Question asked by customers:

If I find an article I like on somebody’s site, I like the topic and I’m inspired to rewrite my own article on the exact same topic for my own website or blog, can I do that?

My basic rules for this particular situation:

  • If it’s completely rewritten I don’t see a problem. Play around with the flow of the article (if it’s rewritten but has the exact same pattern or sequence of concepts/discourse, it may not be as exciting for google)
  • If it’s linking to the same sources, it think you’re loosing a few points.
  • Don’t link back to the original article you’re doing rewrites from (you’re not writing a news article)
  • Change the title, subheads and description.
  • Even if rewriting, make sure you’re not violating copyrights (there may be some instances where this could be the case)
  • Write your references at the bottom of your article or exactly where mentioned in the text.

The Object of Content Today

Adding content is essential — still today! Amazing after all the content flooding the internet for about 20 years now! When you think about it, it’s quite scary.

So with that in mind, I would always see how I could add something unique or new.

There are several factors why a page would rank, original-unique-new is one of them. Then we have to learn all other 200 factors to get the full picture.

If we did just that to rewrites, our time would be well invested. Ideally, we want to add pictures, graphics and/or videos to them but if we’re looking at the writing/copy aspect only, we want to steer away as far as possible as any duplicative content. Doing the latter would be time wasted of trying to place “stuff” on a site.

So my answer is no problem, do rewrites. As long as there is no duplicative content.

Some of these rules are just my gut feeling and it’s determined by my chronic Preventive SEO Syndrome.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Patrick

ps: As a copy writer you should have this tool: copyscape.com. Buy $5 of premium duplicate content search (it’s $0.05 each search so you get 100 searches).