Many of us have started writing online by populating blogs, FAQ sections, and articles on our websites. A lot of new blogs are used as marketing tools online or as areas for personal venting sessions. What ever the reason for the publication of your words; one thing is certain, make sure they are your own words.
There is importance in writing authentic original content online to ensure search engine happiness. A whole other element to writing original work is also within the user experience. To balance pleasing both the search engines and the user is a winning combination. Authenticity is important for many reasons but the four that strike me the most are:
1. The Blah Factor.
There is nothing worse than a person writing something in a blog after being forced to or pulling it from a source they do not completely understand. What you are left with is a boring and dull story or article that will soon be forgotten. If the topic is not something you can be passionate about or speak to in a casual conversation, you aren’t likely to write about it well.
2. Ummm…that’s not what I said.
I am always up for pulling good information and putting it in our blog because I am not an expert in everything I am interested. It is necessary to credit where credit is due. You must reference the people, podcasts, books, blogs, articles and comments from whatever source you pulled them from. Personally, this blog post by Blog Herald has some great tips that remind us what the best way to reference a blog is. Although there is no set method for referencing, there are some great tips in this article. More importantly, if you are going to reference someone else’s work and discuss it yourself…get the facts straight. There is nothing worse than a blogger misconstruing another blogger’s work….talk about missing the point!
3. Sincerely Yours,
When writing online, be sincere. Everyone has a different way of writing and there are certain undertones in all of our works. If you are a regular follower of this blog, you should be able to have a good idea of whom the author of an article is before even looking at the name. Further to that, if you are writing a blog and can’t picture yourself verbalizing your written work, be sure that your writing will likely come off fake and misunderstood. When writing essays for school or proper documents for work, of course a certain type of language needs to be used. When writing in blogs, articles, and other online mediums…don’t be afraid to get a little personal with your words.
4. Search Engines don’t want to see it twice.
One of the worst moves you can make for your company online is to duplicate your content. I have seen this in many forms. Most commonly people will duplicate their websites and put it on a separate domain name, blatantly copy someone else’s work, or write something in a blog and then copy it as an article elsewhere. Even if you wrote it….you can’t write it exactly the same a second time. If your goal is to increase your online presence and gain popularity with the search engines, be mindful of your content and ensure its authenticity.
~S
