Website Plagiarism, Don't Be a Copy Cat
Have you ever researched a topic on the internet, found a source that explained the topic just how you are trying to write it, and you find yourself copying and pasting the text as your own? It’s a common problem that happens online, but try and resist the urge if you can! First of all, you don’t want to copyright someone else’s work - that is plagiarism and it’s illegal. And secondly, you have your own voice and reason, so use that to create original and quality content on your website.
Not only is duplicating content bad form, but it can also lead to problems with search engine rankings. Duplicate content is obviously content that appears online in more than one location. This may not seem like a bad idea in and of itself, but the catch is that when search engines find identical content, it is difficult to decide which is more relevant to a given search query. This can reduce the quality of the search results and site owners suffer rankings and traffic losses.
Once a search engine identifies a case of duplicate copy, it has to find out which is the best version of the page that should appear in the search results. This is usually based on the age of the page, the authority of the domain, number of incoming links, page rank, and so on. If your website contains a couple pages of copy-pasted text from other websites, there is a good chance that they will not even appear in the search results. This can mean a loss of traffic and potential visitors for you!
The best solution is to write your own content. It’s okay to research on the web and find out what others are saying about the particular topic you are focusing on, but use your words and understanding, not theirs. You will reap the benefits of writing your own unique content by being indexed in the search engines and ranking higher than sites who copy and paste content or use robots to write their content for them. You may not be born with the gift of gab, but you do have a brain and common sense - use both to your advantage to create a website that is quality, interesting, and attractive to viewers.