Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a relatively new field that has grown symbiotically with the popularity of large search engines like Google.   Essentially, every website can be found through Google and Co. by searching for the right keywords.  The process of search engine optimization makes a website as relevant as possible for target keywords based on the site’s audience or business niche.  For example, if a website is selling kitchen utensils online, they would want to show up as a result when someone searches for ‘kitchen utensils’.

Google’s algorithm for organizing search results is fairly complex; it is the job of an SEO specialist to know what specific factors will affect a website’s ranking.   Among SEO experts, there are several common best practices for optimizing a website.  Some of these include creating title tags with the correct keywords, using a proper keyword density within a page’s copy, as well as updating a website with fresh and relevant content on a regular basis.   The content writing side of SEO is what I’d like to touch on and where plagiarism can become a dangerous adversary to an SEO specialist or firm.

SEO professionals will make a point to keep a website’s blog or news section fresh with keyword specific stories because Google’s algorithm deems this good for page relevance.   SEO professionals also commonly distribute articles on off-site directories and blogs with links that point back to a website because these incoming links  provide authority to the website.

Because many SEO techniques are based on quantity and not quality, some people will try to churn out articles as fast as possible in an effort to push a site’s ranking up.  Many resort to plagiarism to make the cut, copying other people’s online content with a few minor modifications and distributing it elsewhere for their own purposes.  There are also many foreign SEO firms and individuals that don’t have a strong English language base and need to resort to plagiarism because they can’t properly write the articles themselves.

For a large SEO firm that employs or outsources a number of writers to serve their client’s needs, it is integral to make sure the content being produced is original.  Plagiarized SEO articles can both undermine a company’s efforts to create unique content for a website as well as can endanger an SEO firm’s professional integrity.     It makes sense that both SEO firms and individual SEO specialists take the time to check their articles for duplicate content before the distribution phase.  It also is in the interest of an SEO professional to make sure no one else is plagiarizing their original content.

iThenticate is a cutting edge plagiarism checker that is perfect for SEO specialists and firms.  Simply upload (or cut and paste) an article and it will be compared to billions of documents in repositories that include shallow and deep web content  (current and archived), as well as a tremendous breadth of proprietary content.   This includes a comparison with content from global publishers, worldwide aggregators and syndicators including newswires, newspapers, periodicals, journals, magazines, e-books, reference encyclopedias, academic textbooks and more.