For those of you not aware, Matt Cutts is the head of Google Web Spam team. He has been providing advice on many aspects of Internet marketing through his blog and videos published on YouTube.com. I appreciate the effort he’s put into providing insight into some valuable practices when publishing content online. I went online to explore recent updates over the past several weeks and was intrigued to find an article outlining best practices for content marketing. Why was I surprised? The reason is very simple…
In July 2014, Matt went on leave to spend some personal time and didn’t have a clear time frame he would be back. I’m just happy he returned and continues to provide valuable feedback through his marketing channels. If you’re a blogger, then you should make note of these content marketing tips he provides.
Let’s jump right in…
What are Your Thoughts on Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging and its importance have been the center of debate for several years especially after links would not as important as they once were. However, Matt Cutts pointed out some other reasons you should be careful when searching guest blogging opportunities. First, because of the ease of setting up blogs, some websites are low quality and can hurt your website when building links. Next, some people will go around publishing the same content on multiple websites, which is restricted by Google. With so many people now offering guest blogging opportunities, the quality has been lowered enormously. Here are a few things to be careful about…
- Spun content
- Spam content
- Duplicate content
- Guest blogging for the purpose of link building
However, if you choose to post a guest blog, it’s important that you give it the same respect and effort as you would content on your blog. Next, don’t just rely on this strategy for link building and you should explore other opportunities that are available to you. Matt Cutts stated the following…
“Google is on top of the abuse in the guest-blogging space and wants to make sure that its users are getting the best content in their search results. “
How Important is Body of Page?
Many people often get caught up in the SEO aspect of content and forget the fundamentals like actual text. When Matt Cutts was asked this question, he strictly emphasized the importance of “body†text and his reason was very simple. The body is where the value is provided and this is the element where you’ll resonate with your readers. If you’re writing on a topic and the body doesn’t contain valuable information, then NO SEO is going to help boost your rankings. There are over 200 ranking factors all put in place to understand the signals better so focus on what’s important. Next,
The two most important factors to pay attention to are the “head†and “body†of the content. Use the header for embedding indexing information necessary to Google and body to engage your readers with the information they’re looking for.
How Can Small Start Ups Compete Online?
Matt Cutts mentioned this is a very common question and the answer is straight forward. If you want to compete, then focus on what’s important like content and usability. Many people are under assumption that bigger businesses have an advantage but it comes down to quality. There are many big businesses with very bad websites and poor quality content that provide no substance to customers. On the other hand, there are several smaller businesses with in-depth content out ranking the bigger companies. Here’s what Matt says in closing….
“Google looks for the best content – it doesn’t necessarily always come from larger sites.â€
How Much Content Should be on Homepage?
The more content, the better because it helps with the crawl process. Next, having anywhere from 5-10 blog posts is great for your blog and design. People love to visit websites with frequent content being published and those that look full. However, again, it all comes down to quality and substance you provide to your readers.
How Do I Make Sure My Content Stays Original?
This is one of the biggest problems surrounding bloggers because it so easy for someone to copy and paste your content somewhere else. However, there are some strategies you can implement to make sure people know you’re the original author. For example,
First, once you publish your content, start marketing it right away on social media channels, and email subscribers, so they know you’re the author. I’ve also noticed these same people keep a close eye on your content, ensuring they haven’t seen it published anywhere else. I’ve noticed people who do a majority of their reading online will visit several blogs so are well aware of content circulating online. Next, Matt has stressed the importance of reporting suspicious behavior through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Once reported, the website with the copyright material must remove it immediately.