A Harsh Message From Google Leaves No Doubt About The Importance Of Quality Content
Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing, Webmaster/Website Optimization Do-Follow CommentsBy, JR
Recently, Courtney Tuttle, a respected Internet Marketer and blogger wrote a post on his blog titled “Content Has Never Been The King”. ( I would link to it, but it’s been removed from his blog). This post basically proclaimed that content is not very important to a website and that link building is actually king.
As you can imagine, this prompted lots and lots of heated comments and basically a war ensued between those who agreed and those like me, who disagreed with him.
A couple of days ago Court posted As It Turns Out, Content is King, where he admitted he was completely wrong and therefore was proclaiming that content was most definitely king and he cited this reason:
“If your site doesn’t have quality content, a Google search engineer can crush it with a simple push of a button.”
I am certainly not surprised that he has retracted the original post and changed his opinion and I respect him for having to guts to post about his newly found opinion.
What is amazing is that soon after Court posted the original post, Content Has Never Been King, his blog that ranked page 1 of SERPS for the keyword Internet Marketing without quotes, against a competition of 87 million sites, has mysteriously been pushed to page 7 in SERPS 
. He does not even rank for his name, or blog title.
This was, as Court himself believes, a manual slap from Google 
and it seems as Google is giving a clear message to Court and his 4600 readers and anyone else who thinks content is NOT king about what Google really thinks about content.
Actually there are several MMO bloggers (not referring to Court) who 
recommend taking shortcuts, using automated software and creating thin affiliate sites, ignoring quality content in order to slap up as many affiliate sites as possible.
I don’t want to go into a blogger bashing and mention names, but I am sure that some of my readers will know who I am referring to. Many times it’s these same bloggers that give the bad advice to build 100 niche websites, as we previously discussed in 1 Niche, 2 Niche, 3 Niche, 4, How Many Niche Sites is Too Many?, only because it is through taking shortcuts and not taking the time to create quality content that you can touch the tip of the Internet Marketing iceberg for 100 niche websites.
These shortcuts can only lead to disaster, because they create crappy, thin and basically generic, microwaved niche sites, that only focus on the short term. You can build junk, but what’s the point, it will eventually catch up with you.
CONTENT IS CRUCIAL FOR REAL WEBSITE SUCCESS
1. While, the Google algorithm is a mystery, it is a fact Google loves to rank thick, high quality content sites. A site with little, scraped or low quality content but one filled with affiliate links and ads will never stand up to a content rich site.
This is common sense. It’s simple, Google’s job is to provide the most relevant helpful results to it’s customer, the searcher.
So, if I am searching for “How-To Clean Computer Registry” and Google has the choice of providing me with a website page that has written 2000 words on the subject with lots of explanations, guides and software options/reviews or a site that has a page with 4 links to buy software on Computer Registry Cleaners. Which one do you think Google would like better?
2. With the high competition on the Internet, thin affiliate sites will die quickly, or be pushed so far back in SERPS that they won’t really matter, as they will not get any search engine traffic. Content rich websites will always crush those thin, automated built, hollow sites.
3. Build your sites for visitors and NOT search engines
This is another important aspect of content, if you have nothing to offer your visitors they will not come back and won’t stay long on their first visit. Aren’t visitors who stick around the whole point?
Yes, you should optimize your sites, and Google wants you to, for keywords, you have to implement on-site SEO techniques that will allow Google to properly index and relate your sites, but the content MUST be rich, useful and information full, not just a bunch of lame pages of words built to squeeze in keywords that will make your visitors say WTF IS THIS?
4. Content with naturally occurring keywords is the Best Actor and Link Building the Supporting Actor
First came the content then came the link.
The Link May Bring Traffic BUT Content Keeps the Traffic
Great content is good for search engines and SERPS.
Great content provides the valuable material that other sites want to link to and improves the number of backlinks to your site.
Great content is good for visitors, visitor retention and therefore your sales!
CONTENT IS KING & LINK BUILDING IS QUEEN
You should have quality in both, one does not negate the other, they work together!
If you still don’t believe, here are some quotes directly from Google Webmaster Guidelines about building quality sites:
Little or No Original Content
“One of the most important steps in improving your site’s ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content.
However, some webmasters attempt to improve their page’s ranking and attract visitors by creating pages with many words but little or no authentic content. Google will take action against domains that try to rank more highly by just showing scraped or other auto-generated pages that don’t add any value to users. Examples include:
Thin affiliate sites: These sites collect pay-per-click (PPC) revenue by sending visitors to the sites of affiliate programs, while providing little or no value-added content or service to the user. These sites usually have no original content and may be cookie-cutter sites or templates with no unique content.
Auto-generated content: Content generated programatically. Often this will consist of random paragraphs of text that make no sense to the reader but that may contain search keywords.
It’s worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart. This will keep your visitors coming back and will provide useful search results.
There is no problem in being an affiliate as long as you create some added value for your users and produce valuable content that gives a user a reason to visit your site.” Learn More from Google Guidelines
What do you guys think? Any experiences with this? Do you take great care with your content?
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September 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I see Vic already paid you a visit. =:o
First off, Google doesn’t deindex or penalize a site due to content that is critical of them or that suggests ways to take advantage of their search algorithms. It just doesn’t happen. Such vindictive actions could negatively impact Google’s stellar reputation as the most reliable search engine and, over time, impact corporate earnings and their stock price, not to mention adding fuel to the anti-trust fires they’re already having to deal with.
Court is, in all likelihood, being punished for an unnatural linking pattern caused by a combination of his links from Blogging Zoom and from the footer links in his widely used SEO optimized WordPress themes. Google has penalized other sites for similar linking practices in the past such as John Chow, many real estate agents and sellers of (ahem) products for mature audiences. Court’s real problem is with his linking strategy, not his content strategy.
Secondly, if you have a site designed for making affiliate sales you don’t want visitors who stick around. The whole point is to get them off your site and to a site where you’ll earn a commission either from a click, purchase or other qualifying action. Good content will not encourage this although various forms of dull, boring, hard to read, mediocre content will encourage the desired response.
JR reply on September 12th, 2008 2:06 pm:
@ Frank
Hi Frank, actually it was Court himself who has come to the conclusion that it was a manual slap, and you may very well be right about the other reason you mentioned for the loss in rank. The point of my post was about content and I have to stand by my opinion and my experiences with quality content.
As far as Vic goes, I am not surprised, anyone that does not agree with him is a “dumb fuck noob” isn’t that his trademark phrase?
Frank C reply on September 12th, 2008 2:33 pm:
Since Court is in the SEO consulting business he probably doesn’t want to tell the world that he screwed up by building unnatural links for his flagship blog. That wouldn’t look good to potential clients. It’s much easier and accepted by bloggers and clients to put the blame on some ‘lone gunman’ engineer at Google who woke up one morning in a bad mood, read Court’s keyword sniping posts and said, “I’ll show him!”
Vic may be abrasive but take his advice, Google on Credit Cards and see what kind of sites sit at the top of the results. It’s not sites with a lot of quality content. It’s sites with ironclad links.
JR reply on September 12th, 2008 4:54 pm:
@ Frank
You are probably totally right about Court, I too found it odd that Google would take the time to slap him for one post, but if what you say is true, does that not support the argument against tactics that build link suspiciously fast, such as automated softwares that cause link explosions which is what Vic recommends? I guess there are two schools of thought, if you are building 100 niche sites, of course you would have to take shortcuts but I am okay with having less niche sites and not taking risks that can wipe me out.
I respect your opinion Frank, and I know how successful you are online and I am always open to learning and expanding my horizons, and you know how much I constantly I push link building on this blog and spend a lot more time on link building than content in my own business ventures. I guess my main point was that you can do both and do both well.
When I first build a site I spend some time on good content and then I focus on the link building, which is of course crucial and takes a lot more time and effort. And for me the content is not so much for the SERPS, but for providing value for my visitors.
But I will take a look at what you are saying and I may even build a test site.
As far as Vic goes… I just can’t go there, the message may be valid, but the presentation kills it and I am always wary of using so many shortcuts for link building that would set off flags with Google…maybe I am just a wimp that way ;-), but in the end, all the money that I spent on these softwares and all my efforts will be for nothing and that would just be a damn shame!
Frank C reply on September 12th, 2008 9:03 pm:
Providing value is important on a flagship blog but there are also sites bilt purely for marketing, such as that #1 credit cards site. You won’t
hold a top position in a highly competitive niche for very long with total garbage but you can hold it with crappy boring ad copy material. That is as long as you have the strong links to back it up.
As for using automated tools for building certain kinds of links, this
does work as long as you use a degree of common sense. You
can, with tools like Bookmarking Demon, build 1000’s of links
overnight but this isn’t how Vic or the maker of the software
recommend you use it. To use an analogy, if you had a sports car
that could go 200 mph and you drove that fast on public roads, you would get arrested. But, if you drove it at the speed limit or even
just a little bit over, you would be OK.
Frank Cs last blog post..Collecting 1920’s Era Radios
JR reply on September 13th, 2008 1:06 am:
@ Frank
I hear you, the distinction between flagship sites and comprehensive niche sites to site just built for money making purpose is an important one.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Good article, thanks for the content! LOL
JR reply on September 13th, 2008 1:07 am:
@ Sacramento
Thanks my friend, geez such drama created over little insignificant me.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Vic is just a moron, anyone who doesn’t agree with him is a Dumb Fuck Noob! I used to read his blog and followed some bad advice about auto linking strategies and I got slapped real bad, it was not worth it. His name calling and attacks, especially since you did not even mention him by name, just shows how immature he is.
As far as Court, who knows what really happened, but while I don’t spend days on content, I now do take the time to make sure it is good enough to pass a human inspection, and good enough to entice my visitors to stick around and explore my site.
Thanks JR, don’t worry about the haters, you give so much great information on your blog, keep it up!!
Nicole
September 13th, 2008 at 11:09 am
JR, I am shocked at the aggressive response you got from fellow internet marketers over a simple post about content quality being important.
We are all in this together and should help each other out.
Personally, I do not like to publish a site that is keyword stuffed and offers little value to the web and would much rather spend some time adding my own unique content.
It’s not hard to write a bit of unique content, you just read up on the subject and write about what you learned.
As regards keeping people lingering on your site, as an affiliate, your aim should be to pre-sell a product and get the visitor eager to buy the end product.
Bloggers obviously want people to hand around their blog, but these people don’t want to spend any money.
Well, I hope you are not put off publishing more articles after this. I guess you are not ill from stress like Vic since you seem to be a more normal person LOL.
Andys last blog post..Multiple Income Streams
Frank C reply on September 13th, 2008 11:23 am:
Think of Vic as the ‘Gordon Ramsey’ of blogging. His aggressive and blunt persona may shock and anger you but he’s usually right on target about what will make you money online.
Frank Cs last blog post..Collecting 1920’s Era Radios
JR reply on September 13th, 2008 12:28 pm:
@ Andy
Thank you Andy, you really understood the true message of my post. LOL, believe me, it would take more than someone like Vic to bring me down.
I completely agree with you, that I too prefer to spend some time adding quality content, it’s not that hard, and anyone who came here and checked out my blog can clearly see how many posts I have written on link building and how often I push link building, and maybe then they would be less likely to just blindly attack me. But, I guess it’s easier to just spew out attacks and call me an idiot :-).
September 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
@ Rick
That’s really neat, but does not explain why so many times in SERPS you see PR1 and PR2 sites sitting well above PR4, 5 6+ sites.
Many times Google does things that cannot be explained, no one can deny that, that is why the term Google Dance is referenced endlessly on the Internet.
And once again, read this post again and the many I have written on link building, I think you missed my point.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Anyone who would link to this blog post, or any other he didn’t like with the anchor “dumb fuck’s blog post” is a moron, and this is a constant thing with him, everyone who disagrees with his ways is a dumb fuck noob or a dumb fuck this or that.
And, I know for a fact there are people making money online using techniques very different from his, so I guess that everyone else is NOT a dumb fuck! Disagree all you want, but what’s with the constant name calling?
I think that most normal people would take him a lot more seriously if he stopped with the pointless name calling.
September 13th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Excellent article. Very true on how both are important, pretty much equally but for different purposes.
Dennis Edells last blog post..50 Post Milestone! And a PR Downgrade? Hmm…
September 14th, 2008 at 4:01 am
You are right about that content and link building should go hand on hand. Link building without quality content is worthless.
Frank C reply on September 14th, 2008 9:10 am:
Sorry Weng but that is quite incorrect.
Quality links are what matters, content is secondary. As I mentioned above, Google on “credit cards”. You’ll find most of the sites listed on page #1 are affiliate sites with dull, boring, mediocre, ad copy style content that’s rich in the right keywords. This is true of almost all top paying niches. Affiliate sites with very strong backlinks and mediocre content that can pass a Google visual inspection rule.
Sites with fantastic content but no significant links languish on page 80 or so of results unless they’re Wikipedia or .GOV pages. No links equals no traffic.
Frank Cs last blog post..Creative Zen X-Fi Review
September 14th, 2008 at 9:24 am
@ frank- i still go for both. Im trying to point out on a long term basis. One site might be popular today but on the long run will die down due to poor content.
September 14th, 2008 at 11:45 am
In my opinion, any site that you’re actually spending time doing should be unique content. It’s true, they can crush sites with the click of a button.
If you’re going to do duplicate content then make sure the domain is a throwaway, that simple.
Contempts last blog post..Affiliate Marketing: Putting The Industry Into Perspective
Frank C reply on September 14th, 2008 1:05 pm:
Better alert anyone using the Associated Press feed about that duplicate content thing.
Fiar reply on September 15th, 2008 11:50 am:
I’ll be sure to take note of that Frank. Up to now, every time I copy and paste the AP stories I outrank newspaper websites, so I had better just stop before I uh… Uh.
Or I could just keep doing what I’m doing because Dup Content isn’t as important as the high ranking I have.
September 14th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Just to spice the discussion a little bit, content is not always king. There are good ways to make money with sites having average content.
What I find scary is that the guy was slapped by Google just for writing a blog post…It’s some sort of censorship from Google and I don’t like that.
Ben@SEO Horrors last blog post..Impact of Google’s mistake with Chrome
September 15th, 2008 at 11:43 am
So, if I am searching for “How-To Clean Computer Registry” and Google has the choice of providing me with a website page that has written 2000 words on the subject with lots of explanations, guides and software options/reviews or a site that has a page with 4 links to buy software on Computer Registry Cleaners. Which one do you think Google would like better?
But if you were smart enough to rank for Registry Cleaners, then the affiliate page IS what you should have, because people searching for registry cleaners want to BUY something, not be told HOW TO do something.
if you have nothing to offer your visitors they will not come back and won’t stay long on their first visit. Aren’t visitors who stick around the whole point?
Why do I want them coming back? I want to make a sale. I only want people coming back if they will make a second purchase. Why do I want subscribers? What exactly will readers and subscribers buy? How exactly does that mkae monye for me?
Ask Caroline Middlebrook how well having readers is working out. I hear she’s writing an ebook on how stumbleupon can make money even though it hasn’t done so yet, and won’t, and can’t.
Fiars last blog post..Flame War Parody #36 Long Term Relationships
Contempt SEO reply on September 15th, 2008 11:48 am:
Quote: “Why do I want them coming back? I want to make a sale. I only want people coming back if they will make a second purchase. Why do I want subscribers? What exactly will readers and subscribers buy? How exactly does that mkae monye for me?”
If you have even just products with “fake” reviews on a feed and they keep reading, the chances of a repeat sale are definitely boosted more than without doing it. Repeat sales are beautiful because they’re free
Contempt SEOs last blog post..Affiliate Marketing: Putting The Industry Into Perspective
September 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I still believe that content is still king. link building without content is useless.. proper mixture of good content and linkbuilding is a must for a site/blog to survive. i had a great read. thanks JR
this is jayl btw, i think imma drop my other site.. mucholibre.
cheers,
jayl
Free Nintendo DS Lite Games Downloads last blog post..Watch One Tree Hill Season 6 Episode 3 Online
October 13th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Great post. I’m not sure I believe that google is responsible for his drop in ranking but the first rule is quality content for your visitors. Quality content= quality traffic= make money on the internet. Quality links also fits in there, that been my motto and it has worked pretty well for all my projects.
Thanks for the great post,
Mike
JR reply on October 13th, 2008 11:40 pm:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your thoughts, I totally agree with you and welcome!
November 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I know of some web sites that rank very well for competetive keywords even though they hardly have any links but have great content that is updated frequently. Good content is the most important aspect of a web site.
Ben