In the business blogging world, this is one of the tricks of the trade. It’s a way to generate new, engaging and/or informative content for your site without having to look too hard for a blogworthy topic.
In a way, it actually is the process of reinventing the wheel.
Say you see an interesting article online. It might be timely news, information about something relating to your business or consumer tips. However, you can’t just copy and paste that article or share a link to it. Sharing a link would take the reader away from your site and also means that the valuable content isn’t embedded on your site. Copying and pasting is simply a bad idea. Search engines are very sophisticated and having “duplicate” content on your site will actually work against you in the rankings. It is never recommended to copy and paste content from other online sources.
So, how do you take an existing article and make it unique content for your site? It is sometimes a tedious process, but it is worth it. Here are some helpful tips to consider.
1. Always Rewrite it From Scratch
Don’t copy/paste anything. Look at the original article in one browser window and start your own article fresh in your blog management portal (or even in a separate word processing program). You can say essentially the same things in your version of the article, but always use different wording and phrasing. Search engines can even recognized heavily “plagiarized” content, as well, so you have to be diligent when you rewrite anything. It should also go without saying that you’ll want to come up with a new headline for your version of the article.
2. Reorganize the Article and Any Lists
One good trick is to mix up the overall structure of the original article. Don’t follow the exact same outline of the paragraphs/sections or points made within each section. Whenever you see a list of information, bullet points, numbered tips or callouts, reorganize the order of the list and again change up the wording as much as you can.
3. Use Your Own Voice
Typically, your blog will have a “voice” that develops over time, and it’s usually an extension of your company’s overall brand identity. By writing everything fresh in your own style, that will help personalize the content and make it more unique to your site.
4. Inject Insight
Look for opportunities in your article to inject personal/professional insight or information relating specifically to your own products and services. By adding some opinion and personal commentary, it will enhance your credibility and personalize the article.
5. Don’t Do It For Every Article
It’s good to have one of these informational or topical (timely news) articles every so often—maybe once a month if doing a weekly blog. They usually provide ample opportunity to incorporate a lot of targeted keywords and SEO tags. However, if all your blog posts are along these lines, the content will get stale and lack personality. Look for other topics and article ideas that are more unique to the way you do business. Some examples include customer testimonial stories and case studies, employee profiles, company news, product/service information and industry training events attended.
We hope you find these tips helpful. For more information about managing a more effective business blog campaign, contact NextGear Marketing today!
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