What Matt Cutts could do next!

A light-hearted look at what simple things could be done to improve the quality of content

Richard Masters

The ProblemPenguin and Panda have changed the agenda

Content is now firmly seen as “king” for marketing

Result=

Quantity seen as the key to rankings

Tsunami of low quality content

Regurgitation and plagiarism rife

Over posting one of the biggest turn-offs for consumers:

They are hitting the unsubscribe button

Or desperately turning to curation services for help

Google is on the case!

Authorship as guide to qualityExpanded quality guidelines for authorsLong form content identified in search+1’s

Great, but is this enough?

Below are four suggestions based upon my personal prejudices!

1. Relegate posts and articles which use numbers in the title

Someone, sometime, suggested this was a winning format!

Easy to produce content

Usually contained borrowed and only loosely related points

Lack contextual narrative andinsights

2. Penalise anything with word “Awesome” in it.

Surely everything cannot be “Awesome”?

Used to give things an exaggerated sense of importance

English language is rich in subtle variations

Good articles should be balanced, show judgement, and use words meaningfully

3. Ignore authors with self appointed job descriptions

Can you trust the veracity of content from someone with a self appointed job description?

4. Demote organisation which promote publication schedules

Great for large organisations with multiple authors

For individuals and small businesses the are tyrannical and lead to pressure to produce content

Write when you have something to say not because you have to!

In Closing

Well, this is my list of dislikes and prejudices

Anybody got any others to contribute?Over to you Matt!

More information

A fuller version of this can be found in my Blog: http://tinyurl.com/cf5g8zd

Or a copy can found on Scribd: http://tinyurl.com/qzux4jn

Or contact me: http://tinyurl.com/cz285dt