CopyScape: Write Original Content For Your Web Site
ByEven though backlinks are becoming more and more important in how search engines rank pages (especially in larger niches), content is still the foundation for solid SEO.
For this site, I write all the content myself. But for my many small affiliate websites and Adsense sites I use different strategies for creating the content. Most of the content for those sites is written by one of my virtual assistants. Depending on the VA, I may provide them with PLR content to rewrite, provide specific articles for rewrites, or simply supply them a list of keywords for articles to write.
I find base articles or content and simply rewrite it into original content. Again, for your main blog or site, you should write the content based solely on your own knowledge and experience. This rewriting strategy is only used for the many different affiliate or AdSense sites you may have.
When you employ this strategy, one of the tools you should use in the process is found at CopyScape.com. CopyScape is a very low cost way for quickly checking yourself or your writers to ensure the new content is original.
Although there is no way to know exactly how closely CopyScape mimics Google’s own process for checking duplicate content, it’s the best tool we currently have.
Although a small bit of duplicate content in an article probably will not hurt anything, I simply tell my VA’s that all articles must pass CopyScape completely; it’s just easier that way.
Note also that there is a threshold which must be reached before CopyScape flags content as duplicate. Therefore, when it finds duplicate articles and you click it’s “compare text” button, you may see many short phrases lists. You may wonder how you could possibly eliminate all those types of phrases. But remember, CopyScape won’t flag those phrases unless there are too many of them. In other words, let’s say it flags 20 phrases in your article. It’s quite possible that if you only fixed half of those, the article would then be considered original.
Here’s the video…..
Hi Steve,
You always provide easy to understand info and give value. I sure do appreciate your copyscape.com info and will now not hesitate to go over to the premium.
Thanks as always.
PS give a shout out , it has been a long time since we last chatted. 😉
Hi Tanya…nice to hear from you! I checked out your site….it has a google page rank of 3….great job on that!
Thanks Steve, I spaced out on checking loads of my content before, so I joined up and used copyscape recently. I had a quick look and found 1 guy who, after I checked had used some scraper software to make some sites [he said], and duplicated quite a few pages from 1 of my sites. I emailed him and he apologized and removed the content for me 🙂
I am sure your recommendation will help a lot of people.
Hi Steve
Great information in my learning process. I read a part of your posted information on your web site every day and keep learning. Thank you for that.
Just wanted to give you an update my direction, not giving up, but taking longer than planned.
I got someone to help me with the web site and got about half done since the first of March. I was told to learn Word Press and get back to him if I need more help. WP learning I do daily. Spend several hours every day, 7 days a week trying to learn about Internet marketing.
Still having problems understanding and seem to be on info overload.
Signed up for Host Gator the First of March for the baby plan, but change to the Hatching plan because of the cost reduction and I have only one web site. Not sure how this or Host Gator, C Panel works either. I was told by another person I was foolish to reduce the hosting feature for a small amt of money. Do not know what I am doing.
In the mail, I received From Host Gator, a $100 free advertising gift card, AdWords and do not understand this either. This needs to be used by The end of June and will not have the web page done by that time at the rate I am learning.
So I was going to trash this and one one of my email contacts said they would be glad to take this off my hands, so i am checking with Host Gator to give this away as it will not be of any benefit to me.
All the great information you send out is well done and appreciated.
Wishing you the best and good health everyday
The UMN.edu is my wifes email address and I get your messages from Gmail for your records.
Thank you for all you do.
Sincerely.
Bob Taylor
bob0293@gmail.com
yeah, that’s a problem….I’ve pretty much given up on it. Many of the scarpers are overseas, so there is no way to stop it.
Hi Bob…nice to hear from you again!
I’m sure you have seen them, but I have a lot of hosting, cpanel and wordpress videos here: http://wordpress-17920-39382-109004.cloudwaysapps.com/wordpress-hosting-videos/
Well, you can change back to the higher plan with HostGator anytime you get another site; then you can just add the site as an add-on for no extra cost.
Yes, whatever you do, become good with wordpress….you just have to practice.
As for the $100 in AdWords….forget it….AdWords is good for small niches if you are selling something (not good for affiliate or AdSense sites)….but even if you are selling something, the learning curve for achieving a good return on investment is very very steep. $100 is just a drop in the bucket for what the learning process would require.
Basically, pick a tiny niche and just get it going…..create optimized content for the site and then get backlinks. Just understanding how to do that puts you at least 80% there.
I am very happy I came across this post. I am always looking for this kind of information. I have been in the internet marketing game for about four years, and I have come to realize that there is no “majic software”. It take time and effort to earn anything onine. I just hope I will be able to steer people in the right direction, once I fine it. 🙂 I like WordPress.org the best. I own my own hosing and it does seem to be easier to create content and post, without the fear of being shut down. I appreciate it and I will be back!
You are welcome Susanna. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with ever.
Hi Steve
Thank you for the good information and great direction as usual,
You are always helpful and know what you are talking about.
You are appreciated by me for all you do.
Bob Taylor, MN
Good post, Steve!
It’s been a pleasure working with you and we hope the VA’s we’ve provided to you through the last few months have been useful/valuable. To be honest, we rarely get involved with IMers…it’s just not usually worth our time, the hassle, and the limited amount of work and hours they need from us. In your case, we know that you’re a true professional and are happy to work with you and share strategies and information.
One quick note on Copyscape I can add:
Make sure that you don’t past the entire article into Copyscape. There are many times where we checked the entire article and it passed, but when we broke it up into paragraphs there were some obvious strings that were obviously copied directly from somewhere else. It costs very little to run those checks on the paid version, so it’s worth it to check paragraph by paragraph to make sure the content’s unique. (Especially if you’re ordering from content writers through websites, Fiverr, etc.)
Hi Justin, hmmm, that is interesting. I knew copyscape can be “flaky” sometimes in not showing the same results twice, but hadn’t thought about that. It makes some sense though as they will flag every little thing once a threshold is met. The more you paste in, the more dilute some of the duplicate will be.
Out of the hudreds of emails i get from internet coaches, steves are the ones i ALWAYS open, and read, Thanks as usual for great worthwhile information.
Thanks Brent! Let me know if I can ever help you with anything….