On repurposing content
Grow your business, search engine optimization |
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Repurposing content for your Web site or blog is not an entirely new concept. In fact, it has become a staple practice applied by content developers across brand Web sites and the blogosphere. For the uninitiated, it means taking one of your previously posted original contents and reshaping it into another form, either written or in other multimedia formats.
Luis Oliveros from the Social Media Marketing blog posted an article in which he related some social media concepts to, of all things, the comic books universe. The author likened repurposing content as the comic book term retconning and mentions some of its benefits for the social spectrum.
Some of those benefits also help online marketers on the SEO space since the underlying idea revolves around boosting your site through its contents, and we all know content is indeed king.
As you may come to notice, repurposed content easily becomes a quick solution to be able to follow your regular posting schedule. A not-so-good practice we commonly see is when content developers simply repost old articles and rehash posts from other sites or blogs in their original form. Doing so diminishes the article’s value which does nothing to satisfy your demographic’s demand for information.
As far as your SEO efforts are concerned, search engine algorithms filter and de-index contents that have already appeared online, as we mentioned before.
Also, having regurgitated posts in addition to new search engine developments like Google’s new Caffeine search index and on SERPs such as blended search, and real-time search feature, further depreciates your search engine rankings. And unless you represent some top-brass brand, you risk losing your readers’ trust and/or whatever expectations you’ve managed to establish and, to some extent, you and you brand’s credibility.
To prevent these from happening, at least from a writer or content developer’s standpoint, it’s always best to repurpose content with your audience in mind. Know your niche and never forget to consider both your current audience, target demographic and the brand that you are representing whenever you write posts. Remember: different people have different perspectives and their own unique opinions and so how they respond varies.
One way to re-craft older posts into new forms is by refreshing outdated ones with newer concepts. This works well with articles of the How To and Top 10 varieties which are still viable for the present but could use a little updating to include new developments. For instance, if your tech blog posted a guide last year for modifying the iPhone using iPhone OS-compatible third party tools, you can replenish that post with similar apps for the new iOS 4.
Similarly, you can present an entirely different spin or write from a diverse set of perspectives to provide unique insights you haven’t explored before. Maybe you can inject a few interviews on the side to beef up the post. You also can pick apart a long article to provide a detailed focus on various subtopics or drive a specific point.
There are many ways you can repurpose content for a blog, but in any case, always follow journalism’s age-old credo to inform, educate and to entertain, which can give both your new and repurposed articles the authoritative feel of a professionally produced content and a personality of a human-driven brand. This also helps when building a relationship with your followers, makes it easier to engage in conversations and squeeze out brand loyalty in the process.
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RSpears @ July 5, 2010
As far as your SEO efforts are concerned, search engine algorithms filter and de-index contents that have already appeared online, as we mentioned before.
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[...] often highlighted the importance of producing original content (or at least reinvigorated ones) when enhancing your site or blog’s search engine optimization efforts. Written content [...]