When it comes to SEO original content is king. Quality SEO content is always original SEO content. So, how can you ensure that all content on your website or blog is original content? Let’s take a look at the top three most important original content generation strategies. Lets take a look how original and engaging content can help your SEO strategy.
Always avoid duplicate content.
Duplicate content is content that appears on the Internet in more than one place and it can be a major source of problems, especially when it comes to SEO. When a search engine indexes the same piece of content multiple times it becomes incredibly difficult for the search engine to decide which version of the content is most relevant to an individual search query.
In other words, the search engine doesn’t know which versions of the content to include in SERPs (search engines results pages) and which versions of the content to exclude. Subsequently, when a site contains duplicate content the site will likely suffer from lower rankings and a loss of traffic. Let’s take a look at some of the most common forms of duplicate content.
- Reprints: A reprint is content published from another website with the permission of the original copyright holder. While reprints aren’t necessarily bad duplicate content they probably aren’t doing any favors for your site’s rankings.
- Site Mirroring: Site mirror is essentially keeping two identical copies of a website in two different places on the Internet. Though was once a common practice (helping companies to avoid potentially costly downtime in the event that one site crashed) today site mirroring really isn’t necessary, as server capabilities have improved tremendously. Because spammers often rely on mirrored content in order to create false web pages and steal sensitive information such as usernames, password, and account numbers, search engines will typically delist any kind of mirrored content.
- Content Scraping: Content scraping involves taking content from another site, making slight alterations, and posting it to your own site. This tactic is commonly used by spammer, will damage your SEO efforts, and may also have legal ramification, as it is a form of copyright infringement.
- Same-site Duplication: This involves duplicating content within your own website. If your website is comprised of identical or only slightly altered content reproduced across different pages your rankings will in all likelihood suffer. Make that all of the content on you site is 100% original. If you are worried that content may be too similar across different pages of your website or between different entries on your blog it never hurts to run it through a plagiarism checker tool like Copylo.
Keep content fresh.
Part of maintaining original content is keeping content “fresh.” Major search engines like Google and Bing have an inherent bias towards “fresh” content, or content that is new or updated regularly. When it comes to judging the freshness of content Google primarily relies on the following metrics: inception date, document changes, and new page creation.
- Inception date refers to the date on which a search engine index and subsequently became aware of new content. This is not the date on which content was created or uploaded as sometimes search engines delay up to a week in indexing new content. Google actually gives every piece of web content a freshness score based in its inception date. This freshness score can boost the ranking of the content for particular user queries; however it decays over time as the content gradually becomes older (that’s why it is always critical to add new, fresh content).
- Document changes refer to any kind of content updates that may have taken place. Basically, search engines score content that is regularly updated for freshness differently from content that remains static and unchanged. It can be highly advantageous to update web content or old blog posts with more relevant, current information as it becomes available. But do keep in mind that the type and quantity of changes count heavily with regards to this factor. A substantial change to the main body of the text likely will have a greater freshness impact than a minor tweak to a single. The rate of document changes is also important. Content that changes on a weekly or daily basis is scored differently from content that only changes annually.
- New page creation essentially refers to adding content. After all, blogs can’t simply just revise existing pages over time. They must all great new, fresh pages. For example, on a company blog that would mean consistently generating new content in the form of additional posts.
Convey Authority.
When it comes to SEO quality content isn’t just about keywords or linking. Above all it is about providing users with high-quality, accurate information. This is especially crucial when it comes to writing compelling blog posts.
An excellent blog post will always keep users on the page for several minutes and will demonstrate authority on a particular topic or subject. When it comes to conveying authority consumers are more likely to buy into what you have to say when content is original and unique.
Studies show that 60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its website or blog while 90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that companies behind content are interested in building good relationships.
From MavSocial | Social Media Marketing Software for Business