The Farmer update and "feeding the content machine"

Image by Joelk75 via Flickr

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about Google's Farming update and why it has caused such angst among search marketers. Part of that answer is simple--a lot of sites with high rankings suddenly saw them plunge. That will cause some angst, for sure. But I think there is something deeper going on here. I think part of what is upsetting everyone is that we are feeling overwhelmed at what is expected of us. We don't feel capable of feeding the content machine. It feels like no matter what we do, we have to come up with more and more content every day and that what we are able to produce is never high enough quantity or high enough quality. I feel that way sometimes, too. I think it is that feeling that leads to content farming and other shortcuts.

I post here once a week and I am not always feeling so creative. I woke up this morning not having any idea what I wanted to write about. It can feel quite overwhelming. Lest you think I could have just put this off to tomorrow, I post every day on my Biznology blog, so I have to post something somewhere. I have contributors to my blog that post once or twice a week, but most days it is me.

So, I certainly understand the feeling of, "What do I have to say?" Or "What can I say that I haven't said already?" I get those feelings a lot. Most days, I have something in mind, or I can check my notes full of ideas and dredge something up, but some days I start out flummoxed and have to figure it out from scratch. Like today.

It's tempting to just decide not to post so often. That would seem to take away the overwhelming feeling, but it doesn't solve the problem, because the reason that I am posting is marketing. From my writing I get my speaking engagements, my consulting jobs--you get the idea.

So for me, posting a lot means getting more business, which is the way content marketing works for every business. None of you would be posting content if you didn't think it would somehow make money.

That's where the problem comes in. I remember talking to veteran comedian about how the business has changed. Time was that he could work out some excellent jokes and go around the country telling them for a few years. Now, he finds that his jokes get videotaped, they get tweeted, they get blogged, they are shown on TV, and then he can't get the same laughs anymore. The content machine is causing him to crank up his output to a level he's never seen before. "The Internet eats material," he told me.

That's because the Internet eats all content and wakes up hungry the next day for more. Always new. Always fresh.

I think that some of us, faced with the overwhelming nature of how much fresh content is required, look for short cuts. We might re-post something from somewhere else. We might hire an intern to do it. We might hire Demand Media. We might even resort to the kind of screen-scraping garbage that Google is trying to eliminate with the farmer update.

Whatever we do, we open ourselves up to lowering the quality of our content. Apart from whatever Google does, with the Farmer update or any other algorithm changes, lower quality content does not propel our brand image forward, nor mark us as experts on the subject, nor lead to competitive advantage. So, regardless of whether the farmer update affected you, you will have to make your piece with the pace. And somehow not lower your quality as you do so. You might need to hire a good writer. You might need to spend more of your own time writing or producing video or whatever other content works for you.

But don't expect the pace to slow down. Don't expect to feel less overwhelmed. And don't expect the shortcuts to work for very long. Eventually low quantity or low quality will kill you.