Should I cut-and-paste from Wikipedia?

[rmasse10]

A good rule of thumb to follow is that if it doesnt sound right, dont do it!

[flatfeerealty]

I think you'll be ok as long as your site keeps growing and your inbound links continue to expand.

[Bhamhomes]

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

Trevor - I write a lot of content about local neighborhoods and communities in my area for my web sites. Don't worry about what these other agents are doing in your markets...you mentioned they are copying directly from wikipedia. You certainly won't be able to write about all 239 neighborhoods in a month...but a year would be a better goal. Can you imagine what kind of website you would have if you had unique content that could only be found on your site? Just take your time studying each neighborhood, start writing about the housing market in a neighborhood, as well as schools, shopping, parks, main attractions, etc. Then add a photo or two and in time you will see tons of traffic.

[ericbadgley]

NO WAY

I agree with ryan if you just nock out couple pages a day you would be done in a few months. Plus if you cut and paste from wiki, my theory is wiki would show up and not your site, because it has more authority. So really it would be a waste of time if you are trying to get organic results.