Quality Content...Sizzle

[SaborStyle]

I see tons of 'push quality content'... push quality content..  Ok Ok.  However, I am a little confused about this.  Maybe I am understanding it wrong.  Say I have a website about donuts.  I am going to try to promote my donut website so people can see all my latest donuts and hopefully they will come into my local store and purchase them.

I interpret quality content as writing about the topic of donuts.  However, people who eat donuts probably don't care about the history of donuts, or the different types of dough used.  They probably could care less about statistical facts that explain how my fictional donut company uses a whole wheat dough which will lower their cholesterol.

What they want to see is a fat donut with icing on it.  They want to see someone biting into it and enjoying it.

How does a local donut company go about becoming #1 on the serps if they do not want to write constantly about all things donuts?  A video would be nice for them perhaps?

Like I said, perhaps I am overthinking this.  But I have understood the best way to write quality content is to identify a problem that people are having, then find the solution, then write about it (or video).

But sometimes people just need to be TEMPTED.  Coca-Cola uses awesome commercials to promote their business.   They are not writing articles about high fructose corn syrup.

How does this so called 'temptation' factor play into SEO?  I want to sell the sizzle not the sausage.  Ultimately marketing is about getting more sales which means more money for the business.  Being high on the SERPs helps get more sales (hopefully).

Writing quality content is great and I am sure it works in plenty of areas.  But I am not sure how to apply it to certain industries.  Creative marketing ideas have to come into play to market the fake donut business.

How do you tie these other strategies in so they help you with SEO?

All I can think about is posting a 'cool' video on youtube/facebook and trying to get people to like it.  Cross your fingers and hope it goes somewhat viral?

Thanks!

[KeriMorgret]

I'm going to write my response for a generic local eatery/coffee shop/donut shop, and hope some of it works for you.

I'm a contractor for SEOmoz, and work from my home. I regularly search Yelp for nearby places that have wifi where I can escape the heat in the summer, or work by a fireplace in the winter, and enjoy some food and a change of scenery. I care less about the pretty pictures, and more about making sure the home page comes up quickly on my mobile phone, that you have hours and directions easily listed, and that there's a menu with prices. I'm overjoyed if I do have some information about the establishment -- is this a place that has wifi? Can I come hang out for a couple of hours and work? Is there a special on a certain day where I might decide to make Thursdays my day where I treat myself to a late lunch at your business? If I find a good place, I will get on Yelp and leave a review and let others know as well.

If you're more of a manufacturer of the product and not a direct retailer, do you offer a gluten free product? Anything vegan? If I'm shopping for a donut that a relative with a specific food allergy can eat, will I find that information on your website? If you did make a gluten free donut, you could reach out to blogs about gluten free diets and have those bloggers review your donuts and link to you.

[DavidKonigsberg]

We happen to have 2 full time writers on staff but we do have the clients pick topics and we then research the field to see what type of content would be valued before we start writing.

What you see on seomoz is people saying that if you take the time to make a quality guide , article etc then if you go to link build you have something to offer websites not just begging for backlinks.

[SaborStyle]

Nice!  These are good ideas.  The donut business is just an example (i dont really promote one... but maybe I will now..)

I love soaking up as much knowledge as I can!

[SaborStyle]

Ok because you mentioned the dreaded writing topic how do you handle managing multiple clients?

I've read this before somewhere, but it basically mentioned that are we doing SEO? Or are we just writers?  If what is MOST important is good content, then writing > everything else.  Sure, finding what to write and all the other technical details of SEO are important.  But, I've seen on here time and time again.  Content, content content.  The word is getting beat to death.  "Make quality content and users will come".  "If you just have quality content, you can spend less time on SEO".

Ok...So if you are an SEO company and you have multiple clients across different industries, how do you handle this?  If you are doing SEO for a donut company, with a rather small budget, do you plan on becoming an expert in all things donuts?  Or do you talk to the owner and get his advice?   Sure, the owner knows a ton of information on his topic.  But he has a hard time explaining it to you, or putting it into words.  This has happened to me with just about everyone (the few) people I have worked on SEO for.

So, I am expected to research your field (donuts) in depth, find good websites, then start pumping out relevant quality articles.  Correct me if I am wrong, but, once again (quoting the SEOmoz community), this is hmm, I dont know, 90% research/writing.  Maybe you do a video, so you need to be handy with a camera.

If you are a one man band (like myself), it is quite a lot of work.  Especially if you are working on the donut industry, then plastic widgets, then a doctors office, then a law firm.  It gets incredibily overwhelming.  So what do you do?  Stick to a particular industry and start from there?

Say you do that.  Say you have 1 donut shop in Houston, 1 in Dallas, 1 in Seattle.  Locally, the marketing strategies are going to differ.  BUT, as mentioned here, you need to go to food communities and guest blog, etc.  The topic stays the same, but you need to promote 3 businesses.  Well now you have to write 3 articles in the same industry, but keep the topics different.  White hat is all about "good content on the net" if I am not mistaken.  This is really good and I agree.  But, honestly, there is only so much you can say about donuts (or any topic for that matter).  So you log on to the food community as the dallas user (post something), logout, login as the houston user, post something different...  You see how this gets pretty wild pretty quick?  Now it makes more sense to go serve completely different industries because you are not competing with yourself.  You can try to dominate donuts for the highest paying customer. However, you have to be an expert in so many fields....because now you have to do this for lawyers, doctors, etc.

So, is the majority of this WRITING or is it actually technical.  Because the technical aspect doesnt seem to be so complicated.  As a bigger firm do you just hire writers to work for you?  Perhaps outsource it on the net?  Maybe you hire a virtual assistant?

The normal "content" part seems to take the most time...which is writing/research.  You can learn strategies to promote on facebook, youtube, google, etc.  But if you don't have anything to promote (content) then where are you left?

So, the majority of what you need is content... then I need to take some courses at my local community college on writing and start reading through my longman writer?

It just seems ridiculous that you have to do 'press releases', guest blogging, and beg for backlinks...especially when you have more than a handful of companies to promote.  People bash 'black hat' SEO and claim that the results are temporary.  Ok, granted.  Perhaps they ARE temporary.   But, if you are promoting a brick/mortar business and you get them to #1 , even if it is for a few months, and the business sees a REAL increase in sales from REAL people that come in to their store... then REAL money was made for that business.  So maybe they will lose their rankings one day.  But the people that came during the 'black hat' time period tasted the donuts and like them.  Just because the donut store falls out of rankings doesn't mean that person won't return to eat donuts.

I am not promoting black hat... I don't even know any techniques.  I am just saying... food for thought?

Sorry for the ranting.  This just gets a little overwhelming.  There is a goal to achieve.  I want my client to have more sales.  Period.  Marketing and business is a dog eat dog world.  If someone else does something better, they could put you out of business.

[eTundra]

5 ideas for donut articles that could go viral:

The Story Of The Guy Who Eats Donuts Every Day And Runs Marathons

Top 5 Favorite Cop Donuts

How They Get The Kreme In A Krispy Kreme (there actually is a machine called a Cream Injector, believe it or not)

Joe's Donut Shop To Sponsor Donut Eating Contest (run the contest, let the local papers eat it up!)

The 10 Most Decadent Donuts Ever Made

You're right - donut customers don't care about the history of donuts or the makeup of corn syrup.  But I guarantee you everyone would want to read these articles - and there are definitely way better ideas out there; this is just what I came up with off the top of my head.

The point is that engaging content doesn't HAVE to solve a problem, that just happens to be the most common way to make it engaging.  Anything with a little creativity can be engaging.

[DavidKonigsberg]

It all starts at why we make good content for sites- In my opinion 3 reasons apply

1- links and buzz on the net

2- User experience - time on site, bounce rate, reason to return like a blog etc

3- More words for google to see you relevant for in organic search

Each reason has a different type of writing that goes with it, you need to first pick a goal then write towards that goal. And in the best case scenario you have all 3 in mind

Hope this helps you

[Cairmen]

I'd recommend reading the book "Fascinate" by Sally Hogshead. It's all about the kind of issues you're discussing here, and is pretty much vital reading for most marketers these days, IMO.

http://www.amazon.com/Fascinate-Your-Triggers-Persuasion-Captivation/dp/0061714704

Having done some food blogging, I'd say that in the donut niche, readers are either going to want their mouths to water, or to be reassured. There's a reason the largest food communities on both Livejournal and Reddit are called "Food Porn". You need great pictures of donuts. Interesting donuts. Donuts that people haven't eaten, but want to - and info on where to get them. Mouthwatering donut videos.

At the same time, people are also likely to be Googling for the health value of donuts. They're worried their donut will kill them, make them fat, or give them cellulite. Reassure your customers, and they'll buy your donuts.

[SuperlativB]

This is a very good thought and I can understand your concern. I would say that quality content is still important, but the aproach in this particular case could be distribution. Let's say you build you site with awsome video and sweet pics (funny ones) and then writing conten for other channels, PR, News, guest blogging and linking to the domain.

That would keep you site cleaner but still pointing quality content to your site. For the customer this is the best.

**Remember that data like bouncerate, page views, contrast and typografy is a big factor for ranking.  **