Blog posts versus LinkedIn articles

Is it better to publish a blog post or a LinkedIn article?

It's a common question from my copywriting clients, so here's a quick look at the pros and cons of each publication method. The good news is that you can publish in both formats without any penalty from Google ????

Blog posts pros and cons

? Build authority on your own domain

? SEO benefits

? Full control over look and feel

? Potentially smaller audience

? Require readers to visit your site

LinkedIn articles pros and cons

? Build authority on social media

? Potentially larger audience

? Serve people where they already are

? No SEO benefit

? No control over look and feel

Good news: you can have the best of both worlds.

Yup, I recommend publishing in both places.

I’ve mentioned this before in my business blogging guide, in the section about the blog republishing strategy.

You might have missed that if you’re focusing on LinkedIn rather than on blogging.

Here’s the process I suggest you follow to give your content the maximum visibility:

Step 1: Publish your content on your blog first

Doing this means that Google and other search engines see the source of the content and give that credit to your website rather to LinkedIn.

Step 2: Index your content in Google Search Console

This means that your content appears in the Google search index in a matter of hours rather than days.

I covered this in How to speed up Google indexing.

Step 3: Publish the content on LinkedIn

You can copy the exact same post from your blog to your LinkedIn article, but I’d recommend tweaking the headline and the opening paragraph. This helps with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), meaning your content could be found on a couple of different keyword searches, e.g.

• Who is the best technical copywriter in the UK?
• The UK’s best technical copywriter 2019

(Same content but two different ways of being found.)

Even though search engines should be smart enough to detect which is the original source of the content (your website/blog, because that’s where you published first), it doesn’t hurt to end your LinkedIn article with some text that points back to the original content on your site.

Can I republish my blog posts elsewhere?

Yes, you can go beyond LinkedIn. The same process above applies for republishing on other platforms.

For example, you might want to publish your content on Medium (as a “Story”) or on Facebook (as a “Note”).

Remember: publish to your website first, get your content indexed by Google and then republish elsewhere.

Don’t be afraid of duplicate content penalties, as these will apply only if you’re duplicating content on a large scale (i.e. you’re a spammer) or if you’re ripping off someone else’s work (i.e. you’re a content thief).

If either of those are true, you can get lost right now. I probably ought to have said that before the end of the article.

Let’s wrap up

You can and should publish your content in more than one place.

Start with your website or blog and then republish to LinkedIn and other destinations. The more, the merrier – so long as you’re not a spammer or a thief!

Need a hand with your blog posts or LinkedIn articles?

I write websites, blogs and articles for B2B businesses. If you don't have the time or expertise to do the work yourself, drop me a line and let's have a chat: [email protected]

This article first appeared on the Espirian blog at https://espirian.co.uk/blog-post-linkedin-article/