Some SEO content providers rely more on quantity than quality. While a flood of keyword-rich content released to article marketing distributors may get your company’s name noticed, not all the attention you receive will be positive. Search engines now penalize thin or spun content; human readers won’t be impressed with low-value articles, either.
If you’ve been offered a great deal on bulk content from an article marketing firm, look closely at what you’re getting. Scan the content provider’s site, read the blog, and check any samples provided for the following short cuts. If you see them, that great rate may not be such a bargain.
Fluff in Article Marketing
When you pay for content, every word you buy should contribute. Articles stuffed with fluff (extraneous words and phrases that bulk up the word count without clarifying or beautifying the writing) are a sign of cheap work. If you’re paying by the word, it’s even more important to ensure that each word pulls its weight. Take a look at this sentence:
“Well, if you love to go surfing, then you will probably have one of the best times of your life with this excellent surf vacation package; not only that, but you will also find it a fun experience even for those of you who have never even tried surfing.”
That’s a 49-word sentence, but the author could have communicated the same meaning in a dozen words or so. You may pay more per word for fluff-free, properly edited writing, but each word works harder and is a better bargain.
Thin Content
Human readers sense when content exists just to hold back-links; thanks to more sophisticated algorithms, so can search engines. Thin content has just enough of a spindly framework of general-knowledge information and bland verbiage to prop up the keywords. You won’t find any supporting links, actionable information, or engaging writing. Valuable advice, problem-solving tips, lists and high-quality links to reputable supporting sources enrich content, but those things take time and skill on the writer’s part, time and skill you can’t buy at the lowest bulk rates.
Automatically Spun Content
In theory, article spinning lets you take a single document in the proper syntax and turn it into multiple versions, each just different enough to fool a search engine into calling it original content. In practice, though, the software that does the spinning can’t tell idiomatic English from awkward and sometimes comical constructions. A human reader will instantly spot the problem with a phrase like “discount of the 100 years,” but to an automated spinner, it’s equivalent to “sale of the century.” If you do some digging, you’ll find some magnificent howlers like “corpse soap” for “body wash.”
Spinners promise that by wringing half a dozen articles out of a single document, you’ll save money. However, the end result is an unreadable jumble that both search engines and human readers will reject.
Poor Editing
Every writer is also an editor. Pruning away fluff, correcting mistakes and checking facts with reliable sources are part of the process for professional content providers. Numerous spelling or syntax errors on an article marketing provider’s site mean you’ll see them in the content you buy. If a content creation team won’t edit the text that drives the company’s business, why would it edit your work any more closely?
When you buy high-quality content, part of the higher rate is the time spent editing and revising your order. The money you may save up front from a discount article marketing firm is time you’ll spend later poring over comma rules, adding content, and deleting fluff. Spend your content dollar wisely and choose a writing service that gives you fat content, not fluff.
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