What is content spinning and how can it help my SEO strategy?

Imagine that the world of content creation is the Marvel Universe (which shouldn't be too hard to do with your superhero writing abilities). Now, Marvel has been the biggest movie success story of the past decade. Why? Because the franchise churns out similar, but recognisably different stories around the same themes.

Content spinning isn't that different. When we "spin" a text, we take the original copy and create versions of it that are derivative, without being exact copies. These versions will show up as separate texts as far as search engine crawlers are concerned, expanding the reach of our marketing campaigns.

But is this such a good idea? Probably not, but as we'll see, the idea of repurposing content is definitely one that marketers should bear in mind.

Why use spun content in your campaigns?

These days, we're often told that the key to attracting high-value search traffic is via well-written original content that's relevant to specific queries. Surely a large number of similar articles would dilute that relevance?

That may be true, but in theory, spinning can be effective. If we create multiple versions of a high ranking text and all are well-constructed, they can amplify the power of our existing content.

Not only that, but content spinning can (again, this is in certain cases) help us work more efficiently. A single text can be spun out and multiplied, saving time while capturing as much search traffic as possible.

How does content spinning work in practice?

There are many ways to repurpose a piece of content, and not all of them are effective. In general, spun content replaces the vocabulary used in original texts, employing synonyms where appropriate, or varying sentence structure.

So, a phrase like "run faster with turbo sneakers" could become "gain velocity with turbo sneakers", or "turbo sneakers allow runners to beat their personal best." When slotted into existing text structures, alterations like this retain its meaning but should be categorised by crawlers as separate pieces of content.

However, and this is really important: most spun content emerges from the process as spam with very low SEO value, and the potential to damage your brand reputation.

Much of the time, spun texts read poorly, lose the crispness and clarity of the original, and are penalised by search engines like Google. But that doesn't mean that spinning is dead. It just means that it's a risky strategy.

The top tools to use for content spinning

A leading content agency won't usually recommend that clients employ spinners to retool their content. However, it is definitely worth knowing about the tools available - if only to see how well or poorly spinning can turn out.

Some of the best-paid tools for repurposing content include WordAI, Chimp Rewriter, SpinnerChief, The Best Spinner, and SpinBot. All of these tools are capable of taking a text, switching the words around, and altering its structure. Most of the time, they retain the meaning and don't mangle the content too badly.

Once you've used a content spinning tool, you'll hopefully see what we mean when we disparage the practice. However, what we don't discourage is reassessing and reimagining our existing assets.

Go beyond spun content and make content go further

By "reimagining", we mean taking texts that have performed well, understanding what needs they met, and delivering additional content along the same lines, but with extra information.

This could be as simple as offering an update every few months, or turning a review into a "how-to guide." But you could also change the format to a white paper, create a video, or run a series of smaller texts for social media.

This content can be linked-to other pieces to create a dense network of relevant texts (or videos), and it helps to keep your perspective fresh. So, it's far superior to spin alternatives in our opinion.

Reimagine your content with greatcontent's assistance

If you have been tempted by spinning content, or you are just in need of a way to build an online presence rapidly, reimagined content is a good route to take. But it requires high-quality writing skills to get right, as well as a little creativity when choosing suitable angles.

At greatcontent, we are experts in recycling texts, allowing clients to maximise the benefits of their high-performing content while scoring highly in the SEO stakes. To find out more, get in touch. We'll be happy to explain how our content marketplace can help.

Text: Sam Urquhart
Image: unsplash.com