Online Content: Quality, Ranking And Promotion

This post is a summary of thumb rules collected here and there and personal experience about content posted online. It is a living document that I will update from time to time:

• Love the content or have a genuine passion for it! - People notice when you are being authentic and passionate, or not.
• Content is king! - The quality of the delivered content influences your ranking much more than anything else, especially on the long term.
• Know what the users wants! - Which is different than believing you know what the customer/readers/users want. Is it valuable to them? Can they find same or better quality on other websites?
• Give them what they want! (*) - No matter how good your content is, if they don't want it, they won't take it!
• Tell them where it is! (*) - If they have to dig a mine to get the gold, they never start digging the mine in the first place, especially if they don't know where the gold is! The famous Field Of Dreams' quote "If you build it they will come!" very seldom works on the Internet.
• Keyword selection is more complex than you think! - I have been seriously humbled by a tip given by a friend. He recommended using Market Samourai (I have no affiliation with this company). I got to understand I only had half of the keyword game rules right. I have increased this blog's traffic by 8-9% by ajusting 3 keywords. Amazing! Even if you won't use this product, DO watch the tutorial videos. It is an incredibly valuable and free SEO education!

(*) Advice found on Black Hat World. I don't recommend implementing the dirty SEO tricks available there, since sooner or later, Google and others always implement remedies. Sites using those tricks are penalized and loose a lot of ranking. Lack of integrity never pays on the long run...