Among the many cliched phrases in the online world, “content is king” is one of the most frequently used. But it’s not wrong.
Content is paramount to your site’s success—and being original and unique is essential to your content gathering momentum and attracting an audience.
If the content on your site isn’t unique, you’ll find fewer people visiting it, which is bad for you and bad for business. So let’s explore why your content must be original.
Let’s Start With the Big One: Google
Unless they are directed, or already know the site they want to go to, people use search engines to find what they are looking for on the internet. As easily the most popular search engine on the planet, Google is almost certainly what your site’s visitors are using.
When you search for something on Google, its algorithms make a decision on how to rank sites that are associated with the search term(s). Among the many factors that go into deciding how to rank a site is whether it has unique content, a.k.a. whether the content adds value and context.
Google explicitly says so in its quality guidelines, stating, “Your site’s content should be unique, specific and high-quality.”
Google will even penalize duplicate or “thin” content, especially when it comes to people’s money being at stake. Be super careful that you aren’t letting your website down with generic content.
Bottom Line: You want to rank as highly as possible on Google. The higher you rank, the greater your chances of outstripping your competitors. So, invest time and effort into creating high-quality, unique content.
But What About Your Audience?
Google crawls your site to decide how and where to rank it. But Google is a bot, a machine, a glorified toaster. Well, perhaps not the last one. The point is true, though; Google isn’t reading your content—your audience is.
Your content sells the value of your brand and you need to use this to forge a personal connection with your audience. A brand like Dollar Shave Club is a great example of how unique content makes a brand selling generic goods stand out from their peers.
It’s funny, a mixture of being self-effacing, self-assured, informative, and memorable; 25 million views later, they have over 3 million subscribers to their brand.
Audience-led content is particularly important to remember if you run an eCommerce site that sells goods to your customers via a third party, also known as dropshipping.
Unique content is super important for dropshippers because the products you sell can be generic, and will be also stocked by other companies. As a dropshipper, investing in your brand and content is a great way to ensure that you get good SEO and audience value out of your website.
Bottom Line: Your content may not necessarily carry the same viral impact as Dollar Shave Club. However, the lesson remains: by using interesting, unique, and engaging content, you give your audience a reason to chose your brand over your competitors.
It’s Not Just Your Words That Have to Be Unique
As you’ve seen with Dollar Shave Club’s video, content is not just text. It’s also visuals. Content is an umbrella term that covers anything from photos and infographics to videos and GIFs—alongside written articles.
This means you can’t just hide behind your gift for a catchy line and witty phrase.
Photos, infographics, videos, GIFs, and memes are all mediums that you can use to inject some life into your site. There are a wealth of great tools available to help you do just that. Here are some of the best:
Ripl
This app makes it easy to create videos, flyers, and animations, which you can then share with your social media followers with the click of a button. Use it free or upgrade to Ripl Pro for even more features.
Canva
If you’re worried about personalizing your photos, this software will make it a walk in the park—a pretty one at that. Canva has a brilliant, simple editing interface and great guidance.
RenderForest
Creating video content is a whole lot simpler with RenderForest. Just select a template, add your text and video clips or draw from their library of 115,000+ stock videos, then select background music.
In just a few minutes, you can produce great-looking promotional, slideshow, and explainer videos that make you look like a video pro. No experience required.
Bottom Line: Content isn’t just the written word. It’s how you engage with your audience and, more importantly, how your audience wants you to engage with them. Use the right type of content on your site for the people engaging with it and make sure you put your own slant on it.
You Can Economize Your Uniqueness
All of this “being unique” sounds like an awful lot of work. That’s why it’s important to be economical with your content. Here are a few ideas for doing that.
Go Evergreen
By focusing on evergreen topics, you can create unique content with less effort. First, it can be repurposed, so you can get more mileage out of individual pieces of content.
Publish the same information in a variety of formats for different channels. Or revisit old or outdated content, add a few tweaks to freshen it up, and then republish it as new unique content.
Second, evergreen content is excellent for your site’s SEO because it has no expiry date. This means that your evergreen content can feature in search results over and over again, and increase the visibility of your site.
Do Roundups
Roundups are another great way of creating unique content with less effort.
They can be quick to produce, allow you to inject personality into your content, and give you the opportunity to tag a variety of sources in the article, increasing your chances of getting shares on your social network accounts.
Similar to your evergreen content, you can return to your roundups at a later stage and repurpose the content or use them to inspire future articles.
Image: Max Pixel
Bottom Line: It doesn’t take a lot of extra work to create unique, high-quality content. In fact, if you’re smart about it, you can create evergreen or crowdsourced content that adds a ton of value without requiring a lot of time on your part.
Your Content Must be Original
It’s immensely important to ensure that your content is unique. If you don’t, then you could be penalized by Google and ignored by your audience.
It’s easier for your site’s content to be unique than you might think. By following the advice I have given you above, you’ll find it a breeze, and ensure your site stands out from the crowd.
Feature Image Credit: PublicDomainPictures
About the Author: Victoria Greene is a branding consultant and freelance writer. On her blog, Victoria Ecommerce, she shares tips on ecommerce and how writers can hone their craft. She is passionate about using her experience to help other writers develop their skills.
