Does Original Content Really Matter?

Or, what is original content anyway?

Posted by Ryan on 2011-11-07

Google has been preaching that people should create original content. Yes sure, because copying is no good. But for this discussion I’d like to put the issue of intellectual property aside for a while (come on, is this really the responsibility of an online search tool?), and go only from the perspective of search engines.

The question is: does every website really need original content?

We know the purpose behind Google’s preach, or the purposes behind all Google’s algorithms, patents, and innovations, are better user experience. It wants its users to use Google search, find what they want, get things done, and come back to Google next time they want to find something.

So the question now is – does original content equal better user experience?

For certain types of websites, common sense tells us yes: For example, I want to know the definition of “SEO”, so I google “What is SEO”. To a query like this, Google wants to give users more diversified results. Maybe SEO by the Sea writes about it, SEOmoz writes about it and Search Engine Land writes about it too. As a user, I want to know more about “what is SEO” and see different opinions from those reputable websites and blogs. So original content matters here for users, thus for Google too.

But let’s look at other types of websites:

Say I want to buy Windows 7 OS. I google “Windows 7 OS discount” and Google returns 10 results to me.

As a search engine user, do I care about the originality of the page content of the 10 results? Not necessarily. I just want to buy it at a safe place at the lowest price.

Other information matters much more than original content here, like the reputation of the store, the price range, if the checkout process is secure, and so on. (How Google quantify authority can be another interesting topic. )

So the question is: to a query where user need is really limited, do you think original content should matter? And does/should Google still stick to their policy of original content here?

My own answers are no, not sure, and no.

What do you say?

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I have also posted the article as a group discussion on LinkedIn here. The Group is called Geeky SEO Stuff, created by Bill Slawski, author of SEO by the Sea.

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