Article Spinning Using Synonym Substitution
Article spinning, content spinning or article cloning are all one and the same and describe a tactic used by article marketers and SEO’s to ‘spin’ dozen of documents in the hope of evading duplicate content filters. The process involves creating multiple documents from a seed document each one altered in some way. These alterations can be simple synonym substitution to replacement of sentences or entire paragraphs.
Article spinning is often used to reformat scraped or stolen content so that it can be passed off as original. In fact some article spinning programs actively encourage you to do this by searching for web for keyword related content that you can tweak to your heart’s desire. This is of course unethical and best described as spam but to be honest not everyone use content spinners in this way.
However, it’s not the goal of this post to reverse engineer search engine algorithms in an attempt to prove whether article spinners can pass duplicate content filters or not, nor is it to preach the ethics of stealing the hard work of others. Rather it’s a look at the results of synonym substitution and how it might affect the perception of the target reader.
What Is A Synonym
A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word when used in the right context. Context is important because there is no guarantee that simply interchanging synonyms will work every time. Most article spinners come with a built in database or Thesaurus that can automatically swap original words with a list of known synonyms. Because there is no heed paid to context the resulting text more often than not can ends up as complete gibberish. (Although highly amusing on occasion.)
For example, here is couple of options one article spinner generated as alternatives to ‘used car’:
- cast-off carriage
- shop-soiled auto
If I were writing about second-hand clothes I could use these options, however, as we are talking about used cars their inclusion is inappropriate and makes little sense. In other words, article spinners don’t understand which words are synonyms according to the context in which they appear.
What Does Spun Content Look Like
I spun the paragraph above to give you an idea of what an article looks like after it has gone through synonym substitution.
If I were writing most second-hand clothes I could ingest these options, however as we are talking most used cars their inclusion is inappropriate and makes little sense. In other words, article spinners don’t understand which text are synonyms according to the context in which they appear.
As you can see the spun content makes no sense whatsoever yet this is typical of what any article spinning program will produce if all you do is synonym replacement. If you are using article marketing to promote yourself, your company or an affiliate product, imagine how the reader would feel. You and your company would both instantly lose credibility and if your waiting for affiliate sales to swell your bank balance be prepared for a long wait.
So there we have it, article spinning using synonym substitution, probably not a good idea!
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