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Optidan’s recent research uncovered that, shockingly, 85% of the content found on more than 780 online retailers in Australia is plagiarised.
“Plagiarised content is rampant across Australian eCommerce sites. Our study indicates that many customers’ concerns about the lack of original content is valid — most online retailers offer poorly crafted, duplicated content, often leaving consumers questioning what they are purchasing,” states Optidan founder, JP Tucker.
Further, across the 22,000 pages studied:
- 86% didn’t meet a basic minimum word count within a product description, with 6% displaying 15 words or less on their page
- Whilst 14% may have had the correct number of words or more, they still showed significant plagiarism.
Tucker highlighted, “Online retailers anticipate high product ranking by Google and expect sales without investing in necessary, quality content — an essential for both criteria.”
Shotfarm’s research in 2016 concurs with these findings, indicating a concerning 40% of customers returned online purchases due to poor product content.
“The content problem has escalated over the years. Many companies with voluminous SKUs rely on bulk uploads from suppliers or from Content Management partners (PIMs), without any unique differentiation, and yet they anticipate high Google rankings,” Tucker commented.
‘’Just because it reads well, doesn’t mean it indexes well’’. – JP Tucker
In the current digital market, rising paid media costs by Google and Meta have heightened the importance of organic channels, such as SEO. A well-known fact amongst SEO consultants is the crucial role unique content plays in achieving better Google rankings.
Google generally accepts up to 10% of plagiarism to allow for common terms, however Optidan’s report uncovered more than 85% of audited product pages that were above this threshold.
Moreover, over half of the product pages presented plagiarism levels surging above 75%.
Tucker adds, ‘’Whilst I knew the problem was there, the high levels produced in the Industry report surprised me, whilst Google looks for relevance within Product Pages, we detected across 20k pages we tested, the product title alone was absent in the product description 85% of the time’’.
Tucker finished with, ‘’We specialise in transforming E-commerce SEO content within the first month, paving the way for ongoing optimisation and reindexing performance. As a former retailer myself, I have felt the frustration of slow processes with agencies, Optidan fixes this’’.
He also mentioned, ‘’Currently with our Shopify & Shopify Plus partners we offer a 30 day money back guarantee on a full content optimisation on their website, and will look to extend this to non shopify customers very shortly
Content Audits performed by Optidan for the purpose of this report includ Online Retailers from the following categories: Grocery, Pharmacy, Fashion, Healthcare, Beauty, Supplements, Autocare, Liquor, Footwear, Electronics.
Retailers can reach out for a free website audit of their Content.
*Optidan Industry Report was produced by Optidan for the purpose of validating the problem.
*Study by Shotfarm as published in Retail Dive Magazine
Please note Optidan did not conduct full Audits of each website, but a blind audit of select categories.
About Optidan
Optidan, based in Australia, specialises in AI-driven SEO solutions for online retailers. Combining cutting-edge technology with expert knowledge, Optidan is dedicated to enhancing the online retail experience through innovative content strategies and SEO optimisation at scale.
Through initial testing we saw results, with pages jumping from 50+ to page 1 within 3 months, so we decided to share our tech and strategy with other retailers.
Currently we are working with clients who are managing product feeds with 15k+ skus, as well as a client who has 2 members of staff manually writing product descriptions, Our solution will free up this resource to assist in other teams. A saving of $160k YOY.
Optidan’s rapid optimisation services span across product descriptions, category/brand pages, meta titles/descriptions, images, blogs, media as well as technical advice that enhance your search content performance.
Free Content & Website Audits are available by booking a demo via the Optidan website.
Readers can obtain a copy of the full report by visiting www.Optidan.com
With our Shopify automated Performance Management service now live, we are offering a 30 day money back guarantee to all Shopify Customers.
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