Article Spinning, There Is Nothing Unique Here

Article Spinning is a SEO technique that allegedly repurposes existing articles by creating multiple versions that are each seen as “unique” in order to escape detection as duplicate content. Article spinning software is capable of churning out hundreds of articles based on a single seed article. However any reader that reads multiple versions of a spun article would receive no more information than a reader who read only one.

The real point of article spinning does not have the interests of the reader at heart it’s purely an exercise in gaining inbound links and rankings. The tactic has nothing to do with understanding the needs of the reader or improving their experience, it’s all about gaming search engine algorithms. Unfortunately, this is the text book definition of search engine link spam.

Unique Content

Amongst the hype used to market article spinning software are claims of creating unique content. This is simply not the case; spun articles convey the same message, explain the same concepts, promote the same products and highlight the same benefits as the original does. What is unique about that? Absolutely nothing! Swapping synonyms and rewriting phrases does not make an article unique, at best this tactic should be described as article paraphrasing.

All Information Is Spun

While researching this piece I noticed many pro article spinning advocates putting forward the notion that spinning is nothing new and that information has been ‘spun’ since the beginning of time. That’s probably true, but if all we were capable of doing was spinning information we would still be living in caves communicating in monosyllables. Inorder to create something new, something that is perceived as truly unique, to evolve and move on in some way, thought and invention are required.

The following paragraph is an extract from an article published for a client a couple of years ago. The thought and invention behind the paragraph served as a humorous introduction designed to draw the reader into an article promoting a website that sold Swiss Army Watches.

The first recorded usage of a timepiece worn on the wrist dates back to 333 BC. It wasn’t the mechanical-digital type of device that would be recognized as a watch today, it was nonetheless an effective time keeper. During the battle of Issus, Alexander the Great came head-to-head with Persian King Darius III. Outnumbered 2:1 Alexander decided to try out a new invention. He had all his men tie a strip of cloth rag to their wrist, the rag was impregnated with chemicals that would change color after a certain length of time. Similar to how today’s SAS synchronize their watches before going into action, when the rag changed color his men would know that it was time to attack.

The invention worked well, and became known thereafter as Alexander’s Rag Time Band.

No matter how you spin, chop or blend the paragraph above you are going to end up with text that remains wholly dependent on the research, thought process and invention of the original work.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is rife on the internet and article spinning software is the tool of choice amongst plagiarists. It is not unheard of for one company to have their content stolen and then spun to promote the products or services of a direct competitor. By simply paraphrasing someone else’s words and ideas today’s plagiarist seem to think they have some right to pass them off as their own.

Plagiarism, as defined in the 1995 Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, is the use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.

Google for one seems to be fighting back with renewed requests to report link spam. Furthermore, comments made by Matt Cutts indicate that having multiple sites targeting subsections of the same niche can be indicative of spam. Even so, for the time being the spammers seem to have the upper hand but don’t take that as a signal to start spinning articles or plagiarizing other peoples content. It’s only a matter of time until this form of link spam gets a serious slap from Google and the websites participating get caught.