evans ink

It feels like everywhere I turn there is yet another media company paying writers to crank out search engine friendly content, in thinly veiled attempts to please the google bots.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the years looking into the content gaps in converting local to an informed and useful shopping experience. The quest for deeper local content is on the order of a holy grail epic challenge.

The standard by which most publishers currently seem to be approaching their content strategy is “whatever the google bot rewards”.

the inch deep dilemma

I REALLY get the business case for hiring cheap writers and blogging and writing the heck out of a category or place.  I’ve done it myself.  Having “been there” however, I also know that this kind of writing rarely drives community OR anything but transitory, tactical commerce actions.

Fact of the matter is, bots are dumb, people are smart.

For the most part, what I’ve seen scattered throughout local media sites is disingenuous and obvious content that rarely informs a consumer shopping decision.  To me, this runs a real risk that it will works against the (increasingly urgent) brand development needs of the media business. Authenticity is something consumers are seeking, and rewarding with loyalty and social media “juice”.  Conversely, gratuitous content diminishes the appeal of a site/brand.

If this is simply treated as “air cover” while a real hyper local or vertical content strategy is executed, than I’m ALL FOR IT.  However, to make this “THE content strategy” for a local media publisher is a dangerous and problematic approach.

At the end of the day, this is at the heart of a real core business identity issue for many local media companies.  It’s time to think like a consumer publisher, not (just) a traffic hungry sales channel.  Chasing consumers through the lens of a Google bot will blur your vision and stunt your growth in the long run.