Don't Get Caught By The Plagiarism Police
When creating your website, you hear constantly how important it is to have quality content. In fact, it rules the roost so to speak. This is a challenge for many businesses as they just don’t have time to sit down and write fresh content and keep their website constantly updated. This is where trouble begins to brew. We’re talking about the P word here folks. No one wants to admit they do it, but plagiarism is quite common these days. It’s unfortunate when shortcuts are taken because it can affect your SEO.
Plagiarism can come in many forms, some of them pretty sneaky. Quite a few writers think they are sailing right along in the world of content writing, when in fact, they are making the same mistakes that everyone else does. For example, one of the easiest ways to put content up on your website is to hunt around online, find a piece that you like and rewrite it. Pretty sneaky huh? But it’s commonplace these days and when writer’s do it well, it will go undetected by the plagiarism police. The only downside is that it can cause SEO problems. Your words should have meaning and value - thus the urge to always write fresh, relevant content. If Google doesn’t believe your words to have value, they go to the bottom of the barrel. This pretty much means that your efforts won’t appear in search, which also means your website isn’t getting viewed by new people.
Another common trick is the melting pot effect. You take a little bit of content from one source, a little bit of content from somewhere else and piece together what you think is a brand new article - a bit like a patchwork quilt. And clearly this must mean it’s your writing because you took from many different sources, perhaps changed a few words, and voila - original work. But in reality, you’re still plagiarizing. Sorry. If Google finds you “borrowing” sentences and paragraphs from other articles, you are in trouble and will be penalized accordingly.
You can keep your writing clean and avoid getting a slap on the wrist. It involves a bit of active watchfulness on your part and a willingness to be involved in the writing process. If you hire writers, make sure you provide them clear guidelines about what you expect for your content. Don’t be afraid to go over the work and ask questions and verify all facts. Always, and we mean always, make sure you are providing content and that is fresh, relevant, and of value.
Content writing is a huge undertaking and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But you should also have fun with it. Remember, interesting writing isn’t stale and boring, it’s exciting and fun to read. When you copy from others, you aren’t adding anything new to the table and this will turn many readers away. If you take the time to sit down at your computer and write something from your own brain, you are adding your voice and personality into the piece and this is what readers will want to read and come back for more.
How To Monitor For Plagiarism
Our Live Imagination and Affinity Tracking software both include website monitoring tools to check your website for plagiarism automatically. This allows you to know if someone else has copied your content or maybe you or your copywriter copied them.