The more that my job crosses over from print to digital, the more I encounter the dread word ‘content’. It always makes me think that words, pictures and video are just filler. Which is a fair enough view if you happen to work in the sales department – but us editorial types have to resist the temptation to start speaking the same language.
Media is all about communication. Specialist media, like Stuff, is about communicating passion. You can’t be passionate about content. Nor can you be proud of your work when you stop writing for your audience and start writing for Google’s robots. The shift from writer to keyword-rich content generator is a frightening one.
When I went to Google’s HQ a couple of weeks ago, I was assured that the search engine rewards sites that are good for their audiences. “Don’t write for Google,” I was told. “Do your best job for your readers, and we’ll find you”.
My heart agrees. But I know that plenty of sites, with low editorial values and high SEO, are busily playing Google for all it’s worth. And why would Google worry? After all, most of these sites don’t have their own sales teams, so they rely on Google’s advertising network.
So, please remember I am a writer, not a content provider.
Now please click on the links to support this site.
[memo to self: set up Google Adsense account doublequick]
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Comments ( 1 Comment )
lol, love the conclusion to that philosophical post Tom. Google does reward good content, it’s just worth bearing in mind the kind of things people search for.
Although, theoretically, that just means that you should write content that people are interested in and therefore would be searching for; so shouldn’t it just already be in what you write anyway. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation though, as you need to be popular to get more popular.
Stuff.tv has excellent SEO now though. Often as I try to answer people’s questions, the first result is the thread I’m trying to answer… XD
Chris C added these pithy words on
May 16 09 at
1:08 am
