Who here thinks "Content is King" is BS

14 years ago

I agree with you .... BUT .... if you don't have good content or offer the visitor what they want when they get to your page then being high in the SERPS won't get you much.

You need to have both!

Lee

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Chris Worner

14 years ago

It would seem you are the only one for the moment!

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Odhinn

14 years ago

I agree to a certain extent. I think that good quality content is the easiest way to ensure that you can get to the top easily. Without it, you run the risk of wasting a lot of your time building links to a site that could potentially flop.

However, if content was truly king, then why would autoblogs work well? They simply copy other pages.

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mahesh2k

14 years ago

Content is king if you want CPM advertisers...Show me any good CPM advertisers allowing ads on scraper site or blog. Content sure is the king and will remain till we lose our interest in reading on the web.

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ShaneRQR

14 years ago

Content is King, but the question is: King of what?

Certainly not of the entire Internet.

The thing is: If you can create really amazing content - as in extremely well written, super link-baity, super-charismatic on camera/podcast, insightful but still easy to digest, informative but entertaining and somehow fresh - then content is initially King of social media traffic for you. People want to share brilliant content.
As they share it, you'll even start ranking for some search terms and build something like a fan-base. And once you have that, content starts taking a back-seat to celebrity status.

If you just write good (but not amazing) content, then it won't be the king of anything, unless you do some serious promoting.

Content is also most certainly not king for many "just-for-money" sites and marketing strategies.

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Darren Tan 14 years ago
Frankly speaking, each and every IMers in this forum know and understand Content is King, just that many of them chose the easier path.

I sincerely believe if we want to stay long in this industry no.1 thing to do is to Love Your Clients.

Only when you love your clients, then
- you'll write fantastic content
- build quality linkwheels (web 2.0 properties that people truly love to read) to reach out to more people
Regards,
Darren
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digigo

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rvrabel2002

Yet, I'll look at competing sites ranked in the top 10, and they all suck .

but the ones looking for the information are the ones having the final say.. don't you think google is smart enough to do the simple thing like A/B testing??? what you think is a good.. maybe hard. profound..insightful.. may not be what the searchers want.. they just want easy and simple answer...

here is an analogy for you: you think McDonald's food is any good?? some say not.. but they are good enough for billions.. i rest my case.

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Steven Wagenheim 14 years ago

** DISCLAIMER** I am not getting into an ethics debate here. I am not
saying that I approve of some of the methods below. I am simply stating
the facts in regard to content and its purpose.

Having said that, the answer to your question, "Is content is king BS?"
depends on the purpose of your content.

If your purpose is solely to get people to your blog to click on Adsense
links, then quite honestly, you're doing yourself a disservice by putting
good content on your site. It will only distract people from those Adsense
links because they might actually READ what you have there, and heaven
forbid THAT happens. So in this case, content is bad...very, very bad.

However, if you want to build a relationship with your prospects, get them
onto your list, sell them stuff that can help them and ultimately build life
long customers, you're not going to do it like this.

"Crappy, crappy content...blah, blah, blah...now go and click on my link
below and join my stupid list."

It won't happen. And if you think it will, you are deluding yourself.

People go to web sites for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones
is to be informed and educated.

If you don't do that, you better have some Adsense on your site.

Because that's all it's going to be good for.
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theemperor

14 years ago

Content is King! Long live content!

In 10 years time, which site will be doing better - one with genuine content or an autoblog? With search engine technology in 10 years time being even more better at spotting rubbish and rehashed content, I think genuine content is the retirement plan, where as pure SEO and nothing else is the J.O.B. plan.

Not to mention word of mouth. Would you tell all your friends about an cool autoblog you found? Or a genuine site with content you really found useful?

And I run an autoblog myself, and the idea is pants (as they say in the UK) meaning rubbish.

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BIG Mike

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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theemperor

14 years ago

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

Content is not king, at least in the long-term. If it were, you article marketers wouldn't be constantly cranking out new articles all the time.

Here's my prediction for the next 3 to 5 years - get ready to focus on quality user experience to rank in Google. As they continue to explore and develop search technology, it's going to boil down to the value a site provides to it's visitors.

Mike, you have just said that content is not king, and then, in the next sentence, in a round about way said that it is:

"it's going to boil down to the value a site provides to it's visitors"

Generally the value a site provides to it's visitors is CONTENT. This is unless your site is a storefront (Amazon, Incansoft

, etc...) or a community (WarriorForum, Twitter, Facebook, EZA, etc...)

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Liam Hamer 14 years ago

Personally, I think creating a good site full of lots of helpful and interesting information and creating a presence for said site is king

Just because you might use article directories to leverage your site doesn't mean the content you put on them has to be crap.

Just because you might use web 2.0 properties to leverage your site doesn't mean the content you put on them has to be crap.

Just because you might use profile backlinks to leverage your site doesn't mean you can't add some value to the sites where you leave your links.

I could go on and on and on. A good site should have a good presence all over the web. You don't have to be a spammer to give it one
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BIG Mike

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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DogScout

14 years ago

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

No. No. No. Content != Value

Value is derived from the overall visitor experience, which includes visitor interaction on a variety of levels, only one of which is content. And in that case, it's high-quality content accurately targeting one or more specific topics.

The three of the four sites you mention above are examples of this (not EZA) - they provide a mechanism for visitors to interact with the site as well as others. But in the process, they grow content naturally through that interaction forming the basis of authority in one or more areas.

Search engine technology is going to change significantly during this decade and a significant part of that will be real-time result sets that eliminate non-authority marketing sites as we know them today.

You don't have to take my word for it...but if you're smart, you'll consider what I'm saying carefully.

I think you hit the nail on the head as much as one can prediction-wise.

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Steven Wagenheim 14 years ago

I think what Big Mike is trying to say, in a nut shell, is that if people go to
your site and don't like what they find there...they're going to be gone.

So you can have a gazillion articles on your site. If they suck, or if they
don't give the visitor the experience that they're looking for, it's not going
to matter.

Plus, content can also be in the form of audio and video. Anything that
interacts with the visitor for that matter, including the ability to provide
feedback to the site itself.

Amazon is a perfect example of this.

They are predominantly a place to sell products...tons of them, in a variety
of niches.

But...they also have reviews of the products, comments from buyers and
allow for buyers to post comments.

If you looked at Amazon, you wouldn't normally associate them with a
site that is "content" for content's sake. However, it's there...just in many
forms.

All of which contribute to a satisfying end user experience.
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Marty S

14 years ago

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

Content is not king, at least in the long-term. If it were, you article marketers wouldn't be constantly cranking out new articles all the time.

Here's my prediction for the next 3 to 5 years - get ready to focus on quality user experience to rank in Google. As they continue to explore and develop search technology, it's going to boil down to the value a site provides to it's visitors.

I do believe that content is King long term right now, but I also believe it will be even more important as you say Mike. You are correct that Google is always looking for mechanical ways to decipher what content is valuable. In fact, that is what has made them the behemoth they are today > by providing the BEST search results.

If you are an owner of auto-blogging websites and back-linking services, the least you should do right now is diversify, because auto-blogging is high risk for de-listing IMHO.

If you have a business that rather much stands the test of search competition already because your content is unique, viral and sought after then you just keep doing what you are doing.

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ijohnson 14 years ago

MONEY is King, CONTENT is Queen, building quality relationships is the Master that drives me, and everything else is ...! :rolleyes:
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DogScout

14 years ago

it is unfortunate that it takes 2.0 back-linking etc to rank a good content site. To me, the two things should perform independently of each other. Most of the 2.0 'natural' backlinks I see are not word of mouth recommendations, they are people linking to their own sites, or linking to a blog post just to do it, not because there is anything worth looking at when anyone gets there. Most of all 2.0 backlinks seem to be artificial in nature now! I can envision a time soon where off page SEO weights less and less in the ranking. 90% of 2.0 links go to crap now IMO.

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digigo

14 years ago

Originally Posted by precious007

This issue has been overly discussed.

Having a successful business doesn't mean you have to have a website with unique/high quality content.

An great example of a website that is making a six figure monthly income and half of its content IS duplicate is a well known article directory Articles Base.

In my opinion as long as you, as a business owner can win your customer's/visitors credibility, then you have a successful business.

Al.

that is very true... your brand is much more important than your product...

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crazyfish22

14 years ago

Good content can't hurt. I recently discovered a website that linked to one article each on two of my websites. Finding her PR5 website linking to my 0PR websites was a pleasant surprise indeed. Just glad for the unsolicited link love, and just glad that she found my content useful and informative enough to link to.

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jstover77

Banned 14 years ago

From an SEO stand point I would say that content along with proper meta tags, alt tags, ect, is about 10-20% of what matters, with the other 80-90% being your backlinking strategy. This is in terms of ranking.

As far as quality, you should always have quality content, because once you get the visitors to your page, you want to keep them there.

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niffybranco

14 years ago

Getting top ranking in search engines is important but ask yourself when browsing do you stick to the first result you find or do you keep scrolling down till you find a site that provides you with the information you require? Great content matters a lot for me as well as top ranking , if your site ranks high and provides poor content you will loose a lot of the traffic you worked hard building backlinks for.

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TristanPerry

14 years ago

There are different elements of website development:

1) The SEO that gets people to your site. Without SEO, you won't get much/any traffic.

2) Your website design. First impressions count. A bad first impression may well scare off your visitors.

3) Your content. Content is king is true. No real point in getting traffic (and/or having a nice website design) if you haven't got anything worthwhile to read..

Overall, content is king. Naturally. The internet is based on content. (Just like a shop without products is pretty useless). However there's no point in having great content if no-one sees it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that internet marketers are sometimes naive and they only look at one aspect of website development.

However a 'proper' website needs good SEO, a good design and good content.

Ignore one and you may as well ignore the rest.

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Marhelper

14 years ago

Content is king as long as the content is keyword driven (of course the keywords should be researched really well), Backlinking and good on page SEO are also very helpful.

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Nickolie0990

14 years ago

I think it all depends on the type of marketing your doing. The visitor will always want content, there not coming to your site to see how many links you have pointing to your site, unless your doing research...(competition).

Your targeted market wants content, so I would form a marketing stradgey that involves giving the best content I can. After all, it is NOT the search engines rankings give you the money, its your customers. Stop worrying about ranking high in the search engines and start helping your customers. After all, that's why you started a business right, too make money. Who is giving you the money, Google or your customers.

Mark

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Zeus66

14 years ago

I think what leads to a lot of the contentiousness of this ongoing debate is the misconstruing of what "content" really means. It's not just words on the page. But when a lot of people hear "Content is king!" they think only about the text on your page. IN reality, content covers it all: interactivity, images, video, audio, as well.

And I do think Google is getting back to rewarding this more, at least if you believe what has been said about Caffeine. Could be that they're moving toward less dependence on "votes" (links) and more on user experience and behavior on a site. Apparently quicker loading sites are being favored, which if you think about it is a form of content. Time on page may be getting a harder look, too. Again, a reflection of the user experience and, so, content.

I sincerely hope Google is moving away from rewarding off-page things like active link building. That will probably always be a major factor, but perhaps they gave it too much credence and now they're pulling back a bit. The technological advances are probably making this new approach more viable than it was a few years ago, as well.

All conjecture, but when we rely so heavily on Google for traffic, it matters immensely.

John

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Lance K 14 years ago

I love quality content as much as the next person, but relationships are king.
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- theemperor 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Lance K
  
  I love quality content as much as the next person, but relationships are king.
  
  Your wife will love that you said that
  
  Any perhaps there is no king, just an army of different things that together make up a complete business, with "content", "relationships", "user experience" being the soldiers. How is that for a diplomatic answer
  
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Dennis Gaskill

14 years ago

I made my living online for 10 years with one content site. I did no advertising and no marketing whatsoever. All I did to promote the site was write quality content and perform on-page/on-site search engine optimization. It wasn't until a hacker ruined my search engine rankings that I started getting into IM.

It seems many of you are focusing on content is king/not king in a vacuum. There are many factors that need to be examined in any argument of this nature, including but not limited to:

quality of content
quantity of content
thematic value of content
uniqueness of content
on-page seo
on-site seo (different from on-page seo)
keyword quality
market size
market quality
discretionary spending available to the average user in the market
discretionary spending habits of the market
link-worthiness of the content
availability of the content elsewhere
strength of competition

...and on and on. There are just too many factors, including your goals for a site, to say that content is king or not king. I will only add that with Google's Caffeine update, content will become a more important ranking factor.

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Troy_Phillips

14 years ago

Content is important . Without traffic it is useless .

Vast amounts of traffic will not produce the desired results without proper content .

If traffic meets content but traffic has no money , still not the desired result if you are into marketing for profit .

While no one point is king online, research and testing defiantly has a place at the round table .

The list should receive honorable mention.

Any time you get to thinking any one aspect of marketing is king , those that know better will pass you up.

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Ram 14 years ago

Depends what you want the site to do and how you are getting people to it.

My most valuable sites rank at top of Google just for their domain names and are only squeeze pages. If Google banned them all tomorrow it would be no skin off my nose. Have no content other that what it takes to get a visitor to sign up. Provide no reason to ever come back. But since I advertise mostly offline I really don't care.

Where "content is king" for me is in my emails and offline mailouts.
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Sue McDonald

14 years ago

Content is definitely KING. What every visitor is looking for is information in some form or other. If you can not provide it they will be in and out of your site very quickly and on to the next site. If your content is poor - you will get little or no traffic.

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Ram

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Sue McDonald

Content is definitely KING. What every visitor is looking for is information in some form or other. If you can not provide it they will be in and out of your site very quickly and on to the next site. If your content is poor - you will get little or no traffic.

But the content dos not have to be on your search-engine indexed site. It can be what the visitor gets after they visit - report, ebook, course, webinar, teleseminar, CD, DVD, online audio or video, etc.

You can drive visitors to your squeeze page, have them register, and then send content via email. They know why they are going to your page. An ad - online, magazine, radio, TV, etc. drove them there - and they want what you are offering.

That's pretty much all we do. Once they are on the list we sell afterward and often. But we have no interest in building content-rich destination sites. Nothing wrong with them. That's fine if that's what you want to do. We would rather build our lists.

BTW - We do advertise on content sites - for our squeeze pages. We see the value. But we let others do the work of building and maintaining those content sites.

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Kevin_Hutto

14 years ago

Whether content is King or not, is probably not the right argument...

The real question is can you make great money from great content?

The answer is YES.

Look at GaryVee... He is putting out great content in his niche and sells a buttload of wine and wine junk. His whole model is built on generating great content.

And, I have a buddy who makes $20k a month off a membership site that he sold out from two blasts to his rss subscribers. He built the rss subscribers in about 6 months on his blog. BUT... his content wasnt just GOOD... It was GREAT. He would often work on a blog post for several days. But he didnt do any seo work or try to rank in the big G at all.

When you regularly put 20 hours in a blog post and you are already a very good writer, then your content becomes something that people look forward to reading. But, he has worked for a long time developing his writing ability.

In any case, this proves that you can make pretty decent money from great content.

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RNMKR

14 years ago

It may be prince, but I do not know about king... I think that something someone made up in order to sell some kind of article software

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N4PGW

14 years ago

No, Content isn't king, traffic isn't king and neither is copy. Sales is king and generally comes on a red carpet woven with the right combination of the above.

At least that is my opinion from what I have seen in my last year of looking into this stuff. I am going to guess that a good copyrighter can make money selling ice to an Eskimo and a great product may sell in spite of poor copy, and the right copy and product will sell even with very little traffic... but I don't think any of the above will bring the best results. Synchronizing all the above with the best match for each other, that is the real trick to making the most money.

Remember, you asked "Who here thinks..." I am just a nuub here so pay close attention to those making more money than I am losing....you may fit into that category.

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mejohn

14 years ago

Content is king when you think of it as a chess game. I explain it in detail in the link in my signature.

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Kevin_Hutto

14 years ago

N4PGW,
Like the profile pic!

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N4PGW 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Kevin_Hutto

N4PGW,
Like the profile pic!

Thanks, Unlike the rest of you, it's the real thing. lol

BTW, that is my business partner, I don't have a "grand" yet.

All you guys are great. I am learning or reinforcing my knowlege of IM here.

I'll be joining the war room in a few weeks.

Thanks to all.
(even if we agree to disagree.)
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- StaffPartyTrivia 14 years ago
  
  If you are in a very competitive search market
  content - loads of it - pages and pages
  will probably the only thing that gets your
  rank up.
  
  However, I would rather just keep it simple
  and deliver ( or promise ) exactly what they were searching for
  in a short, to the point, above the fold mini site.
  
  Thanks
  
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Who here thinks "Content is King" is BS

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