Occasionally I hear someone talk about copying relevant content from other sites to bulk up their website. While it’s great to add syndicated feeds of new article excerpts, photos, or tweets from others online, when you do so you typically link back to their website. Simply copying someone else’s writing is not only unethical — it will not give you an SEO boost, and may in fact hamper your long term efforts.

Unscheduled Creighton Interruption!

Unoriginal content on your website will actually negatively affect your search engine rankings, unless you use the “rel=nofollow” modifier when linking to these pages (in which case it won’t hurt you, but won’t help you expand your site’s reach). The “nofollow” tells Google “hey, we know this page isn’t original. But, we think our visitors will find it useful. Don’t penalize us for copying content and don’t add this page to your index, please.”

As though Google trolls through and simply counts the number of pages you have, cataloging them mindlessly to show to anyone who might possibly want to find a BIG site. It might work for about a minute, but Google has a brain or two on the case for just this purpose. They quickly push the earliest-published version to the top of their rankings.

NOTE: If you have hired help to build content, be sure it is completely original. A good writer will charge around $30 for a quality, unique 750-word article. Always check your content against what is already available online.

To check your content, go to www.copyscape.com. Make sure that your content is relevant to your field, and that it matches your site theme. The search engines know when you are using copied content, and they can tell where it came from and when!

The best way to increase your content with useful information is to hire freelance writers who are knowledgeable in your online market, and find a great editor to help your articles and copy stand out from the crowd. Only a library of original content and webpages (published and found FIRST on your website) will bring you a boost for SEO.

Happy SEOing!
Tanya