Have you been hit by emails pushing a new article spinner lately? It seems the hawkers of spammy software are still at it. Peddling tools for discredited systems is probably the only way they know to make a quick buck. As professional Australian SEOs, of course, we know better.
Crash Course in Article Spinning
When it comes to spamming, it doesn’t get much worse than article spinning. You take a piece of content of questionable merit and through the use of synonym substitution, come up with a stack of variants that are ‘unique’. Somehow the advocates of article spinning try to get you to equate ‘unique’ with ‘good’.
You can spin on word, sentence or paragraph level. You can also nest words and phrases for even more variety and uniqueness. You can even use word, sentence and paragraph spinning together. The question is, why would you bother?
Why Spinning is So Silly
Article spinning is about as far down the content marketing pole as you could slip.
The fact is that it simply degrades the original. Even if it were a masterpiece to begin with, it would probably emerge as a confusing mess after being through the spinner a few dozen times.
Instead of wasting time churning out variants of one piece of text, why not focus on coming up with something original and of high quality, in other words something really unique that’s also useful?
If you’ve ever wondered why article directories and blog networks took such a hit in the ranking a few years back, it was in no small part due to spinning. When Google displays its SERPS, it doesn’t want to present 48 variants of the same piece of content. Google showed its contempt for thin content by devaluing the links from blogs and article directories, but some people never learn.
With Google’s new penalties in force, spun articles are really ‘worse than useless’. Not only do they not improve your rankings, they can very possibly hurt your site’s reputation and status.
Give the Readers What They Want
Before your commission or publish any piece of content, ask yourself the following.
- Is it providing genuine value to readers?
- Are they getting something they couldn’t find elsewhere?
- Are you adding value to the web?
As you can see, spun articles don’t pass the test.
Unfortunately, article spinners appeal to the mass linkbuilding mindset that many SEOs are still stuck in. SEO is a tough and competitive business so you can understand why people look for a quick and easy fix.
If you’re an Australian SEO firm genuinely working to improve your client’s website, your main focus and drive must be on quality content that provides genuine value to visitors. Do that and you’ll find quality sites linking to you because you’re worth linking to.