Coming Back to “Content”
Go to any workshop, presentation or even join an informal chat about social media and at some point, somebody is likely to say: “content is king.” Writers grin like Cheshire cats in response to this, because content requires content providers and that’s writers. We discovered this via Sonia Ingriselli the Digital Marketing Manager of Marbella-based optimasit.com, who gave a great presentation at Andalucia Lab on Google’s Hummingbird and on why businesses with an online presence need social media in 2014. Go here for copies of Sonia’s presentation.
Search Engine Optimisation
Good content is vital for search engine optimisation (SEO). According to eMarketer,
a research study published in April 2014 by Ascend 2 showed that 57% of marketing professionals surveyed stated that “quality content creation” was the most effective SEO tactic, yet they also claimed that it was the most difficult tactic to get right. That’s an interesting insight if you’re a content provider.
The old tactics
In days of yore, which in Internet years is probably last year because things change so quickly, most website owners –who were not fully-paid-up SEO geeks, I should add—believed that SEO was primarily a matter of frequently updating the website with new material, usually blog posts, building links—black hat tactics purchased these by the 1000s—and by keyword research. But now, yes, quality content outstrips these. The person you should thank—or curse—for this is Matt Cutts; Google’s head of Webspam.
What is quality content?
Original, well-written and relevant sums up quality content in Google’s eyes. I should add well-researched to the list. It’s a logical proposition that I can’t see any argument with, unless of course you’re trying to build your Google page position by feverishly adding material at a rate you can’t afford. I’m sure that writers out there know where this is going.
Mass produced and cheap
Sites offering job opportunities for freelance writers have for several years been awash with overseas writers offering material for sometimes less than a cent a word. European and North American writers can’t compete with these prices. Google’s attempt to penalise websites for poorly-written, spammy content by people with no expertise in the subject will force website owners to put their hands in their pockets and pay up. Content mills—the writing equivalent of a sweatshop—are a typical source of cheap content for those who want to frequently refresh a website, but while they’ve had a bad press, some of them are better than others.
A content mill above others
Content mills like Demand Media Studios now understand what Google wants and its writers follow writing and research rules that ensure every article stands up to expert scrutiny. It wasn’t always like that and Demand Media rightly had accusations of “spamminess.” Others are not so scrupulous, but then they don’t pay the writers a decent rate. Demand Media Studios may only pay $30 for a 500-word article, but for many freelancers this is a significant improvement on the $5 paid by some. Website owners using content from the cheap providers should beware: you get what you pay for is the rule.
Guest blogging is dead
And another thing that you should avoid is guest blogging. Because Matt Cutts says it has become spammy. He also says don’t use it is a method of link-building in 2014. So, if you have a blog and you want content, only let somebody you know write it. Guest blogging became spammy because the suppliers connected you to porn or certain types of medicines in the blog’s links and your perfectly respectable business was lined to BigBoobies.com. Google doesn’t like that happening. This kind of behaviour can get a website thrown out of the Googleverse.
Out tips for creating quality content
With some much-appreciated help from Kathryn Aragon at The Daily Egg blog, here are some tips for making sure your website has quality content:
• Make sure your content is reader-friendly rather than geared up for search engines
• Only post relevant, truthful content that doesn’t lead your reader to some unrelated business (like BigBoobies.com)
• Don’t use tricks to improve your ranking: use genuine tools
• Make your website stand out from others in your market with unique, valuable and engaging content.
Adding value
From Google’s perspective—in case you were wondering—the purpose of forcing websites into publishing quality content is ultimately to improve and add value to the search engine user experience. Well-researched and well-written content provides search engine users with a much-improved set of search results that answer their questions with expertise. So, when you’re adding content, ask yourself if you’re adding value.