SEO Question - unique content

[UKSBD]

My users are after three things, in this order:
* Is it of my favourite robot from the TV show?
* Does it look cool?
* Does it build well?

I would have thought a lot of people would use image search?

Have a watch of this if you think they might - (4) SEO for Google Images | Search Central Lightning Talks - YouTube


Also, can you not host your own images rather than pulling them from the cdn?

 

[antropy]

Well, at least I didn't feel the need to start off with puerile insults to make my point.

What insult was that? 'You don't have a clue'? No my dear fellow forumer, that is a statement! And a very true statement based on your replies. Alex

 

[japancool]

What insult was that? 'You don't have a clue'? No my dear fellow forumer, that is a statement! And a very true statement based on your replies. Alex

Hey, if it makes you feel big and clever to sling insults around, go for it.

If this is representative of the SEO industry, no wonder it's seen as being full of scammers.

 

[Fagin2021]

During the course of this thread you've mentioned several times that your primary task is to get people to buy from you rather than the half-dozen or so direct competitors who are selling identical models at (I assume) the same or very similar prices.
Sometimes people forget to ask the opposite of this question - ie. "what is it that could stop people buying from me?"
I'd suggest a couple of things...
1. If you enter your company name in Google search you get a big 'Google My Business' box informing the searcher that your business is permanently closed and a website link that takes you to a gambling site. Doesn't inspire confidence! You really need to get rid of that GMB entry.
2. Your meta description says "Best prices and all that jazz." This is just a personal opinion but to me it's a touch arrogant and trivialises the buying decision.
Taken together they make me nervous and I have plenty of alternatives.
If you were forced to close for a while and you old domain name was nicked and abused it might be an idea to create an 'About Us' page for the site and allay potential fears.

 

[Fagin2021]

Bye the bye - the answer to your original question is 'almost certainly not'. Google define original content as 'adding value' and simply re-arranging the same words doesn't count.

 

[japancool]

1. If you enter your company name in Google search you get a big 'Google My Business' box informing the searcher that your business is permanently closed and a website link that takes you to a gambling site. Doesn't inspire confidence! You really need to get rid of that GMB entry.

Yes, I'm in the process of it (or rather, updating it). Our click-through rate for people specifically searching for us is about 90% though, but we have had one or two enquiries asking about that entry, so it needs to be done. Not to mention, we don't want people turning up at our old office address only to find we're not there.

2. Your meta description says "Best prices and all that jazz." This is just a personal opinion but to me it's a touch arrogant and trivialises the buying decision.

It's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, rather than putting the usual blurb about offering the best prices, biggest range, etc. etc. It's hard to tell whether it's been effective or not at this stage, because it was changed just before Christmas, and obviously, Christmas has a distorting effect.

If you were forced to close for a while and you old domain name was nicked and abused it might be an idea to create an 'About Us' page for the site and allay potential fears.

That is indeed what happened. It's one of the reasons why our meta-description starts with "We're back!".

It's worth mentioning that we're not starting from scratch. We spent 5 years building a brand and reputation before we had to close due to my being hospitalised, and part of what we're doing is attracting back our old customers, which has been quite effective, especially because many customers come to us through word of mouth recommendations.

 

[japancool]

Bye the bye - the answer to your original question is 'almost certainly not'. Google define original content as 'adding value' and simply re-arranging the same words doesn't count.

That's fair enough. More to the point, I think it's obvious to any human being reading it that all we did was rearrange, which looks really naff.

 

[computerbeing]

It is expected for the same products to have similar descriptions across websites. This is not what is going to differentiate you in regards to search engines. Perhaps look at different elements of an SEO campaign to focus on.

 

[Jyothi Tulasi]

It'll not help you in ranking as a top most search but it'll definitely not be spam as well. As a digital marketer you should not opt for direct content refurbish.

 

[MikeHunter]

I don't want to use the "standard" descriptions for my products that everyone else uses (which are all copied from one particular site). So I hit on this brilliant idea of taking their descriptions, running it through Google Translate into Japanese (or some other language), and then translating the result back to English. Here's one example of the result:

Original:
Those Gunpla fans rejoice, Bandai has released the Tallgeese I EW version! Includes gimmicks in the thrusters and the head camera and includes that massive rifle and shield that Tallgeese wields with ease.

End result:
For all Gunpla fans, Bandai has released the Tallgeese I EW version! Thrusters and head cameras are amongst the included gimmicks, and a huge rifle and shield that the Tallgeese can easily use.

My question is - is this sufficiently different that Google will think it's unique content? Or is it smarter than that?

This is a no brainer - both search engine algorithms and human readers can spot the difference between well written descriptions and computer generated rubbish. You need to spend the time and energy to write engaging and original product descriptions. There's no substitute for hard work I'm afraid.

 

[japancool]

This is a no brainer - both search engine algorithms and human readers can spot the difference between well written descriptions and computer generated rubbish. You need to spend the time and energy to write engaging and original product descriptions. There's no substitute for hard work I'm afraid.

I'm going to spend my available time doing things with a better ROI for the moment. This can wait.

 

[Abby Philips]

I don't want to use the "standard" descriptions for my products that everyone else uses (which are all copied from one particular site). So I hit on this brilliant idea of taking their descriptions, running it through Google Translate into Japanese (or some other language), and then translating the result back to English. Here's one example of the result:

Original:
Those Gunpla fans rejoice, Bandai has released the Tallgeese I EW version! Includes gimmicks in the thrusters and the head camera and includes that massive rifle and shield that Tallgeese wields with ease.

End result:
For all Gunpla fans, Bandai has released the Tallgeese I EW version! Thrusters and head cameras are amongst the included gimmicks, and a huge rifle and shield that the Tallgeese can easily use.

My question is - is this sufficiently different that Google will think it's unique content? Or is it smarter than that?

Google Translate is a smart way to generate unique content. You can check your content after publishing an article or blog.

 

[japancool]

How's the weather over there in Mumbai, "Abby"?

 

[MikeHunter]

Google Translate is a smart way to generate unique content. You can check your content after publishing an article or blog.

No it isn't. Google translate compares text in different languages on a massive database, and comes up with the most "likely" translation. It has had some spectacular failures. For example in Ukrainian it was rendering the word "Russia" as "Mordor" a couple of years ago. Presumably enough Ukrainians were using the name of the mythical evil kingdom from Lord of The Rings to describe Russia that Google "thought" it was the correct translation. If you want to look cheap use machine translation and back translate as the OP suggested. If you want clear and coherent English (or any other language), there is no substitute for clear and careful original copy writing. Machine translation on the other hand always reads as stilted and unnatural.

There is also the issue of use of English within the other language. Spanish for example has adopted lots of English words, but doesn't always use them in the way you might expect. For example "el parking" is what we would refer to as a car park, or the Americans would call a Parking Lot. Spanish has a perfectly acceptable word for this "el aparcamiento". It just isn't used. In the OPs example of product descriptions this could cause havoc - when Google translate selects the wrong equivalent term in the other language, you will then get a very strange back translation into English. Again taking the example I've just given, it may decide that the Spanish noun "parking" is the English verb, and back translate accordingly. You have then changed the whole meaning of the sentence, but not in an intended or coherent way.

 

[japancool]

In the OPs example of product descriptions this could cause havoc - when Google translate selects the wrong equivalent term in the other language, you will then get a very strange back translation into English.

Agreed, in that machine translation will never result in anything that's particularly useable straight off the bat.

I did an experiment, in which I translated the actual Japanese product descriptions (which are completely different to the English versions) into English. The result was mostly readable, but quite obviously machine translated. Some of it was borderline gibberish.

I could use it with a lot of re-editing, but it would take work. I might do that, as it's considerably less work than writing them from scratch, but you simply can't use machine translated stuff. For one thing, it would kill any confidence consumers had that they were dealing with a bona fide UK company, especially in an industry where there are a lot of Chinese sellers pretending to be UK-based.

 

[Yash Shah]

If online marketing is an important part of your business (and, to be frank, it should be!) then SEO can be a serious asset. It costs nothing to do a little keyword research, comes up with a content strategy, and regularly practice external and internal link building. And while SEO may not return immediate, tangible conversions, it is a pivotal part of driving organic traffic; and driving organic traffic is a pivotal part of building brand awareness and familiarity.

 

[japancool]

If online marketing is an important part of your business (and, to be frank, it should be!) then SEO can be a serious asset. It costs nothing to do a little keyword research, comes up with a content strategy, and regularly practice external and internal link building. And while SEO may not return immediate, tangible conversions, it is a pivotal part of driving organic traffic; and driving organic traffic is a pivotal part of building brand awareness and familiarity.

Gosh, I didn't know that! Thank you for this amazing insight!

Plz tell me how I make money on the internet?

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Gosh, I didn't know that! Thank you for this amazing insight!

Plz tell me how I make money on the internet?

I knew there was a reason I logged on today. This......is......game-changing knowledge!

 

[SEODEV#338055]

Google Translate has undergone significant improvements, however nothing will ever replace human copywriting until much further down the artificial intelligence road

 

[antropy]

Google Translate has undergone significant improvements, however nothing will ever replace human copywriting until much further down the artificial intelligence road

That's correct - a quick look on social media will tell you that most humans can't even write well.

Paul.

 

[antropy]

If online marketing is an important part of your business (and, to be frank, it should be!) then SEO can be a serious asset. It costs nothing to do a little keyword research, comes up with a content strategy, and regularly practice external and internal link building. And while SEO may not return immediate, tangible conversions, it is a pivotal part of driving organic traffic; and driving organic traffic is a pivotal part of building brand awareness and familiarity.

No way! Mind. Blown.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

That's correct - a quick look on social media will tell you that most humans can't even write well.

Paul.

Had an email yesterday from someone offering their services that began: hi, r u on whatsapp? Needless to say, I declined.

 

[antropy]

Had an email yesterday from someone offering their services that began: hi, r u on whatsapp? Needless to say, I declined.

Haha how bizarre! Call me old-school but I refuse to conduct any business over WhatsApp. If people want to communicate with us they can do it by email where I can forward and copy-in relevant people and have processes in place for handling things properly.

Paul.

 

[UKSBD]

That's correct - a quick look on social media will tell you that most humans can't even write well.

Paul.

Thats rubbish

 

[antropy]

Thats rubbish

Says the guy who doesn't use apostrophes or full stops

Paul.

 

[UKSBD]

Says the guy who doesn't use apostrophes or full stops

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

Maybe we need to start writing using emoticons and memes to attract the young’uns.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I don't want to use the "standard" descriptions for my products that everyone else uses (which are all copied from one particular site). So I hit on this brilliant idea of taking their descriptions, running it through Google Translate into Japanese (or some other language), and then translating the result back to English. Here's one example of the result:

Original:
Those Gunpla fans rejoice, Bandai has released the Tallgeese I EW version! Includes gimmicks in the thrusters and the head camera and includes that massive rifle and shield that Tallgeese wields with ease.

End result:
For all Gunpla fans, Bandai has released the Tallgeese I EW version! Thrusters and head cameras are amongst the included gimmicks, and a huge rifle and shield that the Tallgeese can easily use.

My question is - is this sufficiently different that Google will think it's unique content? Or is it smarter than that?

Make sure you change the titles as they carry massive weight. Make sure to rename images and alt texts and you are on the way.

Hand write copy top and bottom of the category pages and link to a number of products from within that copy and you've cracked it.

 

[StevePoster]

It is true that kids will only overlooked on what is your description is all about. However, we still need to have the unique interesting description not only for Google to position our site page but for the parents also that will allow their kids to buy the appropriate toys for them.

 

[japancool]

It is true that kids will only overlooked on what is your description is all about. However, we still need to have the unique interesting description not only for Google to position our site page but for the parents also that will allow their kids to buy the appropriate toys for them.

Kids are not my customers.