Let’s get something clarified right off the bat.

Quality is in the eyes of the beholder. When you are working online and creating content yourself the only person who’s opinion does not count is yours.

It was (and still is) amazing to hear the cries when the Panda updates first hit of “But my site has AWESOME quality! I don’t understand why Google is PICKING on ME!”

When I have gone to the aforementioned sites – lavishly displayed in the forum signature in most cases I am completely with Google in scrapping the sites.

The writing is nothing short of, well,  boring drivel and the site is either covered in ads or is so woefully set up to get me to click through to a sales page that I feel like taking a shower afterward. (sorry, there was no diplomatic way to say it)

Worse than that, the site tells me little that I didn’t already know, most of the points made are common sense or just a repetition of what everyone else in that niche is saying. Now I could handle this if the writing had a personality or style that held my attention for more than 2 seconds.

Because that’s what most writers forget. Online you have 2 seconds to get your reader engaged enough to want to read through your stuff.

2 seconds.

Lets think about that list that we saw last post about what Google calls a top quality site.  And after all, a lot of our success is reliant on what Google wants so we should definitely take this seriously.

There is More to a Site than the Content

… or to simplify it …. the quality of your site is judged by far more than the quality of the writing that is on it.

When you look at someone for the first time do you judge them by their hair, their hands or their lipstick? No, you see the whole package and then the details. There is no point having a perfectly groomed coiffure if you are also wearing muddy gumboots!

You could be the most personable writer on the planet, but if you are still giving people the same old information and crappy site layout this will affect your site quality rating.

Be the Expert – No Really, Be An Expert

I know that in the past all you had to do was to buy some PLR and throw together a site and viola! an authority site was born. These days if you are trying to bluff your way through a niche by making out that you are an expert without being able to deliver the goods then expect to be found out.

The difference between real experts and wannabes is that experts get far deeper into a subject that most of us care to think about. Think of your own experiences – when was the last time that you took a site seriously?

(Of course you should still buy the PLR – just make sure that it gives you really good, useful information )

Don’t Under-Estimate the Intelligence of Your Reader.

Do not treat your reader as though they are 2nd Graders. Seriously – I know that some courses teach this, but as more people are flocking to the internet to get information and solve problems they are learning about what is real information and what is nothing but ‘manipulation’. Just as they have with TV, radio and other advertising media they have learned to screen out crappy advertorial content.

A prime example of this is EzineArticles. Before Chris learned about marketing online he knew to steer well clear of them if he wanted real information ….. and this was pre-Panda.

Now if a 30-something year old non-internet savvy guy from New Zealand learned this and changed his browsing habits to adapt – bet your bottom dollar that most of Western civilization has too.

Google certainly did. That’s why article directories like EZA have lost a good deal of their keyword rankings and readers. Love them or hate them you have to admit – most of their articles sucked. Put your hands up if you learned anything useful from reading more than 2 EZA articles?

Be Different and Market Yourself

You also need to realize that you are competing with hundreds (if not thousands) of other sites that are trying to give people the same information or solve the same problem that you are. You need your site to be different so that it stands out from the rest and does not get lost in the noise.

When Matt Cutts talks about branding he means exactly that. Do not follow the crowd and base your business on a bunch of keywords, but stand out and be different. The internet is NOT the place to be Miss/Mr Anonymous!

Don’t be afraid to link OUT from your article to an authority site.

Seriously. Take a look at your site. If you really wanted to help someone then you would allow them access to the information that they need. I am not going to copy and paste the whole Google site quality thing onto my site – that would be wrong, but I do want you to see what they want written in their own words so I will give you the link. Yes I may lose you as a reader temporarily, but if my site is that good you will come back.

To link out to relevant, good content that gives even more in-depth information is giving you the best service that I can. This is the attitude that you should take towards your readers.

I also believe that by doing this my site will be more authentic in the eyes of Google. Hey now, there’s a thought! Maybe the links that you have leaving your site will hold more value than the ones pointing to your site – how weird would that be?

I will copy one phrase from the Google Webmasters blog post that we are talking about. It comes about three bullet points from the bottom and to me it holds the key to whether an article is well written;

“Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?”

Now if most of us had to create a hard copy white paper article we would go nuts the first time making sure that we had our facts straight, double checking grammar and making sure that we had something really useful to say. That first article would literally take us days to write! Compare that to the 500 word articles that we pump out in an hour or less and you get an idea of the difference.

So here’s the thought for the day …… Why should content that we create for the online market be any different?

See you next time!

Rach