Content writing is one of the most common parts of the SEO outsourcing package, and is arguably one of the root functions of an Internet marketing campaign. Text and written content attract the attention of search engines and can stir up interest from potential customers. This can be used to show that a website has far more depth to it than the use of Flash animation or Javascript would indicate. Thus, for companies that choose to outsource to the Philippines, the content generated by the outsourcing firm should be as original as possible. Plagiarism is considered a taboo, something that should not be practiced by legitimate firms.
Legal considerations
The first problem with plagiarism in an SEO outsourcing firm is that plagiarism is illegal. Intellectual property laws may be difficult to enforce and the specifics can differ from country to country, but directly copying someone else’s work and claiming it as one’s own is illegal in almost every part of the world. With the right circumstances, a website can actually become legally accountable for plagiarizing someone else’s content, with the potential legal costs capable of crippling a small to medium-sized IT outsourcing operation. This is less of a problem with intellectual properties that fall outside of copyright laws, but this is limited to old works.
Practical issues
The second problem is a more practical concern, particularly for SEO. Search engine protocols have become more advanced, such that they are now capable of recognizing duplicate content. The intent of SEO is to improve the page rankings of a website to get it to more consistently rank in search results. Duplicate content can end up lowering a website’s ranking score, making it harder to pick out from the thousands of potential results any given search term could generate. In rare instances, some search engines have a policy for removing websites from their listings that have nothing but duplicate content.
A lack of originality also tends to appear like laziness on the part of a company, and customers pick up on that. For many outsourcing firms, originality in produced content is a necessity because it gives customers the impression that the client is not just some faceless entity that is trying to make a quick buck. Duplicate content tends to come across as a lack of effort in creating both the website and the product.
Outsourcing companies take great care in ensuring that all web content produced is as original as possible. While it is difficult to ensure any given written work is 100% truly original given the nature of the Internet, the focus is on avoiding outright plagiarism and making the content look unique enough to stand out.