Copying free articles?

[Danielist18]

Hi

It seems that I am allowed to copy various articles on education or whatever else I need from websites like Enzine or other free article type website and then post them into my website as if it is my original content. But I am surprised this is allowed because I thought that one could not copy from other websites and include them into their own because Google, Yahoo etc. would then ban my site for copying. So how is this allowed, why is it okay to copy articles from these type of websites and use them into mine for SEO optimization? I am concerned and while I want to gain traffic quickly, and will do almost anything to get it, in the end being banned by major search engines is not what I have in mind.

Please let me know your thoughts?

D

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Daniel,

It's a little confusing. But 1st off Google and other search engines don't BAN you for copying articles. They don't even penalize you. Worst case the article on your site won't count for anything or won't get ranked highly if it's on other sites too. If 50 sites copied and used the same article and your site is brand new and has no inbound links, chances are you would be buried in the 50th spot, if your site could even be found for the keywords in the article at all.

So you can copy articles, but legally only articles from article sites, giving the proper credit. It just may not bring you much search engine traffic or give you the kind of SEO benefit you are looking for. The main reason IMO to do it is to have some related content on your site for visitors to read, if you can't write any original content yourself.

Does this help clarify? Anyone have anything else to add?

 

[bigcat1967]

For me - if I write my own articles. How I do it - I basically read three or four articles about the subject...in other words, I get to know it pretty good. Then I write the article in my own words - from scratch.

It may take longer that way, but it will be worth it in the long run.

 

[racemepls]

For me - if I write my own articles. How I do it - I basically read three or four articles about the subject...in other words, I get to know it pretty good. Then I write the article in my own words - from scratch.

It may take longer that way, but it will be worth it in the long run.

I know what you mean. I may not be the most talented writer but I always have a better taste in my mouth after using my own content. Even if it's saying the same thing in different words.

 

[yanamk]

For me - if I write my own articles. How I do it - I basically read three or four articles about the subject...in other words, I get to know it pretty good. Then I write the article in my own words - from scratch.

It may take longer that way, but it will be worth it in the long run.

I think that's the right way to do it. I research the issue first, and then write it out myself from the start. It is always better to write your own articles, instead of copying the free ones.

 

[loenex]

I guess it is ok if you copy a content from other articles but you should put some citation on it. However it's better if you really write the article in your own words, in your own style.

 

[niky]

If articles are copy writes, the original author may take action against you. Generally what will happen you copy articles with authors citation. So author will be ok with it.
Search engine will not ban you for copied contents. But if your site is 100% copied contents for adsense purpose, Google may ban you.
You will be penalized for using copied contents. Your article pages will not rank well.

 

[amoona]

IMO, copied articles are not recommended but not the key factor to affect your search engine ranking. What really counts is back link.

 

[fordisim]

Using copied articles on your site is not always a bad idea, if you are using the articles as relative content. However, you do not want your site to have nothing but copied articles though.

If you do this you want to have a combination of copied articles and original articles. You may also want to use the copied article to link to your original article or vice versa because the one article may relay the message that you are trying to express but the other article may go into greater detail or explination. take my site for example, I use both and interlink some of them so when the reader reads the article they can simply click the link and read more and gather more information on the topic at hand.

 

[mla16]

I would personally go with the read, then write in your own words way of thinking, it gives you a better sense of achievement doing it that way