Content Curation for Fun and Profit

The term ‘content curation’ has been making its way around Australian SEO circles for quite some time. However, many seem still confused by the term, often dismissing it as some form of auto blogging or duplicate content that will offend Google.

Finally last month, Google spam chief Matt Cutts gave his opinion on this contentious matter.

In a video, he made the distinction between ‘aggregated content’ – words, images and videos that are simply copied from other sites, and ‘created content’, which is original work you produce yourself.

The latter, of course, Google loves if it’s of high quality and uniqueness. For the former, Cutts advocated caution. It can actually hurt your rankings, as it’s duplicate with no added value. Content curation occupies a middle ground between these two types.

The key phrase in the above paragraph is ‘added value”. Content curation that leverages existing content by offering commentary, interpretation and other kinds of elucidation that adds value to the source is a good thing.

You see this every day in feature articles in your newspaper. The government releases a budget report. Your local newspaper quotes part of the original government report and then shows you what it means for your everyday life. In doing so, it adds value and relevance.

How to Tap Into the Power of Curation

Content curation involves scanning the web for interesting information relevant to you niche, and using an excerpt as the base to develop your own content. The information can come from many sources: other people’s blogs, news sites or other items such videos. The key factor is that these items are of interest and benefit to your readership.

Curation is valuable because your readers are busy people and don’t have the time or breadth of knowledge to keep abreast of what’s happening in their areas of interest. By choosing the best of the web for them and showing why it matters, you’re performing a valuable service.

curation

So what are Aussie SEO firms to take away from this post?

To reap the benefits of content creation, do the following:

Find timely and useful data relevant to your niche and choose the best of what your find. The amount of text you choose can be anything from a single line to several paragraphs. Add value by putting this data in context and showing how it benefits your reader.

To get the best results from your content curation, it has to be part of your ongoing content marketing strategy. That way, your readers will come to rely on your as their main source of information. With that trust comes authority, and that’s something you can’t get enough of online these days.

About Nathanael Vanderkolk

Nathanael Vanderkolk is the Director of the Smart SEO Company, a SEO Agency in Sydney, Australia. Smart SEO Sydney has a keen awareness of the latest approaches to online marketing. Follow him on , Facebook and Twitter.
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