Content Optimisation Smackdown: Proust vs Google
We ran a couple of great client workshops this week on Online PR campaign planning and Content Optimisation.
For the copywriting purists out there, some of these content concepts can feel brutish at first …but our advice is always to work it. Content Optimisation can be the difference between a campaign that sticks with a top 10 Google ranking and one that sinks without a trace.
One popular misconception is that ‘if you write lots of great content then Google – and the rest of the Interweb – will take care of things.’
In many ways this is true. The best way to get people talking about you and linking to your pages is to create a body of stuff that sings and is audio/visually arresting. Creativity is always the platform. But (and this is a big ‘but’) you need to get with the Content Optimisation tip if you really want your work to fly.
If Marcel Proust were alive and blogging today, he’d score highly on content and volume. Swann’s Way is a thousand rambling pages of incredible ideas. But in the first instance I doubt that Google would like it as much as we readers do. (OK, I have to admit, I’m currently stuck on chapter three – but that’s another (slow) story.)
From a pure search and crawl perspective, Google tends to enjoy simple pages that have a basic structure and repeat one or two central ideas ….a lot. (In the example of this page, that’s CONTENT OPTIMISATION. Yes, C-O-N-T-E-N-T O-P-T-I-M-S-A-T-I-O-N.) Google is an unsophisticated beast in this respect.
Happily, the principles of Content Optimisation are simple. Anybody can get with the program in quick time, and doing it well should never come at the expense of brand equity or creativity. (I’d hold up our own Online PR Agency Services page as a good example of how to do it well – we’re an ‘Online PR Agency‘ …you follow?)
If you’re interested in the science of Content Optimisation, then check out our Don’t Panic best practice guide to Online PR. You can grab it as a free download via Scribd (below). It’ll give you a a series of simple tick lists for doing great online content …plus a bunch of creative ideas for good Online PR execution.
Oh, and if you read it, then do tell me what you make of it. Feedback makes me happy 
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cralan deutsch
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