delayed uptown a week on steem. I also request indexing on Google search console once I post it. I did think once mine was date stamped it's obvious. But I have been advised that most often a stronger domain authority with these link types will win over a date stamp. It's very confusing.
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@paulag
Thank you for this, @paulag, and I appreciate your edit advising that the issue is being discussed. I hope that it results in action and resolving the problem. As you point out, until then, the status quo remains. So -
Like @traciyork, @nickyhavey and @blockurator, I agree that this is of concern and appreciate @enjar's insightful comments. Not being a tech, and as I keep on saying, only understanding the principles of the blockchain, I can't comment on that. However, I agree with those who point out that this is unethical. One of the things that attracted me to Steemit was that it did not tolerate unethical conduct on the part of content creators, i.e. plagiarism. This, then, seems to me to fly in the face of their own value system.
And -
It also irks me that If there were no content creators, there's be nothing to curate and nothing to put out there. That was my beef before HF21/22 with the 50:50 split. I made peace with it when various people explained that it would be mutualy beneficial, even though I wasn't convinced. I have not seen my curation rewards go up. I have, however, seen my posts performing better - when I've posted - I've had other distractions....
Oh, and before anyone says it's a chicken and egg situation, I don't buy that. Quite a number of us were blogging on other platforms before Steemit. So, while we might have been attracted for the potential for reward, we - and our content - were out there before Steemit was created.
I think that, until this issue is resolved, I shall continue to post via @steempress.io, but it will be snippets - and delayed.
Thanks again for this, Paula, and hope that this will soon be resolved
Fiona
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I will be continuing to post myself. I have been using the delay feature of steempress anyway and I do think it will be resolved.
You are right, us established content creators will continue to create content even if steem were to stop and all the witnesses were to turn off the servers. I never thought of things that way
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Great, Paula. Glad to have given you a different perspective.
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The longer I join here and understand more the more I see it all was just a way to attract good authors/bloggers to advertise for Steem(it).
It worked. People still think you can earn tons here, good, original content is hard to find and what is yours can be deleted.
I am happy I do not only post here and I will put less effort in it. There is Weku, WirdPress, Publish0x and for me Yoors too.
I know in short time the whole "pay the author" will be gone.
I earn nothing by curating and my earnings are not even 10% in what it once was (once after the HF20 which wasn't that long ago.
I keep the snippet and delayed posting in mind. I have no trust in Steemit inc #newsteem or not it is all bullshit. With 10 posts a day they are fine too as long as they earn.
In some months most are gone and know nothing about all those great, promising things Steem and the blockchain should bring to our lives.
Have a great Friday.
💕
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this is the very reason i never move from youtube.
yes youtube can be a shithole due to politic. But at least if your content generate view , you get pay.
Here at steemit, they bloody cut our reward and make money from our content.
I put in malaysia 60 years of numismatic history and get less than $60 from it .
My content will always have view after years .
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youtube will bring you an audience. steem can not supply that right now, but if you have your own YT audience then bring them over to grow your following and as they grow so will the size of the vote they give you :-)
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Interesting stuff, I don't have much issue with Steemit having the small amount of adds that they do. I do think that if they're going to place their own adds up to earn from our content they also should allow content creators to do the same.
I know this is a blockchain and the majority of everyone hates adds but I believe if done right it could give Steem & Steemit the boost that it needs to get out of this downward spiral.
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I have no issue with the ads myself. It's easy revenue for them and I'm ok with my content being used for that. Being an open blockchain anyone can pull posts and put ads on the site. But I too monetize my content and of course business is business so for me, mine is a priority, especially with my content..and I am not talking steem voting rewards
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I have backups and keep everything I post, most of it anyway. Images, videos, etc. If anything happens anywhere, I can reupload elsewhere. There are some things I own physically that I share (merch), other things I own digitally (videos, images), other things, intellectually (books and music I sell). But I am full aware that Steemit is a platform on which to share it all, like any other platform. While we don't want advertisers dictating what content is allowed or not, obviously, and we want to retain freedom, there is always the possibility that Steemit may one day disappear. Aside from backups, I have my own website too. I share everything here that I would share in my website, and sometimes more exclusive content just for Steemit, and I link from Wordpress to Steemit, same way I link from Steemit to Wordpress.
I say, take full advantage of the capacity to share, share all you can right now, in the present. Keep backups for later, and enjoy the journey. 😊
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Steemit might disappear but the steem blockchain and the content will remain. Steemit is only on access and posting point to the block, backups are not really the problem
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The blockchain is also not eternal, so worth keeping dupes.
When witnesses see the light, will be the light of an on-coming steem train.
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This post has been included in the latest edition of The Steem News - a compilation of the key news stories on the Steem blockchain.
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I'd heard of canonical links, what they do and liked it but hadn't considered what it all could mean for content creators, website creators and businesses.
It sure gives a lot to think about. For sure I hope when we get opt in options down the road!
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even better, get the link types changed and I think it will happen
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Thank-you for the heads up!
I must admit I was totally ignorant on these issues.
It was more of an experiment for me on earning cryptocurrency and I was glad to have it as a gateway to crypto currency. I never cared tha much about Google ranking but it does really bother me that it is Steemit inc. that has total control over the site. Would be a real shame if they were to just close it down!
Good to know about these things to keep me thinking!
Thanks for sharing!
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I think they should pay creators anyway, because our content will stay here forever and we are promoting even our old posts. I explained everything in this post Share the earnings ! - It's that easy ! and that's really easy to do. If not with money, they can pay us with upvotes from @steemit , I don't understand why that's account is not curating or delegating to little communities like @dcooperation and others. Why we have to burn that much to ask for delegation without even knowing for sure if we will get it or not. Anyway, I hope they will do something about that and support all the creators who are leavin for them that much content to monetize.
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What is the best way to check the canonical link status of a web page? I'm pretty sure I used to know how to do this in the old Google Webmaster interface but everything has moved!
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Yip, Steemit needs to consider they are not the only source anymore and for that matter, they are more akin to a headless CMS. Fair enough if a person posts directly to Steemit make that content work for the site but if that content is being published directly to Steempeak, or for anyone that truly wishes to own their content a self hosted site then-current practices will not work since Steemit out ranks almost anyones personal sites. If Steemit wants to be Medium.com then they can sure but have the tools and information available for authors and implement a proper way of doing things. Sure the blockchain is fancy and new but being a blogging site with all the bells and whistles is ancient by now. So they actually do not have much of an excuse to not have appropriate standards in place even more so since Steemit was just the little example let the rest go build their own thing the motto. Honestly, I just think Steem is just a shared database and Steemit has moved in and taken ownership with no consideration for others. The only way I think you can get around it right now is to get indexed by google, bing etc first then post to steem with a link back. Not sure how full content actually affects you... I tend to fall asleep when reading about SEO. Just my little 2cent rant.
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..thx for this post...made me think about a few things I hadn’t in mind..up..follow you..resteemed..
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Thanks for the follow, glad u found the post useful
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Dear @paulag
I accidentaly bumped into your old post. I wonder if you even still check comments under this publication. I hope you do ;)
Steemit is (just like you said) nothing more than front-end. I found it so hard to explain to new users. On one hand we've steem blockchain. Then you have Steemit social media platoform. and to makt thigs worse - we also need to mention STINC (steem inc.). Which is a company behind both: steem and steemit.
So bloody confusing.
Yours, Piotr
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I check my notifications as often as I can.
Bloody confusing is an understatement
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Hi again @paulag
Can I ask you for little favour? I joined contest called "Community of the week" with project I manage and I would be grateful if you could RESTEEM it and help me get some exposure and drop some encouraging comment :)
Link to my post: on steemit or on steempeak
Thanks :)
Yours, Piotr
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