Content Farms, Enriched Media, and ICSC: Oh My!

There has been much debate online recently about the  Internet Content Syndication Council (ICSC) and their claims that content ‘mills’ or ‘farms’ are hurting the overall quality of online content and information. While SEOBook claimed that SEO professionals ‘get’ the purpose and importance of  crowdsourced produced content, many journalists do not. Lisa Barone, of Outspoken Media countered with the fact that this type of content production is caused by webmasters “lowering the bar” on the quality of content they are allowing to be placed on their website- therefore making “good enough” content be the new standard, replacing higher expectations of quality.

Looking at content through the eyes of the average Internet user who will actually be searching for and absorbing it brings us to the importance of providing relevant content, not content that is considered academic or professional quality.

Internet User Attention Span

While it stands to reason that content written by scholars and experience professionals is going to be the most educational and relevant, when it comes to the Internet, this simply isn’t the case. Several sources have reported that the average Internet user’s attention span is about 9 seconds- the same amount as a goldfish- when they are looking for information online. If a page doesn’t load of the information doesn’t present itself in that 9 seconds, a user will go to another page.

Users coming into content from social media sites usually have an even shorter attention span as they are digesting dozens of links at a time. This only contributes to their impatience with content that isn’t easily digestible.

This is why shorter, linkbait-styled content with infographics, lists, and photos are what attracts traffic, gets links/shares, and usually ranks higher on search engines. Search engines, like Google, rank pages based on the relevance to the user’s search query, not to the academic background of the author or the source of the information. This is why the ICSC cannot declare that crowdsourced Web content is threatening journalists’ jobs or the content standards online.

The Subjectiveness of Quality

Most scholars will agree that the ‘quality’ of content is compromised of how well it is written and what sources back up its claims and major points. However, when it comes to the Internet, quality is always going to be subject to each user’s personal experience and what they are looking for. For some, a high-quality article might be one with an infographic that clearly explains and answers his or her question. For another, it may be a list of key points or ideas of a difficult concept they were struggling to understand. The main point is that the readibility, usability, and accessibility of web content will always trump “quality content” as described by the ICSC, such as academic essays or in-depth scientific studies by scholars and scientists.

Let Users Decide Where to Get Their Information From

The ICSC points out that they are trying to advocate “‘factual’ or news-based content rather than opinion”, according to ICSC executive chairman Tim Duncan in this article about determining blog quality on CNET. The article goes on to suggest that blog (and content) quality should again be determined by the reader, not by a panel or council of so-called ‘experts’ on what constitutes content quality. By now, most regular users of the Internet know that not all content online is completely factual or from a credible source. Because of this, it should be left to the users to decide which information they want to consume and which information they decide to ignore.

Utilizing the Aggregation of the Internet

SEO Roundtable and Webmaster World had a discussion about ‘scraper’ sites that aggregate bits and pieces of articles on other websites, with links to the full article on the original website. While these links are ‘nofollow’, it still may be argued that aggregator sites not only gain potential ad revenue from increased traffic to their site, but they still provide a link to the original website, thereby spreading the word about the post and possibly increasing the original website’s traffic for that article.

A user quoted on the SEO Roundtable article points out that ‘scraper’ sites like Daymix provide a variety of media, not just scraped content. This media may include video, photos, and even tweets. This gives the user a main, starting point when trying to find out what has been happening online that day, news and website-wise. Sites like popurls, Digg, and StumbleUpon let users see what other people online are looking at and sharing. This allows videos, blog posts, and other web content that may not get much traffic to possibly get thousands of hits a day, making these types of sites almost a standard when sharing content via social media in order to gain more traffic. So, from an SEO perspective, why is someone sharing a link to your website (and possibly an excerpt of your content) a bad thing?

The Importance of Creating Content Users are Searching For

SEO By The Sea reported the Google recently filed a patent for “Identifying inadequate search content”, which means that possibly the search engine giant will begin recommending what content is needed online, especially when it comes to long-tail search phrases that users are typing in online. Without so-called content ‘mills’, there is no way the overwhelming need for user-searched content will be met. Websites need to focus on creating content that users are searching for, instead of attempting to produce academically-sound articles and studies for each page or blog entry they publish online.

Additionally, crowdsourced content production companies like Demand Studios, Textbroker, and others allow writers of any background a chance to earn a living online. Stay-at-home moms, laid-off workers, and recent college graduates can write requested content while maintaining a flexible schedule that lets them travel, work a full-time job, or spend time with their families.

For many website owners, content generation by a third party comes in handy because they do not have the time or talent to produce relevant content that contains highly-trafficked search keywords. BlueGlass provides content development and CopyPress, a CMS content ordering system for site owners who want more content but are don’t want the management of doing it themselves, managing a writing staff, or dealing with sourcing it