Publish the full article on your company website first, under your name and with a date. Then post a shorter version or an introduction on LinkedIn that links back, so the only complete copy stays yours.

A new place to put your name

Yesterday LinkedIn began letting members publish long articles on the site, starting with a first group and opening it to more people in stages.

Until now, long articles there came from a small set of invited writers, and everyone else shared links and short updates.

An article published with the new tool appears on the writer's profile with their name and photograph, and is shown to their connections. Others can follow the writer to see later articles.

For the owner of a small firm, an audience of clients, suppliers and former colleagues is worth having. The question is where the article itself should live.

Why the original belongs on your website

An article does more for the business on the business's own site. A reader who finds it there through a search is one click from your services and your contact page.

On LinkedIn the same article sits under a personal profile, among other people's posts and advertising. A reader who enjoys it is invited to read the next writer, not to call you.

Publishing there alone gives up several things a business usually keeps:

The last matters more than it seems. If a partner retires or the firm is sold, articles kept only on a personal profile leave with the person.

When the same text appears twice

Search engines avoid listing the same article twice. When identical text sits on two sites, Google generally shows one copy and filters out the other.

It tends to favour the copy it found first, or the one on the site it trusts more. Against a site the size of LinkedIn, a small firm's blog can lose that choice even for its own article.

Publishing on your own site first, and waiting until Google has found it, gives your copy the head start. A link from the LinkedIn version back to the original also shows which came first.

To check, search for one exact sentence from the article inside quotation marks. When your page appears in the results, Google has it.

Three ways to share it on LinkedIn

The simplest is a short update linking to the article on your site, with a sentence on why it matters. It takes five minutes and sends readers to you.

The second is a shorter version written for LinkedIn: the main point and an example, ending with a line saying the full article is on your site, with a link.

The third is the whole article, posted a week or two after it appeared on your site, closing with a note saying where it was first published. It gives LinkedIn readers the most, so the link back matters most there.

A worked example

An independent technical writer in Victoria writes manuals, help pages and release notes for software and engineering firms, working alone from a home office.

For two years she wrote practical pieces on documentation, such as planning a style guide or writing a useful error message, and posted each one as a discussion in a LinkedIn group.

Last autumn the group's manager closed the group, and the discussions went with it. Her own site had no copies.

She rebuilt the best pieces from her drafts and published them on her site, each with her name, a date and a line about who it is for.

Now every new article goes on her site first. On LinkedIn she posts a shorter version that ends with a link to the full piece.

A client who searches her name now finds her articles on her own site, one click from her services page.

Your name on both copies

Use the same name and photograph on your site as on LinkedIn, with a line about what the firm does, so readers recognise the writer in both places.

On the website, give each article a date and a byline linking to a page about you. A firm with several writers should say which partner wrote which piece.

Articles that suit a firm's website

The articles that serve a business best answer questions clients actually ask: what a process involves, what goes wrong when a step is skipped, what to prepare for a first meeting.

Opinion pieces suit LinkedIn's audience and have their place. But an article that solves a client's problem keeps working on your site long after the LinkedIn post has scrolled away.

Profile, company page and website

The new tool is for members, not company pages, so each article appears under a person, which suits firms whose reputation rests on the owner's name.

Share the article from the company page too, linking to the website copy, so the firm's followers see it.

Keep a list of everything published, with titles, dates and both addresses. It keeps the archive manageable when someone leaves or the site is rebuilt.

The counter-case

Some owners have no website they can publish on, or one so old that adding an article means calling a designer. For them, LinkedIn is the easiest place to start.

Writing there is far better than not writing at all, and the audience is real. Keep your own dated copy of every article in a document.

Then treat the website as the next job. A site where you can add a dated article in minutes is a modest project, and it gives every article a home the business owns.

Before your first article

  1. Check that your site can publish dated articles.
  2. Add a page about you and link each byline to it.
  3. Publish the full article on your website first.
  4. Wait until Google has found the website copy.
  5. Post a short version or an introduction on LinkedIn.
  6. End the LinkedIn post with a link to the original.
  7. Keep a list of every article and its addresses.

Step three is the habit that protects the rest. An article that exists first on your own site belongs to the business, whatever LinkedIn changes and whoever runs the firm later.

LinkedIn endorsements for skills you never listed sets out how to make your profile say plainly what you do for clients, which matters once people start following your articles.

Frequently asked questions

What did LinkedIn change this week?

It began letting members publish long articles, starting with a first group. Each article appears on the writer's profile and is shown to their connections and followers.

Should an article go on LinkedIn or on my website first?

On your website first, under your name and with a date. Then share it on LinkedIn with a link back, so the complete original stays with the business.

Will Google show both copies of the same article?

Usually not. When identical text appears on two sites, Google tends to show one, and it may choose the larger site. Publish on your own site first.

Can a company page publish these articles?

No. The new tool is for members' personal profiles. Share each article from the company page as well, linking to the copy on the business's website.

What happens to my articles if I leave the firm?

Articles that exist only on your personal profile leave with you. Copies on the company website stay with the business, still under your name.

Is it worth writing on LinkedIn without a website?

Yes. Writing somewhere is better than not writing. Keep your own dated copy of each article, and plan a site where you can publish them yourself.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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