Creating content has become easier than ever. Content writers, marketers, business owners, freelancers, and even social media influencers can create content in mere seconds today, all thanks to AI generative solutions.
But it is important to understand that creating truly original content requires effort and is not just about putting words together or rephrasing an existing article.
Original content is what offers unique ideas, a different perspective, distinctive structure, relevant examples, and unique value. It is what helps readers learn something new, solve a problem, or understand a new topic in a way that is easy and useful for them.
Therefore, whether you’re writing a draft yourself or using AI writing tools, it is important to check whether it is genuinely original before publishing it.
What Does Original Content Mean?
Original content is the type of content that has been created with a unique purpose, perspective, and style. It is not copy-pasting another person’s work, nor is it a paraphrased version of an existing draft.
An important thing to understand is that originality does not mean that you have to discuss a topic that no one has ever covered, but it is actually focusing on writing with a unique and different approach.
Some of the tips you need to focus on include:
Sharing genuine and possibly first-hand experiences
Providing new and different examples
Presenting authentic research work and stats
Offering a different perspective on things
Explaining a complicated concept in a simple manner
Finding and covering content gap
Providing practical steps that readers can follow
In simple words, originality is about creating something meaningful rather than rephrasing what already is available online.
Why Should You Focus on Originality Checks Before Publishing?
Original content is important because it benefits both the readers and the publishing party.
When readers find useful and authentic content, they’ll definitely trust the website or the publishing source more and will return back for more. Original content also builds credibility and authority.
From an SEO perspective, publishing content that offers unique value is very important. This is because Google and other search engines' focus always aims to provide the most unique and useful results to their users. In case you are rewriting or paraphrasing existing information without adding any unique value, you’re actually giving search engines a strong reason not to rank your page on top.
In addition to this, ensuring originality in your content can also help you protect your reputation. Publishing duplicate content even accidentally can lead to copyright issues, damage credibility, and incur monetary fines.
Key Factors to Check Before Publishing Content
Now let us discuss in detail the things that you need to check before you publish or submit your content.
Check That Your Ideas Are Not Simply Copied
The first thing that you need to check is whether the ideas you’re writing on are genuinely yours or if you’re following another source.
Research and ideation are very important parts of content writing. You must focus on research until you understand the topic fully. Note that the purpose of research is to understand what you don’t, rather than become a source of reproducing an existing draft.
If your article contains the same ideas, examples, and structure, it is not going to be useful, and you are going to have to revamp it with an original angle.
Check If the Wording & Structure is Your Own
Originality is not just about presenting unique ideas; it is also about your expression, and by that we mean your words and how you put them together.
You must understand that changing a few words or sentences would not create originality. This is an old approach that is today commonly known as surface-level rewriting. With this approach, your sentences might look different, but they would have a similar expression.
The best approach is to explain a concept or idea from scratch using your own words and examples rather than rewriting research/reference material.
Check if Your Content Has a Distinctive Perspective
Your perspective is one of the best ways to make already covered topics unique and more original.
For example, if you have read multiple articles on digital marketing and have to write one on similar topics, instead of explaining what digital marketing is, you can explore the following angles:
Common mistakes new digital marketers make
How digital marketers can grow their business
Lessons/strategies from experienced marketers
Cons of digital marketing in the conventional world
Before you publish your article or even before you write it, you need to ask yourself what’s the unique selling point of your article. If you cannot answer this question, your content would need to spend more time on brainstorming.
Check If You Have Added Original Examples
Examples can easily improve the originality score of your content as long as they are original and different from your competitors. Whenever you write something, you must ensure that you don’t rely on generic statements; instead, you focus on showcasing realistic scenarios that demonstrate your point.
Specific, fresh, and relevant examples can make your content easier to understand and would also give it a distinctive character. You can add examples based on your
Personal experiences
Business situations
Frictional scenarios
Industry observations
Case studies
Customer queries
Common mistakes
The more relevant and specific your examples are, the more valuable your content will be.
Check & Ensure That Your Structure Is Not Copied
Writers most of the time focus just on changing words but not the structure of their content, which is why you would see that most articles written on the same topics would have a similar structure.
You need to make sure that your article is differently structured and presented.
The best approach for creating a unique structure is to think about the following:
What questions do your readers have in mind?
What information do they need next?
What examples would help them?
What objections might they have?
What action should they take afterward?
A thoughtful structure based on these answers would help you make the topic even more engaging and fresh for your target audience.
Check If Your Content Sounds Natural
Original writing should also be natural. There is no point in using tough words and phrases just to make your content unique, as they would make it less attractive for readers.
Your content would lose its credibility and appeal if your sentences sounded overly perfect and mechanical. You need to keep the human touch alive, especially if you are using AI writing tools for generating content.
After writing your first draft, you need to read it from the perspective of a reader. If it sounds vague or is difficult to read, it is best that you humanize AI text in your own words.
Check Your Content for Unintentional Plagiarism
Even the most professional and careful writers can end up having plagiarism in their work. This is because multiple writers working on the same niche or creating content on similar topics can have similarities in their expressions.
To ensure originality, it is important that you check all your drafts for plagiarism before submission or publication. For this task you can leverage a well-reputed plagiarism checker tool. Such tools can easily compare your text with existing content published online and can highlight similarities.
A reliable plagiarism checker would help you find the following:
Exact phrases that match
Similar sentences
Copied passages
Reused expressions
Overlapping sections
Inaccurate sources
In case your content has a higher plagiarism percentile, it is important to fix it. For this task, you can always take help from a plagiarism remover tool. These tools can rewrite duplicate text in a different manner without compromising the intent or underlying message.
Originality and Rewriting | What is the Difference?
Rewriting and original content are not the same thing.
Rewriting refers to the process of modifying an existing piece of content while keeping the central ideas and information the same. It is a useful technique for writers who want to update old material or change the tone of their content for a different audience.
"Original content," on the other hand, refers to the draft that introduces your own expression, organization, perspective, examples, or additional information.
For instance, if you have read ten articles about “Removing Plagiarism” and have combined all their common points in your draft, you have surely created something new but not different.
Original content would be analyzing all those articles, finding & filling content gaps, and developing a different structure or framework that would create a different, distinctive, and more valuable piece of content.
Final Checklist for You!
Before publishing, you need to check:
Is the wording yours?
Is your structure different?
Does your article have a different perspective?
Did I add useful and unique examples?
Are my facts accurate?
Did I properly cite my reference sources?
Did I check my content for plagiarism?
Does my content sound human?
If you can confidently answer yes to these questions, your content is much more likely to be original and valuable.
Conclusion
Original content is not just a draft that bypasses plagiarism checks; it is what offers value and something fresh to the target audience. You must understand that unique words are not what will make your content original, but rather the unique structure, perspective, examples, and insights that you add.
In this article we have discussed a brief checklist that you should go through before publishing your content. In addition to checking and ensuring originality, don’t forget to check your content for spelling and grammatical errors. Make sure it offers something meaningful, uses sources responsibly, and expresses ideas in a professional manner.
Your goal as a content creator should be to create something that deserves to exist alongside content that already exists!
