Are you struggling to write unique content? Is your article still showing plagiarism after hours of effort and editing? These are the challenges almost every writer, student, and marketer has to deal with.
The core requirement in content writing is to deliver unique content. But writers unfamiliar with paraphrasing techniques find it challenging to write information in their own words. Plagiarism occurs when you try to copy an idea without changing the original words used in another source.
In this case, it’s vital to understand that writing plagiarism-free content for SEO is not simply dependent on a single factor. You have to keep a check-in balance of various factors that fulfill the element of uniqueness in writing.
This article will share the best tips to write plagiarism-free content for SEO which can take your rankings to the top shelves of the SERP. Apart from SEO, each tip can also be applied to any web content be it for marketing, informational, or academic purposes.
Why Should You Avoid Plagiarism in SEO?
Plagiarism is using someone else’s words and ideas to present as your original copy without giving them their due credit. Online marketers typically try duplicate content from ranking platforms to draw traffic to their websites.
But ranking a side with the help of duplicated content can only work for a short while. Eventually, the search engine crawlers will recognize the plagiarism on your platform, and impose temporary or permanent penalization.
In the worst-case scenario, duplicating copyright-protected content can land you in a lawsuit, resulting in a hefty fine or jail time. However, the duplication penalties may depend on the terms and conditions of the copyright.
How Can You Check for Plagiarism?
Evaluating your content with a plagiarism checker before publishing it online is essential to ensure its quality and to avoid search engine penalties.
An online plagiarism checker highlights the areas with duplicated content and it also provides the sources that the text matches with. In this way, you can eliminate plagiarism from only the specific parts, instead of writing the whole article from scratch.
10 Best Tips to Avoid Plagiarism in SEO Content
Dealing with plagiarism can vary depending on the extent of plagiarism found in the content. Even though search engines have a 10-15% plagiarism threshold, the goal should be to present 100% unique content to stand out in the search engine result pages.
The following tips can help you to avoid plagiarism in content to achieve a better optimization score.
1. Choose a Unique Title
The start for article writing is by choosing the right topic that seems unique. So, if the subject is unique, the rest of the article is also expected to be unique.
Instead of creating your topic, copying it from another source is highly likely to commit plagiarism as you’ll be writing the same material.
It is preferable to choose a topic that is according to your interest. You can search about your favorite terms on Google Keyword Planner to find the trending topics related to your interest. There are high chances of achieving creativity when writing about a topic of your interest.
If you copy ideas from existing posts and articles, people may avoid reading your article in the first place as the topic may portray that your article includes the same ideas as something already published.
For example, if you want to write about the “Best PCs in 2022” (which is already published online), then you can modify it to make it unique, like “Best 2022 PCs under $500”. By modifying the topic, you can narrow the area of research while being specific to the subject.
You also have to ensure that your targeted keyword is being covered in the topic’s title. This is the essential requirement for writing SEO-optimized content.
So, it’s allowed to have similarities regarding the theme or niche of the article. But you can always modify the material within the article to achieve the required degree of uniqueness in your work.
2. Perform In-Depth Research
Picking the right topic is the first thing that you have to do. The next thing is performing the proper research. Before you type a single word, ensure that you have done maximum research on that topic. By conducting extensive research, you can maintain the quality and quantity of your written article.
It would be best to avoid relying on a single source regarding research. The purpose is to find authentic material that adds value to users’ queries. You can compile the researched information to use in several areas of your written content.
Performing deep research lets you compare the authenticity of data from multiple sources. You can also come across some valuable information to feature in your article that is relevant but unique.
Presenting unique information is not only helpful for producing unique content, but you can also provide featured snippet answers for various queries. Featured snippets are the short answers or quick fixes that appear on the top of the first page in search results.
You can concisely compile enough information to provide featured snippet answers if you have done enough research. Ultimately, your webpage will rank at the top of the user’s query, which is a shortcut to achieving better rankings in SERPs.
3. Develop a Unique Outline
After completing your research, the ideal way is to make an outline that covers all the elements of your content. The outline is the collection of headings and subheadings related to your article’s main title.
The outline helps give your audience an overview of what you will present in your writing. Sometimes, the readers skim through the article to look for the relevant heading. If a heading answers the critical element of their query, the reader will continue reading the content with interest. On the other hand, if it does not, then the reader will leave quickly. This can lead to an increased bounce rate.
A high bounce rate is terrible for the SEO of your website.
The bounce rate affects the authority of a website, and the outline plays a vital role in managing it. This is so because the visitors first go through the article headings to see if it includes the information they are looking for.
Avoiding clichés and generic information for the topic is good for preventing plagiarism. Generic terms are discussed way too many times on the internet.
The outline depends on research as you have to find enough material that covers the whole article and elaborates on the crucial areas.
The common mistake most writers make is copying the headings outlines from top-ranking websites and changing their order to make it look unique. This practice is not preferable for search engine optimization.
4. Adopt a Unique Writing Style
The choice of words, tone, and writing style is not the same for every writer. Some writers are fond of using formal language, while others follow a more humorous approach.
The writing style can also vary depending on the niche and targeted audience. The writing style relies on the choice of words and phrases.
So, whenever you write an article, adapt a unique writing style. If you cannot adjust a style, perform an audience analysis to learn about the mentality level of your audience. Unique writing style means the choice of words will be unique, which can help avoid plagiarism.
SEO-optimized content is all about the uniqueness and readability of the content. You have to maintain the keyword density with the flow of your writing style. But one the other hand, you have to avoid keyword stuffing in your content.
Marketers and writers believe stuffing long-tail and short-tail keywords can increase the chances of being recognized by search engines. Such a technique is called keyword stuffing, which goes against the search engine standards and guidelines.
5. Learn to Paraphrase
The paraphrasing technique is an effective way of writing plagiarism-free content. This technique requires good reading and writing skills to implement the right information in the content. Every writer should be familiar with this skill.
Furthermore, paraphrasing helps improve the original passage’s fluency and readability. Let’s say if a paragraph is written in a formal tone, you can make it more fluent by changing certain words and phrases which are easier to understand.
If you’re not familiar with this technique, you can always take assistance from a paraphrasing tool. These tools provide various paraphrasing options to write plagiarism-free content.
These tools have an extensive database of synonyms for each word and phrase that helps to avoid repetition and duplication. Moreover, they help to save your time and effort in proofreading.
The paraphrasing technique is pretty popular in content marketing and advertising. Websites have to compete in the online rankings to make sales first. Paraphrasing helps to elaborate generic information uniquely to avoid duplication.
6. Add References and Citations
References and citations are the perfect remedies for avoiding plagiarism in content. We often mention credible information or generic definitions in our content, which are not modified from their original form.
In this case, you can add in-text citations and references to a passage by mentioning the text in your content. The in-text citation essentially describes that the material mentioned in your content is taken from a previously published source, and is not your own work.
There are various in-text citation styles that you can follow to accredit the original author and their publication in the content. You can also mention sources and credits for featured images in your content.
You can provide detailed references in links or text at the end of an article. This practice is usually followed in writing assignments and research papers.
You can visit platforms like Google Scholar to assist you in finding credible information, publications, and research papers. Each link features quotation marks under the URL, revealing different referencing styles for that source.
7. Follow a Unique Structure
The internet is considered a credible source of information. Whether you want to write a blog post, assignment, or article, the first thing you do is search about it on Google.
Most of the time, you’ll find information scattered around different websites. But you cannot copy and paste to merge all the information since that will culminate in plagiarism.
However, you can collect this information and present it differently, making it easy to read. For example, if some statistical information is featured in sentences or paragraphs, you can use those figures to formulate a table that explains it better.
You can also present feature information in bullet points by making the content concise and readable. If you’re writing a guideline article, it’s preferable to mention each step in a one-liner, improving its readability.
However, while adopting a new structure, you shouldn’t deviate from the common factors of writing style, including paragraph length and sentences. The sentence length should be around 20 words, and each paragraph should have three lines of length at most.
8. Feature Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are another way of accrediting original sources in your article. There are two types of linking, including internal linking and external linking. The linking strategy can help you avoid self-plagiarism and duplication all in one as it performs like a referencing method.
For example, you post car parts related to a specific car model on your website. While explaining the compatibility of that part, you don’t have to elaborate on the car completely. Instead, you can paste a hyperlink that redirects to another page of your website.
Similarly, in external linking, you provide or accept links from or to another website that includes credible information related to your site’s content. This technique is widely observed in guest posting and promotional marketing.
You can also hyperlink the name of an author or a book to reference the material you have featured in your content. You can guide your audience more thoroughly by sharing accurate and complete information.
Make sure not to feature any broken links on your webpages. Broken links are the direct enemy of your website’s SEO. It is recommended to feature only those links which lead to high quality and informative content. You can always post a hyperlink on the brand names or abbreviations of specific terms.
9. Add Quotations
Quotations are somewhat similar in concept to citations and hyperlinking. However, quotes are more elaborated in a set of phrases rather than a single word.
If you like an author’s words or phrases, you can exactly mention them in your content by following the quoting method. Yes, you read that right.
To feature a quote in your content, you have to mention the quotation text within double quotes to identify it as the borrowed section from another author. It’s also necessary to mention the author’s name before or after the quoted text.
Quoting text doesn’t mean that you should start duplicating complete paragraphs from another source. The quotation should not extend more than two lines or 30-35 words.
The quotation method helps to maintain word count by avoiding plagiarism in SEO writing. It becomes a source of credible information from another author, which can be elaborated on further in an article to relate it to the context.
10. Add Original Graphics
Graphical representation imposes the actual impression on your audience. A simple block of text imposes a boring impression on the audience.
So, the audience tends to draw away from the article instead of reading the contents. Moreover, images like infographics are more helpful in guiding people about it.
But it is not wise to copy images from other articles as it is also considered plagiarism. Google crawlers can realize the similarity between images based on their elements.
Copying images from another website can land you in copyright infringement, which can penalize your publication temporarily or permanently. The penalty can depend on the terms and conditions of the copyright agreement.
Therefore, add original images like snapped photos or graphical designs. If you cannot make unique images, you can always add the source to the image by featuring it in your article.
If you have made your original image, add your watermark to it. The watermark is a logo representing your website’s name, among others.
For a better optimization rate, add alt-text in your images. The alt-text must include your article’s long-tail or short-tail keyword so that it can be ranked in SERPs along with the content.
Conclusion
This article discussed ten different ways of dealing with plagiarism while writing SEO-optimized content. Being plagiarism free is a trait of well-optimized content.
To start from scratch, you need to choose the right title and perform in-depth research on it, so you don’t miss out on any critical information. Research from various platforms gives you an idea of how you can structure the article for better readability.
You also have to keep an eye on other platforms’ competition and behavioral targeting. From graphical representation to written content, it is vital to maintain the unique elements for saving integrity.
Moreover, a well-optimized website is necessary to survive and thrive in the online competition. Ultimately, it is always recommended to ensure the uniqueness and plagiarism ratio by checking plagiarism in your content.
Lucy is an enthusiastic writer for Prepostseo.com. In an effort to make an impact through her writing, she chose to blog during her days as a student, and now she has published more than 200 guest posts on Digital marketing and E-commerce. In addition to writing informative content she also provides services in technical writing for software products and solutions.