Last year Google brought us the Panda update which was aimed at weeding out the poor quality sites. Typically sites that contained poorly written articles around a niche subject that were designed soley to make money from the Google Ads plastered all over them. They were paid by the advertisers whenever some unfortunate person visited the site. I say ‘unfortunate’ because the sites added very little insight or new information and the first reaction was to hit the back button. The irony is that eHow and other such sites were the biggest displayers of Google adverts.
Two days ago, Google pre-announced what looks like a similarly-sized update targeting sites that have built links from low quality sites. This makes sense as it puts a brake on the ‘arms race’ in the number of links required to rank highly in Google. Even in moderately competitive sectors websites have been requiring tens of thousands of links. Google’s definition of a non-spammy link is one that will bring traffic to your website (this is easy enough to check in the Referrals report in the website analytics). Okay, this is a little puritanical and Google expands by advising that a link is a good link only if you would seek it from other sites even if, hypothetically, search engines didn’t exist.
I think it will take Google a few months’ worth of updates to fine tune this new algorithm, however it does provide strong support for WSI’s belief that the future continues to be all about great quality content. So how might we define great content? Well, if it is such good value to your customers or prospect, then surely you will want to promote it on your facebook page or tweet about it. You aren’t going to want to do this if the article or blog post is dull or a re-hash of old information.
Good content will generate links, or of equal importance in this social media world, ‘shares’. The starting point is a good content plan. Typically this will be a 6 month plan of subjects (with bullet points) to be written about – by all means be flexible with it but have a plan.
Content ideas that could be useful to your readers include:
• Case studies relating to individual customers or industry verticals
• Expert how-to guides. These don’t have to be just text, maybe the inclusion of a short video or set of diagram would make it more interesting
• Points of view and informed commentary from your experts
• Human interest stories. Just make sure they are not too internally-focussed
• Background details for general interest
• Industry tips, news and survey results
Don’t forget that your staff may not have the time or be the best to write the content. Often it is better for a professional copywriter (we can help you here) to interview your expert and write up their ideas in a style and voice appropriate to your customers.
Here are some examples of good content that should get your thoughts going for your own business:
• Interesting ideas and advice
• A case study
• Useful information of interest to a visitor
We have yet to find a business that cannot find something genuinely useful to write about twice a month (okay for some clients it does some prodding and persistence!). Invariably, the content when professionally written up receives favourable feedback inside and outside the business and becomes a valuable asset to the business. Indeed, sales teams have been known to print it out and show it to their prospects.
Not only that, but it should now be increasingly rewarded with good Google rankings. A double whammy.
