The site in question is LIAFIN.co.za which caters for healthcare, beauty, sport and fitness related content. We find that many South African users tend to use the "pages from South Africa" option on Google.co.za when they do searches for the keywords we optimise our pages for, which means .za domains will receive preference above all other domains, unless I have this wrong.

One of the reasons why I use syndicated content is because I often don't have the time to write my own content. I know and realise that it is far better to write your own content, because it is unique in the first place and like you mentioned, you can pick up a good story and build a unique article around it, or discuss it on your website. When I come across a very good article, which I believe will be useful to the visitors of our site, then I believe it is very convenient for local users to find it on our website, especially if they are already signed up for our RSS feed. We keep our ear on the ground picking up good and interesting content, in other words we do the searching for our visitors.

The South African Internet user cannot be compared to overseas Internet users, many of them still do not know how to use a search engine properly. On the one hand you help your customers find what they need and you expand your own brand by publishing it on your own site. It is more a case of adapting your site for an inexperienced non-technical audience. I know Google remains Google and do not listen to the complaints of the Mickey Mouses of Internet Marketing, but it seems a bit unfair to penalise sites when they use good quality syndicated content to add value to the online experience their own visitors.