Secrets to Blogging Success – Your Blog Content

Be warned: on the Internet Content is King. The single biggest secret to blogging success is providing high quality ORIGINAL content.

With that said, there are about 50 other things you need to do in ADDITION to creating quality content to make your blog a success – but it all starts upon the critical foundation of providing quality original content.

I’m a subscriber to Court’s blog feed.  Courtney Tuttle is an Internet Marketing MASTER and Court’s blog is by far one of the most information packed blogs out there.  He’s definitely taught this dog a few new tricks.

A while back, Court posted an article on his blog which was titled, “Content has NEVER been King.”

At the time, when that provocative blog post title showed up in the feed, I didn’t read the post  At the time, I was in Widsom Tooth Extraction HELL (… read Positive People to learn more)  and didn’t have time or mental focus to enjoy the melee which I’m sure ensued on Court’s blog.   Besides, I assumed it was one of those “Gotcha” post titles – you know, where the blogger makes an outlandish claim in the title and then does a complete 180 by the end of the article.   I knew where Court was going with this post – he had been leading up to it for a few weeks.  In the post, Court committed the unforgivable sin in Google’s eyes.  He actually blasphemed and said that content isn’t as important as links.

The Supreme Rulers of the Internet Empire were not amused.

Fortunately, one of my favorite bloggers was paying attention and when I emerged from my pain reliever fog,  I was able to read about the fallout on  JR’s Internet Marketing Strategies blog.   It seems that it is possible to commit blasphemy against Google and in an attempt to keep their “pimp hand strong,”  Google issued a strong slap to Court’s blog.

JR reports in A Harsh Message From Google Leaves No Doubt About The Importance Of Quality Content

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.

OUCH!

For everyone who ever toyed with taking a short cut to creatiing great content, be warned – the powers that be in Google-land do not take the issue of quality content lightly.

Last year, I created an ebook on “Creating a Thriving Site that Google Will Love” (right click and save as for this- the link is to the original PDF file) where I basically share my philosophy that Google views searchers as it’s customer base.  Therefore, everything that Google does is in the interest of people who search.  In the land of Google, there are two types of people : those who search and those who want to get in front of the eyeballs of those who search.

There are a LOT of people who pay for access to those people who think that THEY should be designated as Google’s preferred customers.  These people are those who want to get in FRONT of the hundreds of millions of eyeballs that start their search for all things internet at www.Google.com.  These people will CONTINUE to be disappointed by Google’s treatment of them as second class citizens.

Those of us who want to please the mighty Google gods and ask for their favors are doomed forever to be ignored and abused by Google for a simple reason: THE GOLDEN RULE.

The Golden Rule is not, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  Oh no – the REAL Golden Rule is simply:

HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES!

In Google’s case, they have the eyeballs we internet marketer’s want so as long as we need Google more than Google needs us, they will have the power.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can create some anti-Google cartel where you lock Google out of your group of websites until Google sees things your way.  Learn a lesson from Cuil – it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature or Google.  A hostile takeover isn’t going to happen.

Whether you paint Google as the good guy or the bad guy, they are a powerful player when it comes to the internet.

So if you want to play in the Google Sandbox, learn Google’s rules.  The most important of those rule is CONTENT IS KING!

See, the whole back link strategy is BASED upon the assumption by Google engineers that great content will naturally attract back links.  It’s not a perfect plan – but it’s the best the very smart people at Google have come up with and we, as website and blog owners have to learn to play by the rules.

I often tell my clients, “I don’t make the rules – I just know how to follow them.”

Rule #1:  Google loves original quality content.

Rule #2:  Google still hasn’t figured out a fool proof way to determine what constitutes original quality content.  (After all, can YOU tell the difference between a quality article in a medical journal and one that isn’t top notch? )

However, we do know that one way Google decides upon the quality of content is via incoming links.    The quality of those incoming links determines your blog or website’s PR rank.

So focus on creating great quality content for your blog or website.  THEN focus upon building networks of people who will link to that content as well.  It’s a time consuming process -but I don’t remember anyone saying that achieving success was easy!