Part of the Content management glossary:

A content spinner is software that rewrites content to make it reusable as new content. In theory, at least, content spinning makes it possible for users to republish other people's content without concern about copyright issues or SEO (search engine optimization) devaluation for duplicate content.

Next Steps

Here's an example of content spinning. The following text was input to an application called Best Free Spinner:

"A content farm, also called a content mill, is a Web site whose content is written for search engine bots instead of human readers. Topics on a content farm are chosen specifically for their ability to rank highly in search engine results."

The spun text:

"A new content farmville farm, also called a content work, is usually a website whoever content is usually created intended for search results robots instead of individual audience. Topics using a content farmville farm are picked designed for their own capacity to get ranking highly throughout search results."

Such prose is becoming all too common as content producers seek the easiest way to get huge numbers of articles online, often for content farms or autoblogs. The fact that the spun text makes little sense may not be of much concern to the users, since the goal is simply to provide keyword-laden articles, rank highly on search engine results pages and reap rewards through advertising. 

This was last updated in December 2012
Contributor(s): Ivy Wigmore
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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