It’s been a decade since I started my career in the digital media. It’s an industry where Google rules and is everywhere and is in everything. With SEO hype come marketers. They have eyes bigger than their stomachs. The way they chase Google reminds me of Mickey Mouse cartoon of my childhood. And, I really mean it.
From time to time they repackage their strategy
and thus make a whopping business. Their biggest revenue comes from patented
SEO tools/software they sell, that never guarantees anything beyond some insights. Different subscribers tell different stories while trying to
decipher the anatomy of a website. This too reminds me of a folk tale of the
blind men and the elephant. There is so much similarity, isn’t it?
Two Sides of the Same Candle: Despite frequent changes
in algorithm, however, Google’s effort to promote good information on the web
has not yet proved to be a major success. The avalanche of articles, videos,
audios, press releases, blogs, etc. is enough to bore anyone to their death.
Frankly, I don’t believe in content marketing.
In fact, such marketing does not exist, and it very much latches onto the hype. However, if they think content marketing is the secret sauce of all success, they are looking
at the brighter side of a candle from one angle, but I wear a different
spectacle to look through the candle burning at both ends. Be careful, the
darkness is approaching very soon!
Content Factories’ Resistance Power: After Hummingbird, various content factories are
believed to have died off. But some of them have developed resistance to the powerful
“spray gun” of Google; and they are virtually alive. They think the usage of
keywords in content is still very important to bait Google. I don’t remember
when and how ‘keyword density’ has become a standard parameter to rank on Google, and why any sensible marketer should care for it today! Inevitably, their
purpose of developing content reveals their “intention” for Gamification. If a
site’s ranking is poor, they have a hunch that the site is not optimized and
content is not great.
Can their theoretic recommendations
to develop so-called "quality content" be worth considering? Blame my poor
digestive system, I could puke! I’m sorry,
but everyone knows the secret recipe and has tasted the sauce. Tell us, what
next?
We see a big chunk of
content being produced on a daily basis; some are really great, while most are
not. Further, I have also noticed that sometimes, great content does not spark
any conversation or controversy, nor do users ‘like’ and ‘share’ them. May be what
I think as great, other think as substandard and vice versa. It is very subjective
to measure the ‘quality’, while a quantitative measurement does not prove a content
to be good or bad. Regret how the dirt across digital media buries some amazing
content of lesser known people. Thanks
to Google for retiring ‘Author Rank’, else it would have been f##### off.
Use or Misuse! Everyone in the industry is made to believe
that ‘content is king’. They always produce so much, which is beyond one’s
digestion capacity. Every hour, every day, every week and every month they
create, with the hope of getting into the golden triangle of Google. They also syndicate
and distribute across different channels including Facebook, Twitter, G+,
LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. I pity LinkedIn in particular, about how it is professionally
being abused with promotional emails/loads of execrable content. Jeff, wake
up!
Image Source: 1000heads.com |
Wikipedia is another
example which is full of rich content and quality information. It has dominated
Google search results for a long time, but now it is seeing a sharp decline in
traffic from the search engine. Reason - change in algorithm, or a direct
answer to a query? At this point of time, any reason that I mention looks a
like a theory, but intuitively we all know why Wikipedia is losing traffic from
Google, don’t we?
Address My Questions: Those who believe, content is a gateway to all
success, I have a few questions to which I would like an answer:
Q 1: If the content, they
produce, is expected to get them the desired results, then why email open and click rate are not going up beyond
25-30% and 3-4% respectively across verticals. Why is the subscriber’s growth
always a concern for any marketer? Don’t say they don’t produce great content!
Q 2: How do you measure the
success of great content? Using any standard KPIs, Bounce rate or page views?
For God sake, don’t say you use “website engagement” metrics! May be, ranking
on Google is a “great” measure to consider great content, but is it?
Content Marketing – A Gimmick! The hype behind content
marketing is nothing but a marketing gimmick. Rarely do I think engagement,
lead generation and brand awareness are the core objectives for many search
marketers. A simple app, for example, could be a darling of millions of users. So,
I’d rather vote for some key metrics that matter such as users’ experience, convenience,
friendly usage and ability to address their needs.
These are a few ingredients
required to make a tasty sauce, and trust me there is no secret about it. There
are many who keep asking -how Google measures user experience as a ranking
signal. Dan-Petrovic has debunked the mystery and elucidated in detail –how does a search engine interpret user experience.
To my understanding,
users experience is a behavioral data, which is on Google’s key objective to
rank a website, not content with a bunch of keywords. Digitally, users are
scanners, not readers.
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How Much Is Too Much? Relying on the old way and repackaging the
same tactic appears to be shallow. I believe, these gimmicks will settle soon, because
informed users know how to separate the sheep from the goats. Producing a ton
of content and recycling the same will never let anyone to be on the top of
minds forever. By the way, how much content do you think is too much for
content marketing?
Conclusion: In my opinion, what works today are– brand value, uniqueness of
a product, enhanced digital persuasion, great architecture of a website/an app,
etc. I’m not saying you need to reinvent the wheel, but there is no point too
to repackaging the old wheel with an optimistic belief that it is sustainable. Nothing
is sustainable for a very simple reason - the law of the diminishing marginal
returns.
Content for all marketing
promotions is needed, but it is important ONLY if it addresses the users’ needs,
rather than the algorithm of some lifeless bots! May be, ranking gets you all
smiles, but it’s not necessary that your customers will smile too. So, rack
your brains logically than being hooked on to content creation and content
marketing for ranking hunch.
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