The Importance of Using Original Content

The Importance of Using Original Content
Digital content is one of the most powerful tools marketers can implement to expand their brand reach, connect with an audience, and promote their offerings. Not all content will produce the same results, and in a world where the market is saturated with blogs, videos, articles, and infographics, only high-quality content will thrive.

At the core of that high-quality content? Originality.

If you want to stand out from the crowd and get results from your content, it’s important to contribute something unique and impactful with your work.

Especially with low-quality AI content flooding the web, original content is essential when trying to build credibility, showcase your value, and ultimately ensure the success of your digital marketing strategy.

What Is Original Content?

In content marketing, ‘original’ means something that hasn’t been published online before. If it passes a plagiarism check and no duplicate content like it exists, then it is considered unique.

Initially, search engines used keywords to connect consumers with web content. Using this system, many businesses attempted to game the system by stuffing their content with keywords or reusing popular content to attract attention. This approach led to rampant digital plagiarism, keyword stuffing, and pages full of repetitive results.

This created a frustrating experience for users, who struggled to find quality information or pinpoint the original source of a piece of content.

In response, search engine algorithms evolved to ensure that unique, original, quality content rose to the top of the rankings. If you have duplicate content or blogs that are littered with keyword stuffing, you’ll be penalized and sent further down the list.

Marketers have since taken notice and started focusing more on producing original content that contributes to the conversation and shows genuine thought leadership in their fields.

Original Content in the Age of AI

The focus on original content has become even more significant due to the rise of generative AI tools. Now, marketers can ask a generative model to quickly produce an article, blog post, or script based on a specific topic.

The problem with this content? It isn’t original.

AI algorithms are trained on existing content. That means they determine what to write based on other pieces of writing. Unfortunately, that causes significant issues with originality.
New Ideas & Valuable Content

AI can pull significantly from specific sources, leading to complex plagiarism issues. Legal complexities aside, copied content (unintentional or not) does not provide unique value for your target audience.

Additionally, you can’t guarantee that you’re getting distinct, original content from an AI model. If two marketers ask AI to produce a blog around similar prompts, they’re likely to get similar content, multiplying the problem of unoriginality.

AI content also lacks nuance. Therefore, it isn’t specific to your business, your consumers, or their interests. Consumers want to read content that gives them something new to think about, solves a problem that they couldn’t fix on their own, teaches them new information, or entertains them with exciting, original stories.

Ultimately, AI mostly remixes existing information, leaving readers bored and unsatisfied.

While AI tools can work great as content idea generators, they should only be a jumping-off point, not the principal writer of a piece. By writing original content directly, marketers can avoid the pitfalls of AI and enjoy all the advantages of an originality-focused content strategy.

Why Original Content is Important

Originality is essential because it engages your customers, shows that you have genuine value to share, and elevates your business.

Search engines are eliminating repetitive, unhelpful, and unoriginal information from their top results. The way to rise above these algorithms is to create thoughtful, original content that is shareworthy.

If you want to be seen, you need original, relevant content. Here are a few other reasons why you need great content published on your domain.
Building Credibility

Readers want to learn from content that showcases extensive experience in their search query. They’re searching for accurate, expert information that covers their topic clearly and comprehensively.

By publishing original content that showcases your expertise, you show customers that they can trust your guidance, especially if they can’t find that same information elsewhere.

Increasing Backlinks

When you create a quality piece of original content, you increase the likelihood of other websites referencing your ideas and linking back to your content. Each time someone links back to you as a source, search engines figure it into your reputation for reliability.

If you continue to produce quality, original content, you can start to earn highly valuable backlinks on other authoritative websites.
Improving Engagement
Original content gives your readers something new and exciting to talk about, which encourages comments, shares, and reports. People may also be more likely to share content they haven’t seen before rather than stale, recycled topics.

Think about relevant long-tail keywords and voice search queries in your space that lack substantive information. This is an opportunity to initiate engagement and share valuable content addressing those queries before the competition.
Boosting SERP Rankings
Google takes notice of quality, original content. Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines factor in unique experiences, which increases the content’s likelihood of ranking higher in search engine results. Higher exposure and better SERP results mean better awareness for your brand and more opportunities to convert readers into customers.