Producing content just to satisfy SEO targets and pressures is dangerous because that’s when you get into the realms of publishing content for content’s sake and clearly, Google doesn’t like that given its recent content farming update.
More importantly, your website users don’t like that. While SEO clearly has its place, it shouldn’t get in the way of producing great content…
I was going to start this blog writing about why having quality content is so important and I’m still going to do that, I just hope I don’t eat my words in a few weeks time.
My opinion on content is and always will be this: if you’re in the content publishing business, always have content that you genuinely believe is interesting, that is useful, that is informative. It has to have a purpose, else why are you doing it?
Don’t publish content for content’s sake
No-one can deny it’s easy to get pushed along by ideas that get chucked at you from within a business but sometimes you have to push back.I completely believe you shouldn’t be producing content for SEO; you should be producing it because it adds something to users of your website.
For example, say you’ve dropped in the rankings for one of your target keywords; the business’ automatic reaction is to want more content around that keyword. But, I’d fight against that, unless there is some relevance in producing content around said keyword.
Producing content just to satisfy SEO targets and pressures is dangerous because that’s when you get into the realms of publishing content for content’s sake and clearly, Google doesn’t like that given its recent Farmer Update. More importantly, your website users don’t like that.
Google is obviously punishing content farms, so don’t be one. If you feel you’ve strayed into this way of publishing content then seriously think twice about what you’re doing and why.
Put yourself in your consumer’s or reader’s position
For me it’s simple. What is it you want to see when you visit a website? And are you doing that?
For example, if you sell car insurance then have a 30 second video on how to cut the cost of car insurance. That’s useful isn’t it? Don’t send customers an email with content they can read in a thousand other websites, that’s just insulting. Give them something they can’t get elsewhere. Give them quality.
Whatever you do when deciding what content to generate, don’t just do it for SEO. Don’t write an article and stuff it full of keywords because you have keyword targets to hit or have committed to producing x amount of articles about your products.
Some SEO agencies believe this is the way forward; I don’t. I believe this forces you to produce content that’s not necessarily relevant or interesting. Dreaming up ideas just to trigger SEO targets isn’t how content is supposed to be produced. That’s not how the best publishers do it, and it’s not how you should do it either.
Getting the right people to help you produce content is also part of getting the content production process right, but that’s a discussion all in its own and one for another blog.
Bryan, great and simple post on content farming. I freelance write and get approached about submitting to multiple sites and always decline. Nancy
Nancy,
Good for you about not compromising yourself on submitting duplicate content. I was in the same situation when I first started this work and actually did do this not knowing otherwise. I have since learned better!
Bryan
Hi Bryan,
Great post needed for today’s situation in the blogosphere, where creating content is almost on autopilot. Apart from producing useful and unique content,it is certainly important to keep our reader’s in mind. Otherwise they will be totally lost.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for coming by and reading my post. This will soon be an old topic, so I wanted to get my word in on the subject. I have other article marketing sites that others try to “pollute” with the same stuff just to be displayed everywhere!
Talk soon, Bryan
What you’re saying is actually something new in my book. In a single day i visit tens of blogs, maybe over 100, and inevitably i run over articles that give me a deja vu feeling. This is because people often write on the same subject over and over again. So let’s say i want to write about installing windows xp. Why would i do that when there are already a thousand tutorials on the net already? Obviously, as a reader, when i run over this kind of articles i get bored and disappointed.
Maria,
Simply put – agreed. I have actually slowed down the number of posts I publish because I now wait until I get just a hint of new information first, otherwise I am doing the same thing. Thanks for reading,
Bryan
Don’t get me wrong, you can write on old subjects, but at least try and bring something new on the scene, don’t just shuffle the words.
Some topics can be discussed over and over, but some should just be laid to rest. Must know how to differentiate those.