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Video: Matt Cutts on Automated Content for a Website

Question: Does Google see automatically generated content as a bad thing (i.e. spam)?

If I publish uncopyrighted content on my site that is available from other sources/sites via a WordPress plugin, and Google found out, are there any penalties?

Steve from Austin, Texas

Google can see automatically generated content as a bad thing.

Automatically generated pages vs. hand made content – which do YOU think is better?

The answer is simple – hand made content is ALWAYS going to be the better option to take. If you’re “auto-blogging”, which is basically pulling content from other sites and just pasting it or feeding it on to your site, it won’t help you. PERIOD!

Yes, you might get a bit of traffic initially.

Yes, you might get a spot on a search engine for a temporary amount of time.

But at the end of the day, the sites that stay or stick are the ones that are providing good, quality, “hand made” content.

Nate’s Closing Thoughts: If you’re following the advice of a “guru” that tells you that blogging can make you millions overnight by just “turning it on” – you’re in for an eventless ride that leads to lots of unrealistic expectations and frustration.

What are your thoughts on the concept of autmatically generated content?

7 replies on “Video: Matt Cutts on Automated Content for a Website”

It never ceases to amaze me that anyone would think automated content is a good idea, except those who are coming from a greedy, lazy thief approach. Honestly – there’s just no rationalization or justification that can be applied to automating content.

AMEN! I’ve heard “gurus” say it 1st hand:

Just turn on your website, pull in some content, and you’ll be good to go. The money will just start coming in…”

I’m like, ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?

I like the “greedy, lazy, thief approach” statement!

Thanks for the comment Alan! Go Yankees!

This may indeed be what they are trying to do, but they are not there yet. I think these statements are self-serving at best.

I am often amazed by the incredible amount of spam listings that come up in google results – on any given search I need to wade through 5 or so spam, syndicated links before I start finding real content.

You guys would hate me.. I have over 100 urls (so far) and just sit back and rake in an easy check from adsense every month of just over 1K… and not one site of mine is over 5 months old. Automated content works. The only thing I’m sorry about is not finding it sooner.

Part of me thinks that Google will eventually work this in their algorithm and drop all the automated pages.. but then, I am serving up almost 3000 impressions a day for them and growing.. so maybe they don’t really mind at all??

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