There is nothing better than unique content — “content is king” as many people say. Why do the search engines, especially Google, love unique content? Here’s why:

Information is at the Heart of the Internet

Although you can do a lot of cool things on the Internet, like find old friends and even word processing and spreadsheets, the core of the Internet, when you strip away all these fancy things, is information. Someone goes to a search engine and types in what they are looking for. Hopefully somebody else out there has the answer.

Even in 20 years time, people will still use the Internet for information. There may be unique inventions and, who knows, we could be “Web 10.0″ by then, but the Internet and communication is still information-based and always will be. If you have some unique information that can’t be found anywhere, then the search engines will help you reach those people looking for it.

Duplicate Content Gets Punished

If you create a whole website from copied articles then the search engines will punish you. You will end up in the “supplementary results” and no one will ever find your site. It’s OK to publish small excerpts and quote other sites. Search engines know that people will talk about and analyze other sites.

It’s even OK to use syndicated articles from websites. As long as your entire site is not just copied articles then this is also fine.

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With the popularity of Google AdWords, many businesses are turning to paying for top placement on search engines. This is a surefire way to get exposure, but who wants to pay all that money? I was paying about $5.00 a click for a swimming pool website in the winter! So I put together this short list of free advertising possibilities to market your website.

• Get a MySpace or Facebook account. Yes, it’s free, and if you just spend about 2 hours a day trying to get friends, you will substantially increase your visitors. I started a MySpace account and had 400 friends by the end of the day and about 300 hits to my website.

• Start a mailing list. This sounds easier than it is. Trying to get people to sign up is the difficult part. You can offer a free download or some kind of free offer if they sign up. There has to be something in it for the visitor. But this will keep your visitors coming back.

• Optimize your website. I will say this a thousand times, but it’s really the big key here. If you have a pretty site with no text, chances are no one will find you. Content is king, so write that content. Oh, and it’s free!

• Comment on blogs or write your own. In order for people to know you exist, you got to talk and interact. The Internet is one big social gathering, and you need to gain popularity and you have to talk and gossip to get ahead. Find a blog you really like and contribute to it everyday and add your link. Or you can write your own blog if you want. Wordpress and Blogger are free!

• Submit articles to EzineArticles.com. I sometimes write articles regarding pool care and Internet marketing and will post them on my blog and on EzineArticles.com. A lot of Web publishers will sift through these articles and use them on their websites, spreading out your link. Sometimes even I use them.

• Here is the key: persistence! Keep at it every day, adding new content. Patience! Traffic will come with more to offer and time. Keep adding to your knowledge.

Matthew Giovanisci is the marketing director of Killer Pickle, an Internet Marketing, Web design and search engine optimization blog.