Five or six years ago, it was in vogue for digital marketers to order a single piece of content from an article writing service and then spin that content several dozen times in order to release it on multiple websites. For right or wrong, it didn’t take long for search engines like Google to figure out what was going on. They eventually rewrote their algorithms to more easily identify spun content and punish publishers accordingly. While this was good, it led to the misconception that reusing website copy is a bad thing. It’s not.
Reusing old articles and blogs to create fresh, new content is actually a good thing. It provides continuity and relevance – two things search engine algorithms look for. The only thing to keep in mind is that it has to be done properly. Reusing old content is not the same thing as spinning.
How Content Is Spun
The process of spinning content isn’t all that difficult or complicated. It is a matter of taking a blog post or article and rewriting it numerous times while keeping the central theme and its details intact. All you are really doing is changing the vocabulary and sentence structure. You might even alter the order in which the points appear. The result is an article covering the same topic with the same details and from the same viewpoint.
The problem with spinning is that it creates redundancy. This may not seem like a problem to the website owner, but it is a big problem for search engines. The content spinning of five years ago was so bad that the web was being inundated with terribly written content that offered no real value, merely for the sake of getting keywords and phrases into play. The search engines responded accordingly. Today, the practice of spinning is not only largely ineffective, but it can also lead to search engine punishment.
How Content Is Reused
Blog and article writing services like Edinburgh-based Connotations produce high-quality content for customers on a regular schedule. They may have one client who requires ten pieces a month and another that requires 20 or 30. After 10 to 12 months of writing, ideas can become a bit scarce in some industries. This is not a problem when you can reuse content.
Reusing content is a matter of taking a topic discussed perhaps 12 to 18 months ago and revisiting it. You are not spinning the content because things have changed since the original piece was published. Consider UK pensions as just one example.
Prior to the pension reforms of 2014, savers could not access their pension funds without significant tax penalties except under two exemptions. One of Connotations clients had a website consisting of more than 100 pages of information written based on old rules. As soon as the 2014 reforms were implemented and pension access was opened up, all that content was eligible for rewriting. Much of it had to be due to changes in the law. This is a classic example of how old content can be reused to keep things fresh.
Reusing content doesn’t have to be limited to these sorts of things, though. You may have a blog post on your site that is a little over a year old. Since it was published, you may have changed your view on the topic. It would be worth using that post as a starting point to explain your new perspective.
Reusing content is good when it’s done the right way. Spinning, on the other hand, is generally looked down on in this day and age.
