Content Differentiation

1. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 10 years ago

   As we continue to think about Panda, one area for all of us Hubbers to think about is if the content we are creating goes beyond the other content that already exists. 
   
   The exchange between Matt Cutts and Eric Enge may be helpful to some in this post.
   
   http://searchenginewatch.com/article/22 … t-Strategy

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   crazyhorsesghostposted 10 years ago

   Paul this is very true. Some of my early Hubs did not so I'm redoing them. I deleted several hundred recently and contine to work on the ones I saved.

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   Chris Teldenposted 10 years ago

   I do agree we have motivation to improve our hubs.  I also feel HubPages could offer more support for that.
   
   For example, today I got help by email from HubPages staff regarding this hub that had its ads automatically disabled due to content filters:
   
   http://christelden.hubpages.com/hub/How … arden-Plot
   
   The staff member said he or she manually removed the ad disabling, but it would likely come back with editing, and to contact HubPages if that happened.
   
   That's the problem.  I edit a lot.  I tweak.  I add things.  Several times a day, sometimes.  I test how something looks, I remember something new, I change it.  That's how I do quality control.
   
   If I have to wait each time for staff to manually override ad disabling, this hub would rarely have ads on it. 
   
   Now, as you can see, I wrote this hub with HubPages' tips for quality in mind, using the topic template and with plenty of depth, multimedia, etc.  It took several days.
   
   So what HubPages is "telling" me by not changing their content algorithm or giving me advice about how to avoid triggering the content filters with this hub is  that if I want my hub to be superior to other similar content, I have to agree that it won't have ads on it almost all the time.
   
   Those are mixed messages that disincline me to make improvements. 
   
   Basically, it would help if such messages from HubPages were more consistent.
   
   Thanks for listening....

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4. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 10 years ago

   Here is another good article that came out today on Panda and content.  http://searchenginewatch.com/article/22 … -Essential

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      janderson99posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      @Paul
      The article focuses on machine tests for "Sameness"? What makes it stand out? Why is it perceptibly different?  But it does not answer the question about whether the 'differences' are valuable. My guess is that Google uses authority for that => 'different content from an author with authority' = pseudo test for value added.  Bots can't discern 'value' in a vacuum.

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   janderson99posted 10 years ago

   @ Paul
   "Those other sites are not bringing additional value. While they’re not duplicates they bring nothing new to the table.... they should not expect this type of content to rank."
   
   The question is: 
   How does the bot know the new page contains 'gems' of new material - via some fuzzy comparison with existing sites, a sort of broad 'general duplication test, that knows about synonyms'.
   And how can this new stuff be rated for 'value' beyond being simply 'new' or 'different'.
   Or is such an algorithm type approach supplanted by user feedback via links and sharing.
   Perhaps it a combination of both.
   
   IMO is still gets back to finding the right juicy niche topics that have reasonable traffic (people are searching for) have low competition (not saturated) and are in an field that you know a lot about, and can provide something new with added value. I think Google takes short cuts and depends a lot on 'authority'. I suspect that links are less important than they used to be.
   
   Dishy Niche = Moderate User Searches + Low Competition + Authority + Nouse to add real value and something new on the menu
   
   I guess the 'Stellar' approach is designed to add complexity, diversity of content, good bulk of text and so provide a 'difference' and boost 'value'. The only concern is that 'stellar' don't always rank higher than the 'little lovelies' in the SERPs. Time will tell I guess.

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