At TK, we really push new, unique, fresh and relevant content. Getting ideas for content, understanding the do’s and don’t and knowing what content to write is a bit daunting for many. SEOmoz, in their weekly whiteboard video, address some of these issues. It’s great for helping content writers, or those that try to add content, get ideas and get a framework for laying out their content strategy. Enjoy this short video:
A couple points I want to emphasize. First, manipulating the search engines with fake-unique content may pay off short term, but you are basically playing a dangerous game and your pitted against the smartest computer scientists in the world at Google, that are trying to come up with ways to stop your content-gaming. My advice is to keep the content real and relevant by generating it yourself, or with a writer that is creative and most importantly is an actual person.
Also, getting user-generated content can be very difficult and shouldn’t be the initial strategy. It’s something that usually has to grow organically- with little forced upon it. Trying to force feed it can get expensive and exhausting. Most sites that have huge user generated content are those that started very small and naturally caught on (viral), or had the advantage of an existing large community (eBay reviews, for example) that they could leverage. Trying to anticipate and build an entire marketplace around this, can get pretty expensive. Start something cheep on the side, spend little and see if it catches on.
It’s been around for a bit, but we’re now using the Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin. It’s a great addition, as it automatically notifies you when a link is broken on your blog or site. I have it set up to check the site every 3 days, as you can easily have it check your site at set times. You can also manually check it at any time. Pretty nice addition and super easy to use.
Much has been written about the comparisons between Google, Yahoo and Bing. Many feel that Google still reigns supreme as far as quality search results. Others counter that Google benefits from their brand in this debate, and with a blind test, they argue, Bing competes very well. So, instead of giving our opinion, we leave it to you. Try going to this search engine blind test and see for yourself.
You will find:
– Simple search box
– Results displayed in three columns
– Each column represents Yahoo, Google or Bing, but all branding is hidden
– A button that allows you to vote for the best results for your search
– Branding is then displayed
Do a dozen searches or so and see what engine actually provides you the best results.
Getting retweets is a great way to spread content and getting potential natural links. People like your stuff, send it along, people run into it and link to your content. It’s simply helping the natural link building process, and doing it in a legitimate way. This powerpoint presentation quickly walks you through some of the tips for doing so on twitter. I enjoyed it and thought I’d share.
Matt shares some great advice on No Follows, and how Google is looking at it these day. As you know there has been a lot of chatter about this as Google’s has been a little ambiguous about this over the last 8 months. Now people are getting some solid footing on the topic. They throw in a little SES chatter. Personally, I just read the blog updates, instead of going in person, but to each their own. Anyway, enjoy the short interview with Matt Cutts video segment.
Thanks SEOmoz, and Jen for another good installment.
Wordpress provides a robust platform to create sites, blogs and much more. Gravitate Online customizes templates and websites on this backbone to make sites incredibly search engine friendly and easy to manage and update.
