Is your online content making the search engines happy?
Smile when you say that!
It’s been 45 years since George Carlin released his Class Clown album, which introduced us to his monologue on “The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-gELwnF7uE And, while you may hear many of those words on the airwaves these days, Carlin’s broader points about language and the use of words are still relevant. “I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I think is important. They’re my work, they’re my play, they’re my passion,” he said. “Words are all we have, really. We have thoughts but thoughts are fluid, y’know, like woo woo woo woo POP! Then we assign a word to a thought and we’re stuck with that word for that thought, so be careful with words. “I like to think that yeah, the same words that hurt can heal, it’s a matter of how you pick them.” When it comes to SEO – in Florida or California, it doesn’t matter – picking the right words is important. And it goes far beyond the use of keywords. Yes, as any SEO company will tell you, keywords are important. But what many of them won’t tell you is that original content is also critically important when it comes to your website’s rankings. Google frowns on what it refers to as “scraped” content. This is content that is cut from other sites and pasted into yours. The thinking behind the practice is that by increasing the volume of pages on your site is a good thing – regardless of the quality, relevance or uniqueness of the words that fill those pages. “It’s worthwhile to take the time to create original content that sets your site apart,” Google advises. “This will keep your visitors coming back and will provide more useful results for users searching on Google.” Examples of scraping furnished by Googlehttps://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721312?hl=en include:- Sites that copy and republish content from other sites without adding any original content or value
- Sites that copy content from other sites, modify it slightly (for example, by substituting synonyms or using automated techniques), and republish it
- Sites that reproduce content feeds from other sites without providing some type of unique organization or benefit to the user
- Sites dedicated to embedding content such as video, images, or other media from other sites without substantial added value to the user