You want to make sure your content is always 100% original
You likely take pride in your work and want to produce the best possible content for your website visitors.
But how do you check how original your content is?
In this blog post, I’ll show you how to check for plagiarism in Google Docs with the Semrush Plagiarism Checker.
Stay safe and produce original content – your customers will thank you!
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own.
Plagiarism can be done in different ways:
- Copying and pasting text from a website or document without quoting the source
- Paraphrasing someone else’s work without giving them credit
- Outright copying another person’s article or essay
In the online world, this can take many forms, from copying and pasting text to stealing entire blog posts or website pages.
Plagiarism is considered a form of intellectual property theft.
However, plagiarism, as terrible as it may be, is not always intentional.
You may, for instance, write some content for your website and unknowingly use language or content that already exists on the internet.
Or your outsourced content writer may give you an SEO-friendly blog post, and you need to ensure there is no plagiarism involved.
That’s where the Semrush Plagiarism Checker comes in.
What is the Semrush Plagiarism Checker?
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker is a feature of Semrush that helps you check the originality of your content by crawling the internet for other content on the same topic.
It essentially helps you find duplicate content on the web.
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker is not a stand-alone tool, but a small feature of the content optimization toolkit of Semrush.
Where to find the Semrush Plagiarism Checker?
The SEO Writing Assistant tool includes the Semrush Plagiarism Checker.
Semrush offers a Content Marketing Toolkit that offers you content optimization tools to perfect your content for SEO.
The key features of the Semrush Content Marketing Toolkit are:
- Topic Research: The Semrush Topic Research tool allows you to find relevant and interesting content ideas that could be helpful for your SEO.
- SEO Content Template: The Semrush SEO Content Template helps you find the best keywords to use in your content and for your on-page SEO
- SEO Writing Assistant: The Semrush SEO Writing Assistant helps you optimize your content and on-page SEO
While you are writing your optimized SEO content with the SEO Writing Assistant tool, you can also check for plagiarism from right within the tool, and make changes to your content if necessary.
How does the Semrush Plagiarism Checker work?
Semrush is a high-end all-in-one digital marketing tool that uses its bots (also called crawlers) to crawl the content, keywords, and domains, on the internet. Check out my detailed Semrush review and its pros and cons.
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker is powered by CopyLeaks, a plagiarism checker that uses AI technology to search more than 60 trillion websites for content.
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker then compares this content to the content that you are writing, to rate how original your content is.
While some overlaps, especially on a few words in unavoidable, those are not considered truly plagiarized content.
If, however, most of your content is similar to one or other articles on the web, then you should edit your content to reduce the similarities.
How to check for plagiarism in Google Docs with the Semrush Plagiarism Checker?
Most content writers and bloggers prefer to write their content in Google Docs before moving it to their website platform.
So it’s very convenient that the Semrush Plagiarism Checker lets you check content for originality from right within this tool.
It is very easy to check for plagiarism in Google Docs with the Semrush Plagiarism Checker.
Just follow the steps below.
1. Install the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant in Google Docs
Go to Google Docs -> Extensions -> Get add-ons.
It will open the Google Workspace Marketplace.
Search for the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant add-on.
Once you find it, click on Install.
2. Open the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant in Google Docs
Now that the extension is installed, again go to Google Docs -> Extensions -> Semrush SEO Writing Assistant -> Show.
Give the SEO Writing Assistant permission to connect to your Google account.
The SEO Writing Assistant will show on the right-hand side of the screen.
3. Log in to Semrush
Now you have to log in to your Semrush account.
Don’t have an account yet? No worries, just get a free 14-day trial and start using the features for free!
4. Write your content
Start writing your content in Google Docs.
For the sake of this article, I didn’t put any new content in Google Docs, just pasted the content from my recent post about Link Whisper Review.
So I can already expect the plagiarism report not to be good!
But let’s see.
5. Get recommendations to optimize your content
At this stage, you have to enter keywords you want to optimize the content for.
You can either import the keywords manually or click on ‘Extract from text’.
That’s what I did here.
Choose the country, and click on Get Recommendations.
You will get ideas on how to optimize your content for the given keywords.
6. Run the Semrush Plagiarism Checker
Scroll to the bottom of the recommendations and you will see a section called Originality.
Click on ‘Check it for free’.
Now the Semrush Plagiarism Checker will let you know how original your content is.
For my blog post on the Link Whisper Review, since it is already a published article, I get zero points for originality.
But now I enter the content of this post I am currently writing on the Semrush Plagiarism Checker, and I run the checker again.
Because this content has not been published before, it shows me good results in the originality check.
And there you go!
That’s how you check for plagiarism in Google Docs with the Semrush Plagiarism Checker.
How to use the Semrush Plagiarism Checker in other ways besides in Google Docs?
Besides using the plagiarism checker in Google Docs, you can also use it in two other ways:
- In the Semrush dashboard
- In the WordPress editor
1. In the Semrush dashboard
Using the Semrush Plagiarism Checker in the Semrush dashboard is very similar to using it in Google Docs.
Simply go to your SEO dashboard -> Content Marketing Toolkit -> SEO Writing Assistant.
Click on ‘Analyze my text’.
Enter your content and keywords, and click on Get Recommendations.
At the end of your recommendations, you will find an option to check for originality, like in Google Docs.
In the Semrush dashboard, you get more metrics for your originality.
- Originality score
- Content that is similar to the one analyzed
- The exact parts of the content that is similar
You also get an interface to rephrase the content you are writing, to avoid plagiarism
2. In the WordPress editor
You can also use the Semrush Plagiarism Checker as a WordPress plugin.
Download and activate the plugin.
Log in to Semrush.
Again, if you don’t have a Semrush account yet, just get a 14-day free trial for Semrush Guru to check 5 pieces of content for originality for free.
You will see the SEO Writing Assistant at the bottom of every post.
Finally, in the same way as with Google Docs and the Semrush dashboard. just enter your content and keywords, get recommendations for content optimization, and then check for originality.
Semrush Plagiarism Checker pricing
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker is available for only the Guru and Business pricing plans of Semrush.
- Semrush Guru: The Semrush Guru plan of Semrush is the intermediate plan of Semrush. It is priced at $249.95 for monthly payments and includes 5 plagiarism checks.
- Semrush Business: The Semrush Guru plan of Semrush is priced at $499.25 for monthly payments and includes 10 plagiarism checks.
Semrush Plan | Monthly Price | Plagiarism Checks |
Semrush Guru | $249.95 | 5 |
Semrush Business | $499.95 | 10 |
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker is not available with Semrush Pro which is the starter plan of Semrush and is priced at $129.95 monthly. With Semrush Guru you get extra features like the Content Toolkit, Historical Data, Multiuser Management, and much more.
If you are not sure about the Semrush Guru and Business plan features, and if you want to compare Semrush Guru with Pro, then check out my complete post on Semrush pricing and Pro vs Guru.
Related: Semrush free trial
Also read more about Semrush coupon codes, the Semrush Black Friday deal, and even a Semrush lifetime deal, to lower the price you pay for Semrush Guru.
You can start using the Semrush Plagiarism Checker with an exclusive trial for Guru that is free for 14 days instead of 7, or get more details about the Semrush Guru 30-day trial first.
Semrush Plagiarism Checker alternatives
There are quite a few tools that you could use instead of Semrush, to check for plagiarism.
Some of the most notable ones are:
- Scribbr
- Grammarly
- CopyLeaks
A big difference between these and Semrush is that you can’t use these tools within Google Docs.
Some plagiarism checkers that lets you check for originality as an add-on in Google Docs are:
- Plagium
- Unicheck
- ProWriting Aid
Remember that these tools are premium ones, so if you are already using Semrush for SEO, using these tools would be additional costs.
Is the Semrush Plagiarism Checker effective? Pros and cons of the Semrush Plagiarism Checker
The Semrush Plagiarism Checker uses the technology of CopyLeaks which is a powerful plagiarism checker, and it can provide you with an overall idea about how your content rates in terms of originality.
It does not provide in-depth insights about your content originality or suggestions for improvement and does not compare to powerful writing and powerful plagiarism tools like Scribbr.
However, if you just want to check content once in a while but don’t want to sign up and pay for a separate plagiarism tool, the Semrush Plagiarism Checker works fine.
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If you want to want to know how to use Semrush to improve your SEO, you should evaluate its other features like its SEO toolkit including Keyword Research, Competitor Research, and Backlink Analytics, the SEO Content Template, and the SEO Writing Assistant.
Can plagiarism hurt your SEO?
Plagiarism can negatively impact your SEO performance.
When search engines find plagiarized content on your website, they may penalize you by lowering your search ranking or removing your site from their index altogether.
This can make it difficult for potential customers or clients to find you online, damaging your business in the long run.
Not to mention, plagiarism can be a serious issue as it can lead to legal penalties, including fines and damages.
Always make sure to give credit where it’s due and create original content for your website.
Conclusion – How to Check for Plagiarism in Google Docs with the Semrush Plagiarism Checker
As you can see, it is very easy to check for plagiarism in Google Docs while you are writing your content using the Semrush Plagiarism Checker.
It is also helpful to use the Checker to review content sent in by an outsourced writer.
What do you think about the Semrush Plagiarism Checker? Have you ever used it? Would love to know about your experiences with the tool.
