If there’s one thing that the past several Google algorithm updates have taught us, it’s why unique content is important for SEO. Original content provides value to your audience, ranks higher in SERPs, and helps you to grow authority within your niche.
However, crafting unique content can also be, well, slow. Given how long it takes, you wouldn’t be the first to ask whether generative AI might help you expedite content creation. In this article, we’re going to look at what makes content unique, why that matters, and whether AI tools can help you get there.
What we’ll cover on this article:
- Why does unique content matter for SEO?
- What qualities make content unique?
- Can AI-generated content be unique?
- Need unique content? Ranq can deliver it!
Why does unique content matter for SEO?
If you’re invested in content creation, you probably want to boost the search engine optimization (SEO) of your website. Let’s explore how unique content can affect search performance.
Avoid negative consequences of duplicate content
Duplicate content is any identical—or nearly identical—text that appears in more than one place on the internet.
Whether it’s duplicated within a single site or across multiple websites, duplicate content can come with a slew of nasty side effects:
- Decreases ranking potential of the page/site
- Risks your page not being indexed at all
- Keyword cannibalization within your website
- Possible penalization (only with the intent to “manipulate search engine results”)
Making sure you’re creating unique content can help guard you against these negative consequences. It’s important to bear in mind that the main body text isn’t the only place where duplicate content becomes an issue; you must also consider page titles, headings, and metadata.
Add a unique perspective to what’s already on SERPs
Search engines want to serve distinct content to add value to search results. They’re always looking for pages that can add more to what’s already there.
By publishing unique content, you’re communicating the value of your website to the search engines and are more likely to see your content rank highly. If the same information is published twice, it isn’t likely to be served up twice—meaning that one page or the other will be excluded from the search results.
To avoid your content being excluded from the search results, and to ensure you offer something of real value to your audience, aim to add a new perspective to what’s already out there—not just recreate it.
Offer better user experience to readers wanting new information
Unique content provides an excellent user experience by presenting information that’s helpful, reliable, and actionable. Google calls this “people-first” content—content created for humans first and search engines second.
Rather than simply restating existing information, create people-first content by adding a new perspective, filling content gaps in other ranking content, or presenting information in a clearer format.
That being said, creating unique content is often easier said than done. Luckily, that’s where Ranq comes in, offering world-class content creation you can count on.
What qualities make content unique?
Now that we know why unique content is a must-have for SEO, let’s take a look at the top characteristics of unique content.
Content isn’t plagiarized from other sites
The first and most obvious characteristic of unique content is that it is unplagiarized, meaning it’s not directly copied from another source. Plagiarism is the act of reusing content—whether that’s text, imagery, video, or intellectual property—that belongs to someone else, without giving proper attribution.
Intentional or not, plagiarism decreases the integrity of your content and negatively impacts both your site’s reputation and SEO ranking.
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to create content that showcases your own experiences, research, analysis, or ideas. When you draw on other sources— whether by quoting or paraphrasing—make sure to link to and cite them properly.
Content expands on information from top-competing pages
If creating top-ranking content requires one to match the content in top-competing pages, how can one create unique content that ranks?
That’s a great question.
When you do a SERP analysis to analyze the top-ranking content for a given keyword, you’re doing three things:
- Establishing keyword intent
- Learning what type of content is ranking
- Determining whether you can reasonably rank
With this information, you can guarantee the content you create for the same keyword is aligned in terms of intent, style, and word count. It also gives you a great sense of what search engines consider “topic completion” for that keyword.
However, none of that requires you to copy the top-ranking content, and doing so is a surefire way to ensure you don’t rank. Aim to expand upon the information given in top-competing pages—and then go one step further. Your content should have something new to offer unique value to your readers.
Content offers new perspectives and fills content gaps
Great content can summarize a topic well and offer a new perspective—a serious ask in just 1,200 words!
With so much available on the internet, it might seem near-impossible to create unique content. However, recognize that you can address the same topic while still adding value, such as presenting the information in a new way or filling an obvious content gap.
For instance, this might look like:
- Questioning a commonly-held perspective on a topic
- Presenting existing information in a helpful and concise format
- Offering a new opinion, perspective, or approach to a topic
- Improving topic completion
- Creating a rich media asset to represent existing information
- Presenting your own research or data on a subject
- Interviewing a subject expert (or speaking as an expert yourself)
If strategizing how to create unique content on your own is feeling too much, there are experts on hand to help you do just that.
Content has a distinctive voice and style
Finally, unique content is characterized by having its own voice and style. This is how your readers know your blog from, say, your main competitor’s blog.
While different topics will call for varying approaches and angles, it’s good practice to maintain a consistent style and voice throughout your blog, copy, and landing pages. This is a key part of your overall digital marketing strategy and is part of how readers identify with your brand.
Having a comprehensive content marketing strategy with documented content processes is a great way to ensure consistency across your digital channels.
Can AI-generated content be unique?
In short, no—and it comes down to how AI tools are created.
AI-generated content is created by algorithmic tools (think: ChatGPT, Grammarly, Jasper, etc.) as opposed to human content creators. These AI tools are developed through machine learning—a segment of artificial intelligence in which machines “learn” through data processing.
Unlike traditional programming—in which a programmer manually creates a computer program that dictates how a machine will function—machine learning algorithms automatically formulate a program based on the results of data processing.
In the case of text-generative AI, a program is created by sifting through extensive amounts of text-based content such as blogs, articles, and web pages. Based on this content, the AI tool “learns” how to create content of a similar style, structure, and tone.
This means that, no matter how unique it might seem, AI-created content is derivative by definition. AI simply isn’t able to create authentic, original content since it can’t create anything “from scratch.” Instead, it works to mimic existing content—a task it does with increasing speed and accuracy.
Artificial intelligence has presented content creators with a variety of efficiency-increasing tools that expedite researching, writing, and editing processes. However, AI is just that: a tool.
AI can’t replace your content writer, and it certainly can’t create unique content that’s set to see you rise up the SERPs. For that, you’re going to need Ranq.
Everyone needs unique content, and Ranq can deliver it!
No time to research and write SEO-optimized content? Instead of relying on an AI tool to create duplicate content, start publishing unique content with the help of a digital marketing agency.
Ranq’s content marketing service gives you a custom content strategy and 6 unique blog articles per month, as well as rich media offerings, regular content audits, and monthly content optimizations. To learn more about how we can help you upgrade your content, reach out to the team at Ranq today!