New Section On Site Worth It?

[David-Kley]

We have been kicking around this idea for a while now, and I wanted to get the communities honest opinion before we begin building it.

So we create a lot of posts on social media showcasing articles we find on SEO, tips and tricks, reviews, etc. We were thinking rather than always linking out to the other sites, we are going to create a section on our site called "From Around The Web" and have brief breakdowns of what was covered, then provide a link to the full article. Most of these would be between 300-500 words, and be optimized around what we were linking to and writing about.

So since the content would not be "in-depth" would this hurt us in any way? To me, it doesnt not make sense to send people to the other article right away, when we can summarize it and link to the full articles from our site. (Most people dont want to read a 3000 word article on SEO, especially small business owners who just want the breakdown) Thoughts? Think it will help, or not be useful enough to invest labor in?

[EGOL]

Here is what I would do...

First, I agree that the small biz owner does not want the 3000-word SEO article.

So, instead of writing a rehash of somebody else's article, I would write a simple, basic, 100% stand alone article that explains the topic to a noob.   Most of your visitors don't want the 3000-word so don't try to feature the other guy's article.  Feature yourself.

Instead of making an "Around the Web" section on the site, I would make a "Small Biz Tips from David-Kley".

You might be inspired by articles written by others, but don't allow them to set your course.

Instead, I would be writing short, clear, EVERGREEN, concepts.  That makes you independent of the other guy's content.  That keeps the visitor on your site and reading a second and third article from you.  Soon you will have a big collection and topics that fall into categories and you can cross-market same-category articles to the visitor, building an impressive resource library that is under your own brand.

Start with a plan of what you want this content to be... answering frequent client questions, explaining basics, addressing stuff that clients don't ask about but really need to know.

Begin with the end in mind and they work towards it.

(I am just going to talk honest stuff here.  It might get people's panties in a twist.  But, I would not want to be linking out to a bunch of SEO sites.  No sir.   Not only might they be bad neighborhoods (sorry guys) but I don't know if I am gonna be agreein' with all of the stuff that they wrote in 2011 or what they will write next week. Ain't linkin' to them.  No way.)

[David-Kley]

I appreciate the advice and detailed response. I have a few questions:

First, if you do not recommend linking out, what about this page then? We have this set up for a user-resource. Most of the links are quality stuff, linking out to search engine land, MOZ, etc.

http://www.webdesignandcompany.com/seo-resources

I noticed that you mentioned putting my name in the URL vs. being generic. Are you saying this due to the possible social media profile interest?

The main reason for doing the short blurbs and linking out is time. We have had a very steady influx of clients this year, and time to work on our own site is a bit low. If we optimize it well, do you see us spending the time to set up being worth the effort and labor? I am estimating at least an hour per article, maybe 2-3 to make sure its "read-worthy".

[EGOL]

I don't have any problem linking out if I know the site that I am linking to really really well.  I don't see anything wrong with your list of "SEO and Marketing Resources" if you want to recommend them to your clients.

I am assuming that you would like to have content on your website that educates your visitors and showcases your expertise.  If that is the goal, I would be concerned about finding articles other website and using them as the basis of a short article on my site.  All that does is turn your website into a signpost that promotes other people.

I would rather spend a little extra time per article and write a library of articles on my own site that explain mostly evergreen topics.  Why?  If these resources are being prepared as a knowledge base for current and potential clients then I would want to keep them on information that I produce and control than send them out to other websites where my branding and expertise is lost.

Using articles on other websites might seem like a time-saving effort that saves you from explaining the nitty-gritty - you just link to it.  But it doesn't have the same impact as explaining the nitty gritty on your own site and keeping your voice and your branding in the visitors mind.

What happens when the other website deletes that article or goes out of business or starts publishing stuff that you don't agree with?  This is going to happen eventually.  Then all of the work that you put into that article is gone.

Also, this isn't going to earn you likes, links, tweets and mentions.  It is going to earn those things for the other guy.  You are simply turning your website and your labor into an advertising effort for other people in your industry.

Why not build a resource for yourself?  Write a weekly or monthly original stand-alone, evergreen article service that people can subscribe to, tweet about, mention, link to and like.

That is how I would approach this.