If you’ve been abreast of the latest news regarding SEO techniques, you would undoubtedly have come across the term ‘article spinning’. While it sounds magical and creative, you’d be surprised to know that the term has a negative connotation. It is considered a Black Hat SEO technique. What is done here is that they take a single article or written piece of text and turn it into hundreds of different variations that do not look as if they came from the same single source. This, in short, is what article spinning is all about.

Why is Article Spinning Done?

Many reasons have led to the practice of article spinning. One of the foremost reasons for the practice is that it is a cheap and effective way to create backlinks that can get your website ranked higher in search engines. The more credible links you have and the more authoritative the sites that you are connected to, the more likely it is that you will go higher in the search engine ranking pages.

But search engines have caught on to this practice and will penalize a website for using these practices. While article spinning can make articles easier to create using synonyms and varying sentence structure, sometimes even writing new material, the truth is that the spun articles are never far away from the original in terms of look and feel. This is why spider bots will mark out and punish websites that are found to have spun content. Indeed, the practice is characterized as illegal and unethical. Another reason for avoiding spun content is that it is a form of plagiarism. It can even be a copyright violation of the original authors’ work.

5 Reasons Why Article Spinning Should Be Avoided

1.   It is a short-term fix

At best, article spinning can only give your digital content a temporary boost in search engine rankings. Google updated its algorithm in 2011 and 2012 to punish those users who used article spinning to generate hundreds of backlinks where the content was largely similar with only a few minor variations or practiced keyword stuffing, where there was excessive use of keywords. If you do this today, you will be found out and penalized in a very short time. The consequences could be rather severe. The search engine could even ban your material on the internet by refusing to rank the pages.

2.   It could infuriate your competitors

Just imagine if your whole college class submitted an essay with the same title but where the content had only a few minor variations that could easily be detected. Your instructor would be really angry, right? Your competitors would feel the same way if you copied their writing style and tone, even their content, and put more or less the same stuff on your own website. They may even seek to press charges for copyright violation.

3.   AI and plagiarism checkers are getting better

It’s no secret that AI detectors and plagiarism checkers are improving in performance every day. Updated and improved versions find new ways of detecting plagiarized content or such material that is suspected of being generated through programs like ChatGPT.  It is becoming very difficult for users to generate content that cannot be detected through these programs.

4.   It creates low-quality content that is difficult to understand

As can be expected, any content that is generated by a computerized program will lack in quality. This is why even the best-written material created by an article spinner will be full of errors or inconsistencies. If you use such a program to write an essay or paper that needs to be submitted within a short deadline, you will suffer the consequences. You will get low grades or even fail the course. It will create a bad impression with your instructor and you may even be expelled from the institution.

5.   It may contain grammatical errors

If you are attempting to use article spinners or rely on any other content generators to avoid bad grammar and punctuation, you have made the wrong choice. Such automated programs are notorious for making grammatical mistakes and other errors. When an original article has been plagiarized and rewritten by a machine, you can hardly expect it to have the best grammar and syntax. In an attempt to create new content by using synonyms and juxtapositioning words, the article spinner often makes weird sentences that lack structure or meaning. This is one of the telltale signs that content has been generated by an article spinner.

Conclusion

While article spinning might seem like a quick and easy solution, it ultimately undermines your website’s credibility and long-term success.  Search engines prioritize valuable content that informs and engages readers.  Investing time and effort in crafting original, high-quality content is the most sustainable path to achieving high search engine rankings and building trust with your audience.