Great Content

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello fellow Mozzers!

I'm still new to the SEO game and have been doing lots of reading and research about SEO. From what I've learned nowadays it all comes down to great content and links that come from it. I have to admit I'm a visual learner, I need to see it to understand and learn better. I was hoping that someone can provide some examples of GREAT Content (whether its a blog post, page, article, etc...) I know EGOL is one of the most valuabe SEOMoz users and by reading his forum responses he always advises to write great content to build links... Hoping EGOL and other SEOMoz users would be so kind to share an example or two of what they think is great content.

One more question (related). Since all the Google updates this year in regards to links and content, I've read numerous times on this Q&A forum that great content gets links, and that submitting articles to directories or buying links doesn't work anymore or at least not something that a whitehat SEO should implement for a long term strategy, does that mean that if you publish great content on your site that is informative, unique and valuable it will get you links without submitting to directories or buying links? Is it really that simple?

Thank you in advance!

Igor

[AndreVanKets]

In layman's terms, yes, useful great content is all you need to get links naturally.

That's how search engines work, they expect that if people like a website or an article, they will link to it. If you can satisfy your visitors by giving them what they want, they will link/like/share your content. (creating brand exposure, more links)

Obviously its not as simple as posting a "great" article on your site and then forgetting about everything else.

You still need to promote the article in social channels/blog comments etc etc to spread the word.

In time, when your website/brand grows in authority (by building relationships with related webmasters/bloggers etc) Google will rank your articles without you having to do anything as your domain has the authority and trust to back it up.

Publish your great content, but then also promote/share it among the influential people in your niche and over time, the links will come.

Just my opinion on the matter.

Greg

[EGOL]

....an example or two of what they think is great content.

What I think doesn't matter.  It's what my visitors think and their friends think that makes all of the difference.  Go to sites like slashdot and reddit to see what is getting heavy action, look at pages like this on sites like NewYork Times.  These show what is taking off with people.  Look at your own site to see what is getting a little action and make it bettter.

The above shows you the type of content that is highly shareable.  It is hard to predict what will be highly shared and produce it repeatedly.

So, my goal is to be aware of the above and produce things that have potential.  But another area where I focus is on basic information topics where I can produce content that is better than anything that is already out there.  Then produce substantive, well-written content that is rich with photos, graphics, video, data.  Substantive content is long and has a huge diversity of words.  Rich content is attractive and interesting and motivates sharing.

Put these all together... a topic with potential, basic information that is best-on-the-web, substantive to be impressive and pull lots of longtail queries, well written for appeal and rich with media to capture attention.

This type of content is not written in a moment or acquired for a few bucks on a freelance site.  It is produced by someone who knows a subject very well and has creativity to come up with something awesome.

If you read the SEOmoz blog you will certainly see some content that knocks your socks off, triggers lots of discussion and lots of thumbs up.  Those people didn't sit down and crank that out in an afternoon.  They began writing with deep experience, did more research to be sure that they were write, created something great that they were not afraid to show to experts who would give them heavy thumbs down if they were full of it.

Search the web for queries that provide basic information in your niche and identify content that ranks well and clearly deserves it.  Then create something that beats it soundly.

Great content alone will not win the war instantly.  You must have a powerful site to get instant rankings, or get it in front of influencers who will help you promote it or put word of it it out to places like slashdot, reddit, facebook where people can share it.  Sometimes it takes a hurricane or a convention in the news to trigger interest.

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello Greg,

Thank you for your answer! Yes promoting and sharing the content makes sense.

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello EGOL,

Thank you for your answer. It's very helpful and informative! I will try to follow it as a guideline when working on content.

[RobertFisher]

EGOL

As a confirmed content junky, I have to say this is great content.

...my goal is to be aware of the above and produce things that have potential. We have all written things that we knew would be stunning to the world and later scratched our heads wondering where we missed the boat. At the same time, we have written something because it needed to be written and looked up a few days later as it was showing up everywhere and then re-read it to see what those who shared it liked about it.

IGOR,

Please understand the wisdom of this statement:

**This type of content is not written in a moment or acquired for a few bucks on a freelance site.  It is produced by someone who knows a subject very well and has creativity to come up with something awesome. **

One cannot overstate the importance of understanding the subject and of creativity. We are an agency and our copywriters are tasked with writing on a lot of subjects. Literally everything from rewriting product pages so that they are not the same dupe all others have to writing about the law, the weather, medicine, current events, and so forth. While they are great at what they do, without giving them enough time on a subject to know it, all the creativity in the world will not make a piece good. At the same time, subject matter experts who lack creativity usually write like...subject matter experts without creativity...(read the text book, ain't this fun?!). Lastly, asking them to write something great in an hour or two will not produce something great. (We are aware, that on some sites, we are writing to cover a given page topic in the best possible way based on time and money limitations of clients.)

Search the web for queries that provide basic information in your niche and identify content that ranks well and clearly deserves it.  Then create something that beats it soundly.       Well said in my opinion.

Great content alone will not win the war instantly.  You must have a powerful site to get instant rankings, or get it in front of influencers who will help you promote it or put word of it it out to places like slashdot, reddit, facebook where people can share it.

I could not agree more. All to often in SEO we see those who want to do one thing and capture position one in the SERPs. There is no easy path. Yes, there are tricks, etc. but in the final analysis the battle will be won by those who are meticulous in their approach. Someone getting 500 backlinks from a Chinese ginseng business directory, etc. may rank ahead today; I guarantee you they will not win out over time against skilled SEO's who possess determination, skill, and an understanding of reaity.

EGOL,

This was great content you provided to all. Thanks,

[Gamer07]

Something that is GREAT to you may not be THAT GREAT to another and it could possibly be bad to another one.

You should try to understand who your visitors are. I would check out the websites they visit. See what they are interested in. See which topics and posts receive more attention. Comments, social media shares etc.

I have been learning this myself in the last two years. Before, I thought GREAT content meant FLAWLESS content and it wasn't true in some cases.

Keep an eye on Google Analytics to see which content receives high bounce rates and which content is really read (look at average time on page). Then start doing some A/B testing for content that is failing in terms of BOUNCE RATE and Avg Time on Page. Create an alternative of the same page but change the layout, places of text and media. Increase the number of visuals, decrease the text and vice versa.

good luck!

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hi Gamer07,

Thank you, that's a good strategy.

[igor.pinchevskiy]

Hello Robert,

Thank you for your input I agree with you, EGOL whether intentionally or not did provide a great example of GREAT content just by answering my question.