Should I cut-and-paste from Wikipedia?

[Trevor Howard]

I'm currently developing individual neighborhood pages for my new website (all 239 of them) and I'm bogged down in writing content. I've been pulling information from various sources including Wikipedia and trying to write a paragraph in my own words, with the thought that it will be original and unique content and help with my SEO rankings. After doing 40 pages or so, I noticed other agents just copying the entire content of the Wikipedia page and putting it on their own neighborhood page ... certainly quicker than doing it my way, but not exactly unique content.

If I just cut and paste from Wikipedia, will I be harming my rankings? If I did this, I wouldn't copy the entire text ... I'm changing a paragraph regarding % breakdown of types of structures in the area into just a % list, plus listing schools in the area and then I'll have the custom IDX showing available houses ... but if I just take one or two paragraphs and paste them in, will this help or harm my site?

[SEO Nick]

It would be best if you DIDN'T copy directly from Wikipedia..

Duplicate content is frowned upon by Google and could result in loss of position, penalty, lower rank, etc.

You should always try to use things like Wikipedia as a source for information.. not a source for content.

EDIT: just changing the stats in the content isn't enough to make it non-duplicate.

[Trevor Howard]

Thanks Nick ... that's kind of what I thought, that my Google rankings would suffer if I had the exact same content as other sites, but I guess the shortcut seemed appealing for a moment. I'll keep putting the information in my own words for each page and keep searching for any information I can about the neighborhoods.

EDIT: from your edit - "just changing the stats in the content isn't enough to make it non-duplicate." - I think I know what you mean, but maybe I should give an example of what I've been doing. Is something like this going to hurt my rankings?

Original Wikipedia page

My page

[Smuck]

In principle, it is better to not duplicate content, however, occasionally duplicating content is certainly fine. Google does not penalized you for it, but Google may display only one version of the duplicate content,- the version it feels is the best version. You don't stand a chance competing against Wikipedia!

[SEO Nick]

Good point, Smuck. Trevor, I think what you have done there is fine. You may want to get a second opinion.

[REW Sara]

Aside from Google, who are you writing these pages for? As a user, I vote no. I read a lot of pages when I'm researching an area, and when I come across ones that are basically duplicates of something I've already read I click off them immediately.

239 area pages is a lot to get through, but it would probably be useful to add at least a little original content for users.

You're in Alberta, so I'm guessing that many of the people buying homes there are new to the area, or at least don't know all the neighbourhoods that well.

Any original information you provide to give them a sense of the area is useful, even if you can only come up with a sentence for some areas. Does the area have a library or community centre? What about local landmarks or (dog) parks or a popular eatery? Is it an easy commute to the city centre? Is this neighbourhood popular with outdoor enthusiasts because it's on the way to a popular climbing spot? Maybe there's a great open mike night at the local pub.

Anything you come up with will probably be more interesting than the pages of similar content they've read already, and you know your market better than Wikipedia.

[Trevor Howard]

Sara, good ideas, thanks. With some areas, one sentence is about all I'm finding online, and I had been worried that visitors would get bored reading 239 variations of "it's a nice neighborhood, lots of trees, here's a playground". I've included landmarks or major amenities in the area, but didn't think of popular restaurants or businesses.

[RyanRE]

Trevor - I recommend that you drive the neighborhoods with a notepad and camera. I realize that 239 neighborhoods is a lot, but it if you do a couple a day on your way home from work you will have some amazingly unique content for your website within a couple of months.

[sapanbehar]

You can also write about the schools in any given neighbourhood

[Pinehurst Real Estate Guy]

I am right behind you, I have experimented with different writing techniques to apply, and my way of thinking is to create an outline to apply to each and every community so there is uniformity throughout the site.

Then I will apply the info to each as I find it and where I can't I intend to say something to the effect 'information unavailable at this time'.

Also; less tolerant people might turn people in to the sites they steal content from and notify the SEs.