I am writing this post to complain, thus value adding this article might not have much! What do i want to complain about ?
Content with no added value, or with no value ! And there are a lot of it lately. You find it even on the most prestigious sites.
The other day, before writing my article about The difference between Entrepreneur and Wantrepreneur. I was doing the standard research that i do before writing any long article, to see what is already written, and what key ideas i need to know about … I check many articles that are taking the top search results for specific terms. To my surprise these articles are utter crap, and not only useless, but in most cases wrong.
This situation with low quality content ranking in top results is not the first time. Unfortunately no added value content ranking high have became a recurring theme.
Why Content With no Value is Created ?
Content creation is part of content marketing, a marketing strategy to reach potential customers or viewers. It is also used for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, meaning ranking other sites. Thus quantity not the quality of content matters most, especially on topics that might require some philosophical logic or experience.
Google tries to crack down on no value content, but as an algorithm they can only detect the grammatical structure and style of content, and not the value of the content. Thus Google’s definition of no value content is very forgiving … Here’s Google’s view on content with no added value:
– Doorway page (many different pages with slightly different keywords)
– Thin affiliates (grab an affiliate feed and displaying it on a website)
– Thin syndication (content from RSS , articles bank)
Basically Google is remove the trash from search, but unfortunately this only apply on the content that can be easily classified as trash.
Who Creates The Content With No Added Value ?
Most small and medium sized companies struggle with content marketing, and then they often outsource the online marketing part. As experts creating content takes time, thus companies often either drop the idea completely or chose to outsource it. Outsourcing of content marketing is a delicate affair, as the content should have value and be well written. These companies often find freelancers, who are usually journalists or even students in poorer countries. The employer then expect these freelancers to create good content, to be smart creatives, on a small budget. It is like asking your nextdoor neighbor to build a house, he may succeed aesthetically but i won’t risk living in that house (unless he is an architect or engineer).
Bottom line, outsourcing to freelancers is bad content creation. Because content should have value, and not be a waste of time.
Big brand sites also have content with no value. But this time, the content is created by contributors, and is more difficult to detect for normal reader.
I have read hundreds of business articles published on the top business sites, and that had absolutely no value, or that were wrong. Big business sites pay good money to hire writers with business logic and quality writing skills, but to expand beyond their natural growth, they accept articles from contributors. Contributors might be business-people, entrepreneurs, employees, or anyone who wants to share content.
Video Content With No Value
For videos i won’t even start, because unfortunately most content created has little to no value. Tiktok entire platform has no value. Youtube big name youtubers have started with no value content before switching to entertainment videos with little value.
Is content valuable anymore ?
Youtube limits the number of videos you can upload per day. Tiktok geographically limits the exposure of your video. Facebook limits the reach of your posts. I hope all this is a clear sign of the value of content in the eyes big tech giants. There are too much content, thus don’t waste time creating content if it adds no value.
If you can’t do it yourself, outsource it, but avoid freelancers, deals with content creators, i recommend:
Content Marketing 24 & Marketing Outsourced.
