Is Unique Content STILL important for SEO?

To find out, let’s dive back into the world of SEO content and see if the best methods have changed, and if doing it yourself is still the best way to boost your business.

What is Unique Content?

First, we need to go back to basics. Your written content (or copy) is all the words on your website. This can be blogs, pages, product descriptions, or a combination of all three and more depending on your business.

Some businesses create a shiny new website but leave it to gather dust while they focus on running the company. Adding new content to your site not only has major SEO benefits, but it also keeps things fresh for your regular visitors too.

But since there are only so many words out there; how can you be sure that your content is ‘unique’? Even if your industry is niche, surely there is only so much you can write about?

How to Create Unique Content

In the SEO world ‘unique’ doesn’t mean ‘every word must be different’.

To understand it better, let’s look at it from a different angle.

‘Duplicate’ content is a major detriment for SEO. If you’ve copied and pasted paragraphs onto multiple pages and blogs, it makes the search engine overlords think you haven’t put any effort in. This ignores the quality of the content itself; it’s a big red flag that Google’s bots are on the lookout for, and something you should be aware of when you’re creating your page content.

A small amount of duplicate content is fine. We’ve seen with a few of our clients that using a similar call to action at the end of each blog ties it all together nicely and isn’t a major concern for SEO. In addition, your pages should have your contact form at the bottom, which does add to the word count.

It’d be a little unfair if this was penalised, there’s only so many ways you can write ‘please get in touch’ without switching to a different language. And saying ‘sie sich bitte an’ isn’t ideal for a UK customer base.

Essentially, as long as around 90-95% of your content isn’t copied from anywhere else, it won’t affect your ranking.

Using Content to Boost Enquiries

As of late 2024, content is still the most important tool in your SEO arsenal for increasing enquiries. This is how you improve your outreach; by talking about more relevant topics within your content, you bring more traffic to your site.

However, the traffic has to be relevant too. If you start talking about current events or the results of a footy match, that traffic won’t lead to any enquiries unless you directly tie it to what you do, and even in that case those topics should be left on social media.

Quality copywriting improves retention too. If your blogs are great to read, people will come back again and again to see what you have to say. This means that customers that don’t need your services immediately will be returning, and when the time comes that they do,you’ll be guaranteed a new enquiry. In the meantime, word of mouth will direct more relevant visitors to your site, giving you a boost in sales over time.

Creating Unique Content with AI

You may be posting a lot of content already, but is it the rightcontent? With AI tools available, it’s easy to post dozens of blogs in the time it would take to write one from scratch.

LLMs like ChatGPT have improved a lot this year, and their content is harder to detect at a glance. Google is penalizing it less too; according to its Webmaster Guidelines, AI content is acceptable if the following conditions apply:

[if !supportLists]·[endif]The Content is High Quality

[if !supportLists]·[endif]The Content provides Value

[if !supportLists]·[endif]The Content is Unique

Let’s break down each of these.

First, the quality. If you type a quick prompt into ChatGPT and copy whatever it spits out into your website builder, that won’t help your SEO. You need to review and edit the content thoroughly to make sure that it’s correct (AI is still making plenty of basic errors!) and it is written in a way that suits your brand. If you like an informal tone for your blogs, but are copying in Chat’s essay-esque content, it won’t look right to your readers or the search engine algorithms.

Next, value. When it’s so easy to produce content in seconds, the internet is flooded with average-at-best pages and blogs about most topics. Is your content worth reading, or is it something you could find on a hundred other websites in your industry?

And this leads us nicely onto unique content. As clever as LLMs are, they can still repeat themselves when asked for the same prompt. Editing fixes a lot of this; we always recommend switching the content to 1st person and including plenty of your own insight and experiences to make it more human.

This is a time-consuming job, which is why for companies with a strong voice already in their content, and a solid reader base, writing from scratch is still best for both page content and blogs.

The Future of SEO Content

It seems we’ve reached a similar conclusion to last year's blog. Creating content is as important as ever and doing it yourself is still the best way to do it. AI is catching up, there’s no denying that, but it’s only valuable for quantity and idea generation.

When your content is unique, it gives your SEO a boost, it’s as simple as that. Lazy content that adds little value should be avoided, especially on your main pages.

Blogs can be more repetitive if you’re trying to target some specific keywords, but never forget about the real people who will be reading them.

So, as 2025 approaches fast, content is still king. Maybe next year things will be different; but I doubt it. Whatever happens, we’ll be keeping our finger on the pulse, and will always give you a clear insight into the world of SEO.

Written by Nathan Locke

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