SEO and Plagiarism – Types of Plagiarism in SEO
Naming is the first step to understanding, and defining is halfway the journey to comprehension. Plagiarism is the act of displaying another person’s work as your own. The Merriam Webster dictionary further defines plagiarism as “the act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to the person.’’
It is frowned upon by experts across different fields because of its negative consequences that affect the perpetrator and the victim. There are various types of plagiarism in SEO but it can be detected by using free plagiarism checking tools. Though plagiarism seems simple to detect, but it’s really hard to defend. Types of plagiarism are as follows:
- Direct plagiarism
- Self-plagiarism
- Mosaic plagiarism
- Accidental plagiarism
SEO and Plagiarism – Types of Plagiarism in SEO
Direct Plagiarism
This is basically copying to the letter the original. The writer duplicates word to word what the original author had penned down and passes it off as his/her own words. This is an intentional act that attracts a disciplinary reaction. Some of the measures to curb this include: being expelled from an academic institution and the work to be termed as academically dishonest. Secondly you can go through free plagiarism checking tools to overcome the issue and avoid big SEO mistakes.
Self-Plagiarism
This involves posting previous content, the patches of previous work that you had created without seeking and go ahead from all the parties involved. This is can be either deliberate or unintentional or both. We treat our creations as part of us and fail to realize that after submission it becomes a different entity. Crediting is the only link that remains between the writer and the writing. When using your previous work, one should treat it as that created but someone else and give due credit as he/she would to another person in plagiarism checking tools. Where other parties had chipped in in the formulation of ideas and the project, they should be consulted before reusing the content or credited as the original authors.
Mosaic Plagiarism
The term mosaic describes something that is made by merging different elements from different things. An example of such is the fictitious “Frankenstein’s monster.” In plagiarism, the author uses phrases from the original without adding quotation marks to indicate borrowed. It also manifests in the use of synonyms to rewrite the original but still maintaining its structure. The words used are different but the original ideas remain intact. At face level, it is difficult to detect but an in-depth look at the piece reads plagiarism all over it.
Accidental Plagiarism
Just as the names suggests, this is an unintentional outcome. It is unfortunate but if you look at the odds of two people in a globe of over seven billion people, you should consider yourself luck. There have been cases where an author comes up an authentic piece only to later on realize that the said work is strikingly similar to a prior published work. This is the rarest form of plagiarism. It may pass the plagiarism checker test having different words but when it comes to structure, the similarity to the prior marks it as plagiarized.
The disheartening thing about it is that is treated equally as other forms of plagiarism in plagiarism checking tools, hence, attracts equal punitive measures. However, this can be averted by using plagiarism checking tool that identifies duplicate content.