The Big Deal about Content

Content is king! Bet you’ve heard that a few times before, right? It’s an overused
phrase that’s lost some of its impact. It’s still true though — content is
king. And without enough content (and enough of the right kind of content)
on your Web site, you might as well toss the keys to your Web domain down
the nearest sewer drain because the domain will be worthless.
Think about what’s really motivating you when you surf the Internet. Go
ahead — pay close attention to what you do the next few times you go online.
To help you remember, keep a list of the Web sites you visit and what you
do while you’re there. I bet the search for information is the unifying theme
to all your Internet sessions. Information is content — words, pictures, audio,
and video — that relay the information you need when you’re online. That’s
one of the reasons why search engines like Google have grown exponentially
in size and popularity. People want information, and they want the best possible
way to get to exactly what they need in the least amount of time.
You can tap into that desire for information and use AdSense to generate a
decent income, but only if you have the content that draws visitors to your
site in the first place. Your site visitors care about content (or information),
and you should, too.
Content draws visitors to your site, and keeps them on your site or causes
them to return. Content equals traffic — but here’s the catch. Content only
translates to traffic if the content is relevant and fresh. Old content or completely
unrelated content doesn’t do you any more good than old fish — it
stinks up the place and makes people want to be somewhere else.
Good content is a good thing — I think we can all agree on that. You may ask
how good content ties in with AdSense and your desire to turn your Web
site into a handy little income stream. It turns out that content is also what
Google uses to target ads on your Web site. In fact, Google uses the same
technology to target AdSense ads that it uses to create search results. A software
program — called a Web crawler, a spyder, or a bot — literally counts the
number of times different words are used on your site and examines the words
surrounding them (the so-called context). Then, using a mathematical equation
that would probably take an entire ream of paper to write, the program determines
the probability that the site is related to the words used most frequently
on the site — the site’s keywords. (Smaller, common words, such as a, an, the,
and, nor, or, but, and etc., are completely ignored by the crawler.)
Then the content on your site — broken down to the keyword level — is used
to determine which ads are appropriate for your site. The keyword value —
how much someone is willing to pay to have their related ad shown in your
ad space — determines how valuable the ads for your site are to you, how
appropriate they are, and how valuable they can be to your site visitors. Run
a site that’s largely graphical in nature — lots of images, in other words —
and Google has a hard time placing the right ads on the site. What you end
up with instead are public service announcements, which are nice enough,
I suppose — if you’re not interested in making money, because they take up
space but generate no income.
My sense is that your interest in AdSense might be tied up with making a bit
of green on the side. If that’s so, keep the following mantra in mind: “Content
is a big deal. Content is king. Content is site traffic. Content is money in your
pocket if it’s done right.” Content done right starts with building the right
type of Web site.