In an earlier post, I wrote about the importance of having quality website text. One item that I didn’t mention: don’t copy or use content from other people’s websites.

I know that most people are thinking, “Well, yeah…of course you wouldn’t copy someone else’s stuff.” But like Ripley’s, you can believe it or not: numerous websites exploit content from competitors. Why is this bad? I’m glad I asked….

Why Copying is Bad

The Webmaster Tools from Google goes into great detail about duplicate content and what it can mean for your website’s indexing and ranking, but to rephrase what they said (as well as add my own two cents), search engines want to have an array of different, useful search results displayed. If everyone used the same text on their website to describe their services, how useful would that be for the searcher?

Additionally, in the attempt to avoid such scenarios, search engines will usually “filter” out websites that copy text. For example, if Website B and Website C copied the home page content from Website A (which has original content), you most likely will not see Website B or Website C on search results for related keywords.

You don’t want to be Website B or Website C; you want to have your own unique text about your company. Obviously the chances of your website being filtered out from search results dramatically increase with copied content, but wouldn’t you also want to be original from other companies? If you have the same text (i.e., descriptions, services, processes, etc.), what would differentiate your company from theirs?

I wouldn’t want to risk my website’s rankings or be unoriginal in the eyes of potential clients.

What to Do Instead of Copying

Alternatives to copying and pasting someone else’s content are:

• Taking the time to write original content yourself
• Have someone in-house with a writing background write content
• Hire a freelance writer or writing service

These are just a few inexpensive ways to avoid having any duplicate content issues with search engines, while simultaneously providing your website visitors with useful, unique information about your company or industry.

How to Check for Duplicate Content

Would you like to find out if someone else has copied your website’s text? Try using copyscape.com, which provides a free service in order to determine other websites with similar/exact content.

On a similar note, if you find that a website has copied your text, Copyscape provides a wonderful little list of actions to take. I have used this list for three different offenders that have copied one of my personal websites and it worked beautifully.