Is Content Still Important for Internet Success?

Most people who tried to start or market a business online are familiar with the mantra, content is king. Fast forward to 2012 and the question is, “Is content still king?” The short answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. 

Content will always be important, after all, without content what would your site be saying? Not everyone wants to wait on videos to load. However, content alone is not enough to bring visitors to your site. In the past, you might have been able to post just about anything on your site and still be found and indexed by search engines. This is no longer the case.

To be relevant today, content must focus squarely on quality. This is what Google’s Panda effect is all about. It is all about raising the ranking of sites with the best information over those with trivial offerings. Branded sites or those that cater to a niche are more likely to succeed than generic types.

An important, but not often used way to improve your website ranking is to get high-ranking sites to link to your content. Of course, this will only happen if, yes, you guessed it, you have valuable and informative content. If you are offering a special service or product, make yourself an expert. Know what it is you are doing – become the ‘go to source for all things to do with that product or service’. 

If you are involved with a web content writing or management company, then become the best web content provider you can be. One way to be the best is to keep learning and growing in your area of expertise. Remember that the web is a dynamic creature that keeps changing and you need to keep abreast of or ahead of all the changes. One way to do this is to visit sites that impact your business. I visit Google quite often to read news from the company’s headquarters; this way I know what is happening with one of the biggest influencers of online success. 

So, what do you think, is content still the most important aspect boosting your prospects online?

Avoiding Seeming Plagiarism in Article Writing

The Internet and the ease of finding information online have brought the issue of plagiarism front and center. Plagiarism is nothing new, but it is much easier now for some writers to take the creative work of others and try to pass it off as their own. Unfortunately, sometimes people are unfairly accused of this when they really didn’t copy someone else’s words. As an article writer, I’ve learned that while plagiarism may seem apparent when reading two almost similar articles, it may well be that both were written independently of each other.

                                             

Two persons can easily write sentences and paragraphs that are so similar it would be hard to convince others that no copying took place. I know it is possible because I’ve written articles almost without research and then when using plagiarism checkers was stunned to see almost word for word what I had written. This shows the importance of checking your writing before submitting it to clients or article directories. 

Good Plagiarism Checkers

Plagiarism checkers are sold online but some are offered free as well. Some are better than others, but so far, none have been shown to be 100 percent accurate, but some do come pretty close.  Five popular plagiarism checkers are:

NAME	FREE	PAID
Copyscape	X	X
Advanced Plagiarism Checker	X
Plagiarisma.net	X
Doc Cop	X
PlagScan		X

Being accused of plagiarism is hurtful when you know that you are innocent. It therefore pays to double-check your work before submitting it to avoid being labeled a plagiarist. The five plagiarism checkers listed above are just those that I like, and there are many more. Do a test run of some for yourself to see which ones you like. As an article/web content writer, you have to use a plagiarism checker to avoid being accused of plagiarism.

Using Images in Blogs

Even the simplest visual can add a whole new element to your blog and help to capture the attention of readers. Some blog pros often suggest adding images whenever you can to make the reading experience more pleasant for the reader.Endless lines of content can make reading information uninteresting and even tiring, but adding an image or two helps to break up the content. This improves the flow of the article as well as boosting the quality of the blog.

Finding Pictures

That said, there are a few considerations to be kept in mind when you want to add pictures to your blog. Legal implications are probably among the most important, since you don’t want to gain a reputation for copyright infringement. So the first thing you want to do is make sure you have the right to use the image, which can be done by:

•    Taking the picture yourself
•    Paying someone to take it
•    Purchasing the image
•    Requesting the right to use the image and giving credit
•    Using free photos from sites that grant the right

Most bloggers don’t have much of a budget to begin with so buying pictures may not be possible, at least for a while. Public domain sites that offer free images could be the answer to this problem. On top of this, once you have the images you have to know how to use them effectively. A few suggestions in this regard are:

•   Place photos/pictures at or near the top of the article. Putting them after 

your blog serves no purpose and they could end up being missed.
•    Make sure images are suitable for the content being provided.
•    Edit the photo so that it fits the layout and to keep it from being too large
•    Search for information on crediting your picture sources if this is not already provided on the websites themselves.

Don’t hesitate to dress up your blog and keep it from being an almost endless stream of text. Otherwise you might want to consider shortening the blog to make sure readers don’t get bored. Readers losing interest is not necessarily an indictment on your writing skills. Just remember that you are competing for the time of people who really don’t have a lot to spare. Anything that makes your blog more entertaining is worth the effort. Web content writing is much more than great copy.