Article spinning, also known as “content spinning,” is when you use software to rewrite someone else’s article and publish it as a brand-new article on your site.
The software takes the original article and replaces words and phrases with synonyms to make the content look unique to search engines and website visitors.
The main goal of article spinning is to quickly publish large amounts of content and rank it in the search results without being penalised for plagiarism.
Google treats article spinning as spam.
In the Google Search Spam Policies under the Scraped Content section, here’s what Google says constitutes abusive scraping and spam:
“Sites that copy content from other sites, modify it only slightly (for example, by substituting synonyms or using automated techniques), and republish it”.
That’s exactly how article spinning works!
Using content spinning is risky and can result in a Google penalty.
These types of Google penalties can be very difficult to remove – Especially when your website gets classified as “spam”.
What Will I Learn?
No, article spinning doesn’t work very well.
Most article spinners can’t recognise context.
They simply replace words and phrases with synonyms to make the content sound different.
The result is often very low-quality content that doesn’t read well.
But more than that…
Google’s algorithm has become incredibly good at picking up spun content. It can recognise spun articles quickly and immediately deindex them.
Even as an SEO tactic, article spinning is dead.
Search engine algorithms are very advanced and detect spun content quickly.
No, AI Content and article spinning are not the same.
AI content uses advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to generate content from scratch.
Article spinning uses programs to simply rewrite the content you provide.
But that DOESN’T mean you should use AI content on your site either.
Let me explain:
During the March 2024 Spam and Core Update, Google manually penalised and completely deindexed thousands of websites using AI-generated content on their sites. It was one of the biggest algorithm updates in Google’s history.
The impact was huge and made everyone think twice before using AI content.
Our own AI content detection tests showed that AI content is easily detectable by publicly available tools.
AI has even been proven to sometimes plagiarise content directly from websites!
That’s because the AI models are trained on the publicly available content on people’s websites.
Simply Put – AI content is the new form of article spinning.
And while it worked at the beginning, search engines like Google will eventually catch up and penalise websites that spam AI content all over the web.
Yes, article spinning is bad for SEO because it generates low-quality content that offers very little value to the reader.
It’s stealing content from other website owners and trying to publish it as your own unique content.
Google only wants high-quality, original content that provides extensive value to the reader.
Spun articles do the opposite. Google is clear that article spinning can result in huge penalties and even being entirely deindexed from the SERPs.
It’s just not worth the risk!
Use these three strategies instead of article spinning:
Quality is king when it comes to content.
Write original content that is well-researched, informative and valuable to your readers. Tailor your content to your target audience and provide unique insights from your own personal experience.
Add relevant images, videos and graphics to bring your content to life.
Original content is the lifeblood of good SEO.
It’s worth spending the time to create one excellent piece of content rather than using software to spin hundreds of spammy pieces.
Google loves updated and fresh content.
Spend the time to run an SEO audit and keep your articles updated with relevant information.
Our articles have ranked at the top of the search results for years because we have continued to update them.
Instead of spinning articles, create variations of your content tailored for different platforms.
For example, repurpose long-form blog posts into short newsletters and video scripts. This is a great way to get extra value from the content you’ve created.
Cover different viewpoints and tailor the content for the platforms you’re using.
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