With the newspaper industry in a state of flux, many marketers and content-driven entrepreneurs are reexamining long-held beliefs about the value of content. Some have embraced a high-quality model, employing only the finest content for their websites and limiting the amount of repeat, retrospective, and summary content that is published. Others have swung in the opposite direction, embracing content of any kind and vetting little work before it is published.
With almost any situation where public opinion – or in this case, the opinion of marketers – is split almost evenly down the center, there is plenty of examination and analysis to do. Indiscriminate and low quality content undoubtedly has its place online – mainly as food for search engines – but it certainly is not all marketers should concern themselves with.
Quality content is extremely valuable in your website SEO campaign, which is why we stress its importance to our clients when working on their website SEO strategies.
Cheap content can’t sell.
Frugal marketers have noticed one thing over the years: inexpensive investments generally result in poor outcomes. From low-cost stock options to cheap websites, the barrier for entry into any given industry or activity can be an effective way of estimating it is potential returns. Smart marketers have adapted their content to suit their purpose, prioritizing high quality efforts and limiting the user of cheap content, giving them greater control over their brand and in the end, greater results.
In a search engine’s eyes, content is different.
Despite the common perception that search engines will eat up any and every piece of content marketers and publishers spit at them, the reality is quite distinctly different. With technology continually improving, Google, Yahoo, and other leading search engines have optimized their indexing and ranking efforts to the point where cheap content is quite unlikely to even make it into their indexes.
That means those ultra-cheap articles you have put together while in a state of near-total sleep are not going to become the valuable search engine food you intended for them to be. It means those automated content producers you invested in are not going to help you gain traffic. Finally – and most importantly for many marketers – it means that your investment in content will be met with enhanced output, most clearly improved income and sales returns.
Why your content needs to be personal:
Design, content, and usability are all aspects that are centered around a product. For Apple, the thought of outsourcing design or marketing is inexcusable and unthought of – the company is that invested in ensuring their image is protected.
Zappos is much the same. The idea of making their sales efforts impersonal are not even considered, merely brushed aside in favor of a strategy that keeps efforts internal and personal. When your brand is built on quality, anything lacking in it is not a marketing asset, but a potential liability.
Successful marketers treat their content similarly. As a project develops, they create it with purpose in mind. Every word is shaped around their goals, every call-to-action is designed to improve returns or build loyalty in some form. Finally, everything is structured around a final goal or objective. When the time to delegate and outsource finally comes, they understand what it is they need, and are entirely free of a desire for low-quality, brand-affecting work.