Tag Archives: Web content

Content Is King

Lifesize Religious King Statue with Spear
Lifesize Religious King Statue with Spear (Photo credit: epSos.de)

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there are two main ways to go: do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. The techniques used by either path are the same, though the professional may have access to more tools and options. Create content all over the Internet that points back to your site. Use the proper keywords the right number of times and SEO will be yours. Spam them too much and Google will ignore you.

Many people go at the keywords with reckless abandon. They use Google’s Adword Keyword tool and make list and after list of good keywords. They do all the can to work these keys words into articles to make them look like Search Engine Optimization wizards. They create content that seems odd and fantastic. They forget a key element.

Content is King.

In the early days of Internet marketing, it was easy. Find several blog sites and copy the same article to them all. Perhaps change a few words here or there, but that was about it. Post the article and let the search engines find them. Leads poured into business opportunities and people made money. People also complained and Google struck back: the infamous Google slap! Leads dried up overnight. Adword accounts were closed. The money makers had to find a new way.

The content makers realized they needed to create a few different versions of the same article. Someone figured out to use a formula to the paragraphs of the article and them made a routine to randomly swap them out. Those posted all over the Internet lead to hit rates climbing again. Come across one of the pages though and they were not humanly readable.

Google got smarter. Along came Panda.

More and more, the search engines look at context, as well as, the content. Does the content flow? Is it human readable? Is it duplicated? Is it just greeking? With each update, both Google and Bing learn the context. Along cam mobile and raised the bar again. Google search on an iPhone is not only optimized for text, it is also optimized for time and place. Google knows where you are and what the time is. In the same spot it may return different first pages depending on if it is 10am or 6pm. Your content needs to reflect such changes.

Content, after all, is King.

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Good Content Makes For Good Conversation

Girl with smirk
Girl with smirk (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

My marketing mentor Gregg Davison is found of many phrases. Many would be quick to recite his “It is always sunny when you are making money” quip. He is also keen on another important phrase when it comes to successful marketing “Content is King”.

There are many blogs out there on the Internet. Many of the are popular and do bring in some money for their creators. Many of them bring in no one and don’t make a penny. Why? Simple: bad content.

Creating good content is more than bringing up the Google adword tool and finding good keywords to use. Sure, if you want trying to sell a business opportunity about making money on the Internet, the usual advice is to look for those keywords and get them into your content. Gurus will tell you that your content should have somewhere between 3-5% of your “making money” keywords so that Google will like your content and rank it high. When it comes to a phrase like “Making money on the Internet,” how many websites could Google possibly place on the first page? Exactly.

Having a good blog that attracts readers is more than just good use of keywords in your content. The content itself needs to be good. You want to attract readers. You want them to return. You need to find you niche.

Finding your niche is about your story. Who are you? What are your interests? Forget about the awesome Internet money making opportunity you have and tell the readers more of you. They want to believe they know you, so tell them. Don’t let every article be on some new marketing technique you learned on the previous night’s call with Jay Kubassek.

Here’s a great for instance. A classmate of mine from college has her own blog. Always wanting to keep a few extra pounds off, she embraced her struggles and shares her story. The result? She attracts like minded individuals who are looking to achieve results. Her readers like that she is not trying to use the blog to hawk particular products, so they see her openness and candor as refreshing. They also celebrate each others victories. That is what blogging is about! Take hold and triumph!

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