{"id":6135,"date":"2018-03-21T22:38:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T21:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2018-09-06T09:28:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T08:28:06","slug":"how-to-rewrite-a-blog-post-and-make-it-rank-in-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/seo\/how-to-rewrite-a-blog-post-and-make-it-rank-in-search\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Rewrite a Blog Post and Make it Rank in Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit:\u00a0James Parsons<\/span><\/p>\n

Rewriting a blog post can mean two very different things, and it depends on where the source post happens to be. On the one hand, if you\u2019re rewriting your own content, it\u2019s a way to\u00a0freshen up your old posts<\/a>\u00a0and get extra value out of them in the eyes of the big G. On the other hand, if the source of the content is someone else\u2019s post, you\u2019re walking a thin moral line. Since we\u2019ve already discussed breathing life into old blog posts in the link above, I\u2019m going to cover the second option.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spinning Versus Rewriting<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you read the intro paragraph and you thought \u201coh, he\u2019s talking about article spinning!<\/em>\u201d you\u2019re a little off base. There\u2019s a big difference between spinning content and\u00a0rewriting content<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spinning content is an automated process generally involving a dictionary of \u201cspintax<\/a>\u201c, the list of alternate words and phrases that can be substituted for one another. Now take that sentence and compare it to this one: \u201cWhirling content is an automatic process broadly utilizing a thesaurus of \u201cspintax\u201d, a list of alternative phrases and words that can be switched out for one another.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

See how the two mean basically the same thing, but the second one isn\u2019t quite right? You have a few uses of words or phrases that don\u2019t come up as often in natural writing. You also have the substitution of \u201cwhirling\u201d for \u201cspinning\u201d which, in a thesaurus, mean the same thing. However, since we\u2019re talking about a specific named process called Spinning, not the generic action of spinning, it removes the meaning from the sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Content<\/span><\/p>\n

Article spinning can be done in two ways. It can be done in a fully automated way, where you feed content into a machine that puts content back out with a costume on. You then post that as-is to your blog and shrug and move on. This is the tactic most automatically-created spam blogs are using. It\u2019s also extremely obvious to most users that something is off about the content, even if they don\u2019t know what or why. Google, with their sophisticated AIs, are better able to identify it for what it is and will penalize a site using it, especially if they can identify the source site.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google knows what machines people use for spinning content. They have spies around and they will buy copies of software just to reverse-engineer it. They probably have more sophisticated spintax dictionaries than most individual pieces of software. It\u2019s really quite easy for them to determine when content is spun, though they might not always be able to find the original source.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other method of spinning starts the same way, but then has a human go over it to eliminate the worst misuses of words. Things like the spinning -> whirling change will be undone, to make sure the post still reads more or less normally. This is harder for Google to spot and harder for people to identify as wrong, but it still generally doesn\u2019t do so well in search. The reason is because it doesn\u2019t bring any unique value to the table. It\u2019s still just Some Other Article, Redone. It might not be penalized, but it also probably won\u2019t rank in the top few pages in any but the most bereft niches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rewriting is a different sort of activity.<\/strong>\u00a0Rewriting content is like completely manual spinning, with greater changes. You don\u2019t use a machine and a Spintax dictionary. Instead, you boil things down to concepts and facts, essentially condensing the post into an outline, and then writing your own version of the post.<\/span><\/p>\n

You see this sort of thing a lot with news reporting. When there are only three facts known about a new phone being released, 1,000 different tech blogs will write what is essentially the same article stating those three facts, but in different orders and with different context surrounding it. It works for these news blogs, so why wouldn\u2019t it work with other sites?<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns with Rewriting Content<\/span><\/h3>\n

When you\u2019re rewriting content, you want your product to be as unique as possible. Essentially, you\u2019re taking facts, stripping out opinions, and producing something new. You want your content to be as original as possible, even if it has the same basic facts.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, if I were to write a post about the basics of keyword research, you probably wouldn\u2019t find anything factual that hasn\u2019t been written in other major guides on the subject. It\u2019s not like I have some innovative secret technique no one else knows about. All keyword research is essentially the same. The difference between another post and my post would be more in terms of structure, of presentation of information, and of value.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Concerns<\/span><\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0look at this post from Moz<\/a>. It\u2019s a great guide, and I probably wouldn\u2019t be able to do it better. I can mimic it, though. I might take the first section about keyword value and condense it into bullet points, and link to posts on each subject in other posts. I might take the second section about long tail keywords and expand it to include more examples and links to tools that can help. I might strip out the portion where Moz lists resources, because I\u2019m adding resources to each section along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those are the sorts of changes I mean when I say changing the structure of the post. I\u2019m not taking each sentence and writing it in a different way; I\u2019m taking the entire post as a whole and changing it to present the information in a way I prefer.\u00a0The information is the same, more or less, but it\u2019s presented in a different way.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This guarantees that my rewritten post won\u2019t be easily identified as \u201cjust a copy of Moz\u2019s guide.\u201d I would link to many of the same resources they do, as well, but I would probably remove a few links to services I don\u2019t like and replace them with services I prefer. This is the customization aspect of rewriting content; I want it to be full of my own recommendations, not just Moz\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can also change major elements of the theme of the post.<\/strong>\u00a0For example, I might take the Moz post and change it to be \u201cThe Totally Free Guide to Keyword Research.\u201d I could then present all of the same factual and procedural information, but strip out any link to a paid service, replacing them all with free services that mimic the paid services in functionality as much as possible. This is the value addition. Maybe no one else has written a free keyword research guide, and I can dominate that niche. Maybe there are a few out there, but they\u2019re for advanced users and don\u2019t include basic details, or vice versa; basic guides that are only superficial in detail, where mine includes advanced information and techniques.<\/span><\/p>\n

The number one concern with manual rewriting like this is to\u00a0make sure nothing is quoted, or spin-quoted.<\/strong>\u00a0No single sentence or paragraph is identical or spun from the source content. It\u2019s all original writing, capable of passing any plagiarism checker in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns of Rank and Value<\/span><\/h3>\n

The problem you might encounter with manual rewrites like this is that the source content still exists. In fact, if you\u2019re doing searches to find content to rewrite, chances are you\u2019re targeting highly ranked content like that Moz guide, which is #1 in Google for \u201cbasics of keyword research.\u201d For reference, with that same key phrase, the next results are a guide from Hubspot, a guide from\u00a0DigitalMarketingPhilippines<\/a>, a guide from SearchEngineLand, a guide from Ahrefs, and some other big names.<\/span><\/p>\n

This means there\u2019s a bit of an opportunity, but also a steep difficulty curve. I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t necessarily consider \u201cDigitalMarketingPhilippines\u201d to be a global authority site, which says to me that a good, solid guide could outrank them and be in the top five for that keyword phrase. I doubt I\u2019d be able to produce something that would outrank Moz and Hubspot, but I could get up there.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key here is to\u00a0provide more value than the source post.<\/strong>\u00a0I don\u2019t mean\u00a0different\u00a0<\/em>value, and this is important! If you provide value in a different way \u2013 like the \u201ctotally free guide\u201d idea up above \u2013 I\u2019m changing my keyword and goal. I want a basic, general guide to keyword research.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I would do in this case is open up the top five or top ten results for the phrase \u2013 all of those guides I listed above \u2013 and copy-paste anything that looks valuable into a working document. I\u2019ll create a mess of paragraphs from different posts, with their links and their value, and I\u2019ll reorganize them into a logical sequence of topics. I\u2019ll revamp the structure into something that makes sense instead of something hodgepodged together, and then I\u2019ll rewrite it all in my own voice, adding my own value.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I end up with is a guide that is a chimera of the best existing content. It doesn\u2019t copy anything wholesale, and ideally it provides more value for each individual topic than each individual post it sources. This post becomes a flagship piece of content; something that contains great value, that could potentially outrank everything it sourced because it brings more to the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, it probably won\u2019t outrank all of the source content, because sites like Moz, Ahrefs, and Hubspot have a hell of a lot more SEO power than my sites. They have 100x as many backlinks and 100x as much content, all of it as high quality as what I\u2019m sourcing and what I\u2019m producing. My guide to keyword research might be great, but I don\u2019t have hundreds or thousands of other equally valuable guides to push me into the big time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t This Just Blog Writing?<\/span><\/h3>\n

In a word,\u00a0yes<\/strong>. One of the \u201cdark\u201d secrets of the internet is that very few people are actually producing unique content. Most people, including basically everyone in the low and middle tiers of blogging, don\u2019t have the resources to do it. I could do a case study on my own keyword research, but it\u2019s not very much data and it\u2019s only centered around my sites and my niche. Meanwhile a company like Hubspot has access to the data of all of their clients, and can create a much more comprehensive case study with more verifiably significant data.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those of us without access to detailed primary sources, exclusive information, and advanced techniques derived from personal testing, what do we have left? We take the word of people who have access to that and we adapt it in our own way. That\u2019s just writing. That\u2019s just blogging.\u00a0So how is rewriting different?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Copy
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly,\u00a0there\u2019s not much difference.\u00a0It\u2019s more a matter of process than it is of result. Everyone sources, cites, and links to other similar content in their blog posts. The rewrite process is just a more direct, shameless version. Really, the only difference is that with rewriting, I end up with a document of source structure and information, as opposed to doing a few Google searches and having some tabs open while I write.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think of it like a shortcut to the outlining process. It\u2019s not copied content; all the opinions are unique, even if they agree with the sources, and sometimes they won\u2019t. The structure is unique, because I\u2019m not just copying one post. The value is unique, because I strive to include additional value to my posts, and not just replicate what\u2019s already there.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, of course, I\u2019m not copying everything I write. The rewrite process exists as a way to create content in a packed niche, in a way that can improve upon it and try to produce something better, more comprehensive than what already exists, with updated citations and information if something has changed since the existing posts were published. For less packed niches, or niches where I have more personal experience, or more opinion-focused pieces, I\u2019ll write my own original content, cite my own experience and data, and promote my own opinions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit:\u00a0James Parsons Rewriting a blog post can mean two very different things, and it depends on where the source post happens to be. On the one hand, if you\u2019re rewriting your own content, it\u2019s a way to\u00a0freshen up your old posts\u00a0and get extra value out of them in the eyes of the big G. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":6207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/timthumb-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skytechng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}