Is Original Content Really Necessary?

by ootaci
31 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hi guys I have been thinking on original content's effect on SEO. I was started to think from poem sites. How can you change the poem's structure? Well actually you can't. Then you shouldn't be rank well in Google or some other search engines. The first established poem site is always the #1 ranking site. If you think in this way, I don't think the original content has a big influence over ranking well but I want to hear about you guys opinions. What do you think about it? I think the most important issues are the lenght of the content and backlinks. For example I've just started a blog about two weeks ago and all the articles are above 800 words and they all rank within the first 2 pages. I haven't get any backlink to them nor my homepage. Actually my homepage is not listing for the keyword that my domain has. The whole articles are just %20-25 original. The post is long but I reallly need to know about original content effects. Thanks!
#content #original
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Don't just copy-and-paste content, without getting permission to reprint that content from the appropriate copyright holders.

    Your content only needs to be original to the point that people WANT to read your content and are happy to have done so.

    Remember this. The thing that is most important at the end of the day is "user experience". And Google is usually happy when their users are happy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    This is a can of worms....

    I can rank duplicate content and have made good money doing so...

    You need to look at the site and look at all of the other fundamentals of the site... look at the quality of backlinks they have pointing to not only the home page but internal pages and going from there looking at the internal linking structure...

    How long has the site been around for etc etc....

    Danny
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    exactly bill answer your users questions... give them what they are looking for....

    Nothing has changed new algorithm or not the fundamentals are still the same :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author Hossain
      Originally Posted by Danny Cutts View Post

      exactly bill answer your users questions... give them what they are looking for....

      Nothing has changed new algorithm or not the fundamentals are still the same

      Exactly that
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  • Profile picture of the author jackncoke64
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Anna Kowalski
      I think it's necessary to the degree you wish to distinguish yourself.

      In other words, if your point is to generate a ton of links by posting your content pointing back to your site, then maybe you don't mind as much.

      However, if this is your front page, attention grabbing content, you may want to insist that it is 100% uniquely your own. After all, there needs to be a reason for people to want to visit your site, and for Google to send them there.

      Of course, I'm no expert, but as my rule of thumb, the closer the content relates directly to me or my brand name, the more unique (and quality) I want it to be. If it's some link 100 times removed from me, I'm not quite as concerned.

      Hope that helps
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      • Profile picture of the author ootaci
        Originally Posted by Anna Kowalski View Post

        I think it's necessary to the degree you wish to distinguish yourself.

        In other words, if your point is to generate a ton of links by posting your content pointing back to your site, then maybe you don't mind as much.

        However, if this is your front page, attention grabbing content, you may want to insist that it is 100% uniquely your own. After all, there needs to be a reason for people to want to visit your site, and for Google to send them there.

        Of course, I'm no expert, but as my rule of thumb, the closer the content relates directly to me or my brand name, the more unique (and quality) I want it to be. If it's some link 100 times removed from me, I'm not quite as concerned.

        Hope that helps
        I also want my site is all unique. But when I tried to write all of the content by myself it takes may 1.5 hours to write and publish. Because they must be very long such as 800-900 words. How can I cope with that? I have to copy and paste some articles to spend more time social marketing.
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        • Profile picture of the author wolfmmiii
          Originally Posted by ootaci View Post

          I also want my site is all unique. But when I tried to write all of the content by myself it takes may 1.5 hours to write and publish. Because they must be very long such as 800-900 words. How can I cope with that? I have to copy and paste some articles to spend more time social marketing.

          Come on man, it's called "work" for a reason. Shortcuts will only get you so far.
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  • Profile picture of the author ootaci
    Correct me if I'm wrong. You mean that you can duplicate the content and if you get high quality baclinks to your pages, Google will rank you as well. I won't just simply copy and paste but I will change the content a bit I don't think the copy holders get angry or can do smt. In order to keep away from such things, I can do a resources page and tell my visitors the copyholder is bla bla. But my visitors don't need to see this page actually
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      Originally Posted by ootaci View Post

      I won't just simply copy and paste but I will change the content a bit I don't think the copy holders get angry or can do smt.
      All that makes you is a thief. If you're too lazy or don't have enough time to create your own content, then pay someone who will. Don't rip off someone else who isn't afraid to put in the hard work that you don't want to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author TCrosby
    Depends on your business model.

    Blogging with affiliate marketing in mind - NEED GREAT CONTENT

    Adsense based on SEO/search engines/CTR - DON'T NEED GREAT CONTENT (JUST GOOD SEO)
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  • Profile picture of the author harrymcclaire
    Actually i read in many places where it is not necessary for original content.

    Its more for your user experience like what Bill mentioned.
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  • Profile picture of the author ootaci
    Thank you guys I decided to use duplicate content on one category of my site. The others will be original. Hope that will work for ranking
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      So, "original content" is the opposite of "duplicate content", now, is it?!

      'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.' (Lewis Carroll).
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  • Profile picture of the author Stack Tom
    Yes, original content is a +
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  • Profile picture of the author Tadresources
    As a fan of poetry I've always wondered on what people might be missing out on because when they search for a specific poem or poet (let's say Robert frost) they only get the most established sites (like you said). Just because it's the most established doesn't mean it has the best information when it comes to Robert Frost.

    A lot of those so-called authority sites have terrible misinformation (I'm looking at you Wikipedia and BrainyQuote). It strikes me as unfair that when you're looking for something that is one of a kind and impossible to make unique like "Kippling's IF" or "Churchill Quotes" you will always be brought to the same so-called authority sites.

    It's just a thought, I honestly don't know what else I could tell you except that I agree with another poster's sentiment that unique content doesn't equate to good content.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alminc
      It depends on your niche and strength of competition. If your competition
      is publishing a lot of original and optimised content, then you must do the
      same in order to rank.
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      No links :)
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      • Profile picture of the author jackncoke64
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  • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
    Originally Posted by ootaci View Post

    For example I've just started a blog about two weeks ago and all the articles are above 800 words and they all rank within the first 2 pages. I haven't get any backlink to them nor my homepage. Actually my homepage is not listing for the keyword that my domain has. The whole articles are just %20-25 original.
    Don't count on this. Brand new content tends to go to the top of the SERPs for a bit, but usually drops back down to where it actually belongs within a few weeks. It's far too soon to make the assumption that original content doesn't matter.
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  • Profile picture of the author MBDirect
    Is original content really necessary? Of course it is. What do you think websites are for? Giving visitors what they seek. which is not seeing the same thing on multiple sites?

    Oh, and there are so many other reasons why the answer is yes... probably all covered above.

    MBDirect
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  • Profile picture of the author zharfan
    for blackhatters, original content is not their way
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffster
    You'll be surprised how often you can get away with using PLR content that nobody has used before on their sites. Taking a little bit of time to rewrite content (that you have the rights to) can work as well. It doesn't have to be totally unique to rank well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Carlos Tabora
    Original content or being able to "curate" content in an original way that shows your unique viewpoint are what make you different from every other site in your niche. This is absolutely key to developing your brand. Brands are the way of the future because of the emergence of "social signals", big businesses re-directing most of their money to online activities and so forth. If you don't have a strategy for branding you or your site, neither will be found within the first (2) two pages of search engine results after the next few years.
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  • Profile picture of the author ootaci
    I have contacted with a site and ask them if I could use their content or not. They answered positively. Then I thought to myself Organic traffic is not the only traffic method. I can get visitors with PPC as well as organic search. That's why I'm going to duplicate the content. So far I learned, the only matter is the traffic volume. Then I will go for it. No matter Google will rank me or not.
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  • Profile picture of the author jessy123
    actually content is the king in seo
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    • Profile picture of the author lindaschilberg
      Off course original content is necessary for website Google panda can penalize your website ranking so don't use duplicate content for website.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeraldNitram
    Come to think of it, you're right. When you post the lyrics of your favorite song on your blog, would that count as duplicate content, knowing that there are a lot of lyrics databases all over the Internet? This is actually a good question. I would actually think of the quality of how the lyrics is shared in this type of situation. I know it doesn't really answer the question, but that's how it's about in Google: the quality. Oh, and the user experience, too.
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    • Profile picture of the author ootaci
      Originally Posted by GeraldNitram View Post

      Come to think of it, you're right. When you post the lyrics of your favorite song on your blog, would that count as duplicate content, knowing that there are a lot of lyrics databases all over the Internet? This is actually a good question. I would actually think of the quality of how the lyrics is shared in this type of situation. I know it doesn't really answer the question, but that's how it's about in Google: the quality. Oh, and the user experience, too.
      Yes I think the duplicate content is changing nothing. What if your daily visits 3000 unique, %10 bounce rate and 2:30 visit duration? I think in these circumstances Google can not penalise you. Because it knows that your website is really quality. This is the biggest matter in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author infomaniacs
    I have a blog in which the content is primarily made of of articles from ezinearticles. I have a little bit of unique stuff, but bugger all really. It is PR3 and gets a reasonable amount of traffic, so I don't think unique content is the be all and end all....
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by ootaci View Post

    Hi guys I have been thinking on original content's effect on SEO. I was started to think from poem sites. How can you change the poem's structure? Well actually you can't. Then you shouldn't be rank well in Google or some other search engines. The first established poem site is always the #1 ranking site. If you think in this way, I don't think the original content has a big influence over ranking well but I want to hear about you guys opinions. What do you think about it? I think the most important issues are the lenght of the content and backlinks. For example I've just started a blog about two weeks ago and all the articles are above 800 words and they all rank within the first 2 pages. I haven't get any backlink to them nor my homepage. Actually my homepage is not listing for the keyword that my domain has. The whole articles are just %20-25 original. The post is long but I reallly need to know about original content effects. Thanks!
    The thing is, most guys will copy & paste a poem (your example), that's it their done with content. I can turn that poem into a Wikipedia style page that goes on about the writers history, poem, etc... then for every single other poem by that author do the same thing on additional internal pages, some proper internal linking, & other quality on-page SEO, a few quality external links (depending on competition strength).

    What you have to do is differentiate your own page from the rest of the net, to avoid getting buried on page #37 in the SERPs or worse, end up in supplemental SERPs because your page looks like 57 other pages from multiple domains.

    As far as on-page SEO the amount of text on a page isn't really a ranking factor, what is a ranking factor is what you do with the text that's on the page, which again goes right back to quality on-page SEO.

    The easier way to rank is to go above & beyond ordinary pages & site structure.

    My point here is, they can scrape your content, but chances are very high they won't clone your site structure, which is the competitions weakness.

    Keep in mind I'm not in any way supporting anyone that steals content. I used your poem example because there is enough public domain poems to actually build a full site.

    I crush content thiefs in the SERPs, lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author ootaci
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      The thing is, most guys will copy & paste a poem (your example), that's it their done with content. I can turn that poem into a Wikipedia style page that goes on about the writers history, poem, etc... then for every single other poem by that author do the same thing on additional internal pages, some proper internal linking, & other quality on-page SEO, a few quality external links (depending on competition strength).

      What you have to do is differentiate your own page from the rest of the net, to avoid getting buried on page #37 in the SERPs or worse, end up in supplemental SERPs because your page looks like 57 other pages from multiple domains.

      As far as on-page SEO the amount of text on a page isn't really a ranking factor, what is a ranking factor is what you do with the text that's on the page, which again goes right back to quality on-page SEO.

      The easier way to rank is to go above & beyond ordinary pages & site structure.

      My point here is, they can scrape your content, but chances are very high they won't clone your site structure, which is the competitions weakness.

      Keep in mind I'm not in any way supporting anyone that steals content. I used your poem example because there is enough public domain poems to actually build a full site.

      I crush content thiefs in the SERPs, lol.
      I get you and mostly I agree with you. I did some research today and I saw an article on Google Web Master Tools Blog and it says "There is no penalty for duplicating content. It is just a matter for filters. The big deal is your site structure and how you're serving the 'duplicate content' to your visitors" The main idea was this I don't actually remember the words Whatever, you're right man (I was trying to say the last sentence by all the way along )
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  • Profile picture of the author smartiewriter
    For the most part, I'd say that original content is key. There may be exceptions, but if you want to get to the top of the search results and stay there a long time, then you're best off to have original content.
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