Why Content Mills are Bad SEO
When it comes to creating a website that will attract traffic, many companies are looking for the quickest and easiest way to create content. After all, who’s got time to write a monthly blog when you’ve got a company to run? There are much more important things on your plate than Facebook and Twitter posts. For this reason, many companies turn to content mills to fill their websites and social media accounts.
Content Mills
A content mills contract writers to push out content. They generally offer content, articles, blogs, and social media posts for an initial fee with monthly fees to follow. The content can be specific to the company’s industry such as medical, chiropractic, law, etc. Content marketing is big business and for good reason―higher website traffic means more conversions. In the infinitely-expanding world of business websites, it gets harder and harder to get your site noticed to make sales.
The Problem
The main problem with these content mills is that most of their curated content is duplicate. Little or nothing is original and the same content appears on thousands of similar sites. That’s right, they’ll sell you a blog post that is seemingly original that they have also sold to thousands of other companies for their websites.
For the companies who use these mills, this type of content is not only useless but it can be quite costly considering the dangers of using them. Duplicate content does nothing to move your position up in Google’s search engine rankings. In fact, Google has been working to guard searchers against content that is too generic and little more than a group of words and has been cracking down on duplicate content.
The whole point of ranking in search engines is to find the consumer the best possible matches for what they’re searching for. Many of these content mills try to cheat the system by using the same article on thousands of sites instead of paying to have thousands of individual articles written. (They don’t pay their writers anything close to a living wage and it shows in the quality of the writing too.) If you have a duplicated article, Google will likely take it down and it could even get your site kicked off Google’s index for good.
The same goes for social media. Posts are duplicated and because they’re all the same and make no attempt to personalize them, it can tank you Facebook rankings too. Facebook uses Edgerank which determines whether or not to have your posts show up on your fans’ newsfeeds. Companies work hard to build up likes on the site only to have their rankings plummet and not be seen by those who want to see them. Once those rankings have dropped it’s difficult to get them back up again.
Good SEO
SEO―Search Engine Optimization―is how a business can have their website rank high on a search engine. Google uses your content to categorize your company so that when someone searches for what you offer, you will be ranked high on the list. If a consumer is looking for a wooden bowl, they’ll probably pick a store from the list of wooden bowl stores in their search list on the first or second page of the return. Few consumers will sift through to page 10. The higher the ranking, the more people will see your site. By using the right title and header tags, meta descriptions, page linking, keywords, and content that is easy-to-read but relevant to your site, the search engine will bring your site higher in its rankings. This all makes sense. Google tries to make the best match for their users so they’ll keep using them.
Trying to trick the system by providing cookie-cutter content is an expensive risk. By using a dedicated content marketing agency like Intergetik Marketing Solutions, you get real results for your investment. The team at Intergetik will get to know your business and your message and create content that is not only relevant to your company, but is unique to your site. With our SEO experts, our content will drive your site to higher search engine rankings, more clicks, and a higher conversion rate. Visit Intergetik Marketing Solutions and see how we can help your website move up through the ranks!