How important is originality in your content marketing?

John Murray +

There’s so much content on the internet nowadays, so it’s no surprise to see a lot of it duplicated. After all, plagiarizing someone else’s work can make your job easier, right? Wrong. The content included in your marketing needs to be original, and anything else may mean that your online marketing efforts sink without a trace.

Copyright

It is believed by some that, if text does not include the ‘©’ copyright symbol then it can be copied freely. Most countries follow the Berne Convention that says that any content published after March 1st, 1989 is copyrighted automatically and this is not dependent on the copyright symbol appearing.

If you copy original content word for word on your website then you are infringing copyright and could be subject to legal action.

Public Domain

Some content is in the public domain and this means that anyone can copy it.

Anything published before 1923 is in the public domain, and some authors freely put their work there. Whilst you are free to use public domain text on your website, it is not advisable to do so. Google sees this as duplicate content and this will count against you when it ranks your website.

Fair use

Fair use means that you are allowed to comment on, parody, report or refer to published content and can include short quotes.

You can also make reference to trademark names such as Coca Cola or Microsoft as long as you don’t give the impression that you are a spokesman for these companies.

If you refer to research or a report then it is advisable to provide a link to your sources.

Why it’s important to be original

The best way to protect yourself is to create engaging material for your content marketing is to be unique. Not only will your readers love you for it, but Google too – it will propel your site towards the top of its search results if your content is kept fresh and original. The Pressroom writes unique high quality web content that raises their clients’ brand awareness.

John Murray

John is every inch the wordsmith and loves a game of Scrabble above all else. With experience writing for newspapers, John’s time at university was spent studying Creative Writing – something which comes across in his love of the pun.