Quality Vs. Quantity
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There are many people in the internet marketing and profit world that not only subscribe to the belief that, when it comes to content, quantity clearly dominates quality, they themselves reiterate it. It’s an interesting belief, this one, and much of it stems from those who make it their habit to study the mannerisms of Google and other popular search engines in order to make a living from the traffic they direct. As traffic (to an internet marketer) often equals little more than conversion rates and profit margins it’s easy to see how this belief might have spawned.
The simple truth of the matter is, yes, Google does like content. Google likes fresh content as well - one of the many reasons why blogging has become such a hit in recent years. So it’s not a far leap from a marketer seeing his page ranking jump after adding new articles to a website to the mass gathering of content via content aggregators and massive web hubs by people all over the web. It’s understandable that marketers and developers alike may have turned to the quick and fast production of content as an answers to their traffic and ranking dilemmas. Even a simple internet search “how to rank in google” or “how to build traffic” will assure you of similar statistics. Twenty or even fifty (!) articles (never mind that they’re only one hundred words long) will do much better for you in the way of results, than just one article of two thousand words.
It’s unfortunate that this belief is so widely spread because it simply isn’t the case. Stats and google analytics aside writing hundreds of pages of content that have barely five sentences on them may be a short term solution to a boost in traffic but in the long run is a guaranteed recipe for failure and here’s why:
Websites are for people, not computers.
Simple enough? Your website may be SEO’d to no end, it may have enough meta tags to sink an island, and it may even have hundreds of pages of “content” on it as well. But here’s the deal - if your website is filled with nothing but little snippets of useless copy that provides no facts, no research, no opinions, discussion or genuine value of any kind - it’ll flop. Period. You could have your hands on Googles algorithms themselves and without decent content your site will still do poorly. Flooding it with such content may give you a temporary increase in traffic but as soon as people see that your website hasn’t got a single useful aspect to it - they’ll leave and they’ll head to more genuine, value-rich websites because, once again, websites are for people. Websites are there to fill a need for people, not to make one random person money. If your website is designed to do just that - make you and you alone money then you can keep plugging away at that laptop as long as you want, may it do you much good.
The best websites in the world, the ones that consistently rank and generate huge amounts of traffic (and income, by the way) are the ones that fill a genuine need for people and provide ridiculous amounts of value. The biggest ones, often run by big networks, like news websites, search engines, and email providers do well because people value that service - so they come back. I value Google’s ability to not only return with relevant search results to my query but also to provide me with reliable email, analytics and a host of other tools. So I go back, again and again and again. There’s a reason my email is with them. There’s a reason I use them exclusively as a search engine - and it’s because the do a remarkable job at what they do. Not average, not basic, not in a way that profits only themselves (have you noticed that by and large everything Google offers is free?) but in a way that is truly remarkable.
The average internet marketer must learn to apply the same techniques to their business otherwise they risk failure. Get-rich-quick, scammy, and other less than honorable methods must be abandoned because the face of business has changed and it requires a genuine product from a genuine supplier sold only to a customer that truly needs it. Gone are the days of mass production of useless junk. Businesses are getting smaller, revolutionizing the way they do business, and shaking up the market - all of which is a good thing. And it returns to the idea that it’s absolutely essential to provide your consumer, your traffic, your visitors, and so forth - all of which are real, genuine, people, with what the most remarkable form of value you can.
Filling up websites with crap does nothing but waste everyones time. The internet has enough junk and garbage on it already - we don’t need anymore. Instead take the time to carefully craft the best form of value you can and then focus on delivering it to as many people as it can serve. If that means that you sit down for two hours and write out a really good article or create a really nice module for your business then do that as opposed to quickly throwing out ten articles or ten modules that aren’t of good quality. Focus your business around truly serving your customers - not just earning a profit for yourself. Decide to make a few really good products instead of dozens of mediocre ones.
If you can turn your thinking around that way the people will come on their own. Once they realize what amazing value you’re providing (genuine value, not a trick or a scam) they will show up all by themselves. You may have to do the legwork in the beginning but once a few people see what you’ve been up to the rest will take care of itself. When the general public finds something they really love, it’s exalted, it’s put on a pedestal, and it’s held up for all to see. It’s the method used to create bestselling books every time. If enough people love it they’ll show it to everyone - if, and only if, it’s worth showing. So use this approach to your websites and every aspect of your business for that matter. Create genuine value, put it in the hands of people that need it, and keep on keeping on. There won’t be a need to coerce people into visiting your site - they’ll come because they want to, because of the relationship you’ve built with them, and because of the need you’re filling.
If you don’t have genuine value to give and you’re not filling a real need for people then you have no use for a website with a lot of traffic - and you won’t get it (regardless of how many hundreds of articles you post).
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