Content Dethroned

There’s been a buzz in the online world about the dethroning of Content. As much as I do not want to believe it, the evidences are there. If truth be told, I have been postponing this post for a long while thinking that by doing so would make me believe that content is still the be all and all of the online world. Content was king but like all kings, they must eventually bow down to their predecessors. Content reigned for a long while and it is now time to give in to the new king - Community.

Together with the influx of social networking sites and its users it is but a short time before we, in the SEO community, bow down to the new king. Yes, content is still important but it is no longer as important as we once thought, content does not give you everything you want to achieve, SEO wise. The new king - Community - has the sole role of saying who’s hot and who’s not. It does not matter if you have slaved for a week, for a month, to write that killer campaign, that killer content, if you do not appeal to the Community, if you do not give them the experience that they are looking for, then all your endeavors are all for naught.

Here are some guidelines that will help you in the new King’s reign:

1. Do not underestimate nor overestimate your users. They know what they want and they want to get what they want. You do not want an Idiot’s Guide nor a Geek’s Guide content, what you need is content that is easy to understand, all you have to do is provide just the right amount of information to first time and returning users and you’re all set.
2. Love your users. A website that is very technical in nature is very daunting to a newbie, who would want to go into an impersonal website with little or no direction? I know I wouldn’t unless I really have to, but then again, once I’ve done what I need to do I will quickly close that website and forget about it. Providing your users a great user experience will make them stay and will keep them going back for more.
3. Provide easy access to information, how-to’s and guides. Users are generally hungry for information and if you can provide those information in easy to swallow, bite-size pieces, then you can expect more users to come knocking. The community has its way of disseminating information and creating a buzz for a particular website that they like.
4. Build your own community. Create a space for your users to interact with each other, share thoughts and air out grievances. Take Ebay for example, they did not build their content around their products, instead, they built a community around the product interest - just look how successful they have become.
5. Be There. Be there to answer any question or complaints. Make your users feel special and well taken care of by providing a customer support that really supports and does not just leave users hanging clueless.

Community is now king and Content has to step down. Although content has been dethroned, it will never lose its importance. But we must all bow down and pay homage to the new king.

November 24, 2007 · Filed Under SEO, internet trends, news

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Day 4 - The SEO Goddess has arrived

I told you I could do it and in 4 days time! #1 in Google and #2 in AOL for the “SEO Goddess” key phrase. Well, folks, there you have it, the SEO Goddess in action.

Now, to think of another quest… Nah, I would like to bask in the glory of it all for a week or so before I go on another quest.

And would you believe it, just a few hours ago, I was talking to a hostmonster representative because Be Thumbed was down for more than an hour. I got really scared because try as I might, I could not think of anything that I have done to mess up the codes.

Anyway, I was talking to this representative who goes by the name Majic (I don’t even know if s/he’s a he or a she). I’m going to assume he’s a he though. Well then, Majic really helped me and stayed with me for over 20minutes (not really sure how long as I was not keeping tabs, but around that time). He was really attentive and was able to solve my problem in such a short time. It turned out it was a cron issue, because of the various cms that I have tried before wordpress I forgot that I have set a cron job scheduled five days ago and was eating up system resources. I’m not yet sure what cron job but I’m going to find out. Anyway, I just want to give a BIG Thank you to HostMonster for their great Customer service. I am one very happy customer and would recommend HostMonster everytime.

August 26, 2007 · Filed Under SEO

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How to kill a website

There are various ways to kill a website just like there are various ways to skin a cat. It is basically easy, the first thing you need to do is get up enough courage to do it, which, I believe is not very easy. The faint of heart could never do such a thing that is why they end up in the gutter. They do not know enough. Nah, more likely, they do not have enough courage.

Your first kill is exhilarating, it would be like an addiction, you will always be craving for more. Sack the morality issue, the name of the game is SURVIVAL. The online world is cruel, its a jungle out there! All kinds of crime abound in the online world, from simple theft, to house breaks, and ultimately murder. Nobody gets caught because the culprits know how to cover their tracks, they are experts and proud of it.

Here are some of the things that you can do to kill YOUR website:

1. Subscribe to Link Farms and web rings, submit your site to free for all websites, link to banned websites. A decent SEO Analyst knows that linking to bad sites like link farms, web rings and free for all website is very bad and could literally mean death for your website. So there you have it, one very easy way to kill a website.

2. Give away one-way outward links. You are feeling generous, with a PageRank of 8 why wouldn’t you be? So you shout out to the whole online world that you are giving free for all one-way outward links with no “nofollow”. As the news leaks out, hundreds and maybe thousands will go to you asking for links, go on give them links, show them how generous you are. Death by hemorrhage, sure death. Before you know it, you will be needing a transfusion with all the PageRank hemorrhaging you’re doing. Will you go with a transfusion? Nope, just give it all away and before you know it, another website dead.

3. Do not update, do not submit, do nothing. Let your website be, let it be a sitting duck, just another website. It is a slow process, the first thing that you’ll lose is your visitors, next your ranking, before you know it, you will be no one, a non-entity. It might not be death but its a fate worst than death itself.

There you go, folks, three certified ways of killing your website. It does not matter if you have spent countless sleepless nights thinking about what to write nor spent hundreds and even thousands of dollars in hosting and advertising, its your money to burn. If you want to go on a killing spree, go on make more websites, optimize them, spend money on them and then kill them.

For those who love their websites, take care of them and never do any of the above.

August 26, 2007 · Filed Under SEO

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