Quality content pays off
We made the decision several years ago that all content coming into Swayve Newsrooms would be quality controlled. That decision is now paying off, with Google’s continuing algorithm tweaks.
What the new order of Google means is that websites that publish volumes of low quality content — that is, content that is written around key words rather than real news, or at least new information — are downgraded in search results. Some websites have disappeared entirely.
To ensure this doesn’t happen to our press release services, we moderate all releases that come in to make sure they’re of a standard that meets the demands of Australian journalists. And of course we also try to make sure they don’t contain any defamatory or offensive material – although we don’t stand in judgment and we do try to be nonpartisan. Not all topics will interest everyone but our customers share a common goal — to reach media outlets and social media with high quality content of interest to niche audiences.
As Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told Fortune magazine recently, there are only two ways to get good, quality content. To paraphrase Jimmy: One way is that you are already a good writer so you write it yourself or you pay a professional PR person or a journalist to write it for you. The second way is to have a product, service or intangible communication that gets other people excited – and they write it for you, free of charge.
You can tell a mile off if a person is truly excited and interested about what they’re saying — it’s part of the positive fallout of social media that it is very very difficult to pretend to be someone you’re not in any kind of sustainable way.
