Interesting article:

I can hardly bring myself to say the old cliche about content being... well, you know. I think it's one of the original cliche's in the SEO industry. And as redundant as it has become, for whatever reason we keep hearing it over and over again. And every now and then a new study pops up seemingly proving, once again, that content is... uh, good.


But much like a TV producer suggesting "video is king" or a radio advertiser demanding that "audio is king", so goes the SEO demanding the same about content. Content has its role--and an important one at that, but it's not the be-all, end-all of online marketing. Not even close.

But the roots of the "content is" movement are important for our industry. The mantra was first heard in the early days of the search engine optimization industry when SEOs were doing nothing more than throwing a bunch of keywords on a page and hoping they ranked well. Little or no thought or consideration was given to the readability of the web page. After all, it's only rankings that matter, right? But those of us who learned to game search engines slowly began to learn something that those in the marketing industry have known for years. Words sell. Or turn people off, depending on what's written and how it's written.

So the movement to developing good content--real content--was an important one for our industry. But to get there we had to have the content mantra beat into our head over and over (and over). We got it. We know.

The King is Losing His Grip on the Kingdom

But like any worthy cause, we've reached a point where the mantra has been used and abused to the point where we use whatever we can find to prove once again that content is... y'know, that. Take a recent study by OPA and Nielsen/ NetRatings that shows that Internet users are spending more time than ever on content based websites.

Share of Time Spent Online

Commerce: 13.8%
Communications: 32.0%
Content: 49.6%
Search: 4.5%

That seems to confirm what many have been saying for years. Content is... uh, great for web marketing. And I've seen a few posts around the blogosphere and forums using this data to make that connection. The problem is, it's not really there.

With the rise in popularity of blogs and social media sites it's no wonder that more people spend their time reading online than anything else. While time reading and gathering information online has increased, time spent shopping has actually decreased, down over 2% from a year before. But does that tell us anything about marketing online? No, not really.

We know people like information and we know they like to communicate. We also know people like to shop and online shopping has continued to íncrease year over year. All this study suggests is what we spend most of our time doing on the web. Well, true enough, I don't spend most of my time shopping.

Since when is it the goal of ecommerce sites to get people to spend a long time on their site? Isn't it more important to drive shoppers to the sale and get the conversion? Step 1: Get traffíc. Step 2: Keep visitors engaged. Step 3: Close the sale. That's not necessarily a process that necessitates long periods of time spent on a site.

In no way do I want to diminish the importance of content on ecommerce websites. Having a database of information that helps visitors make their decision, helpful tutorials, etc. can improve your visitor's overall experience and keep them coming back to your site. But the goal of all of that is to lead people to the sale.

Community Killed Content and Stole the Throne

If I were to interpret this data I wouldn't necessarily come away thinking content is... so very important. What I would conclude, however is that we need to build websites that meet a number of users needs. Adding more content to your ecommerce site is not the magic bullet. What is, however, is creating a great user experience and providing just the right amount of information and customer engagement that shoppers need to get to the conversion goal. That can be done through a number of means.

Many online stores are already paving the way by opening the door to ratings and reviews. Others are doing that by creating blogs to disseminate important and relevant industry information along with tips and tutorials. Still others do that by creating an information database that can visitors frequent to gain additional insights.

I might suggest that the best ecommerce websites are not those that build content around their products but build a community around the product interest. By creating a place where shoppers can come and gain information, learn more about the products and discuss or share information with others and then make purchases as well, will do more for sales than simply creating a shopping website.

By building a community you not only sell more products but you build brand recognition and customer loyalty. And both of those are worth far more than a single one-off sell. So while content may not be dead (not by a long shot, really), there is a new king in the online marketing industry. Long live community. Long live the (new) king.

Bama,... I agree that with the notion that there has been a "rise in popularity of blogs and social media sites". I also agree with the fact that more time is being spent on those types of sites. I really don't agree that content is "losing it's grip".

Think of the billions of users online using websites like myspace, facebook etc. Many of these users check there social networking sites on a daily basis. It has become somewhat habitual for many. Because of this it's easy to look at the numbers and understand why more time has been spent on these types of sites. However just because people are spending more time on these types of sites doesn't mean that we should discredit the importance of content.



Typically, isn't that the goal with any website? To drive them to your website and keep them engaged. Pretty much why this article was written. I'm not trying to rip this article apart because he does make very valid points. But just because it doesn't look like an encyclopedia doesn't mean it's not content.

The fact of the matter is that community sites are not the new king. They simply provide a new way to create content while also allowing others to create content for you. Content is still king and will always be king, regardless of how you choose to create it.

I agree with Ag, it is a good article, but just an opinion.

Ever look at a Facebook page, that is say, lacking? Not interesting, without content. Then go to another facebook users page, look at it, and say, man look at all of this stuff . . . oh . . thats interesting.

The second Facebook user, along with tons of others are adding content to their page. Community is important, but so is content. You tube would be nothing without content. Google would of never bought them if it didn't have tons of video. Of course, they do have tons of users, but I bet we wouldn't go to youtube if they didin't have tons of videos.

They go hand in hand.

Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

It's a changing world.
I dont think that content will ever lose it's grip. I think there is much, much, much life in the social growth/promotion...et al. But the super-hype reminds me of the .com boom/bust that is still stinging.

I wasn't trying to make a point or anything, I just thought it was kind of interesting and thought I'd throw it out there to see what ya'll thought.

Hey Bama,

It is a good article. Interesting to think about, discuss, etc. . . Keep em coming!

We appreciate it! You've come across some really great articles. I think it was you that posted an article last week...you had me reading for a couple hours! Really...Keep em coming.

You got it!