Katie McCaskey

Web content is a funny thing: it cannot die.

I was thinking of this while finishing up the latest for “Odd Staunton” titled: Swannanoa Palace, or, Why You Cannot Die!

Sure, content can and does get buried and forgotten. It falls into cracks in the inter-webs, patiently awaiting the search spider to find it again.

But it is there: lurking like a zombie awaiting reanimation.

The problem is that even after you delete content a clever person or search engine seeking it can usually find it.

So what do you?

You plan for content’s eventual “death” from the front page of your site and it’s top ranking search results. You plan for content’s life after the limelight…knowing that eventually another spotlight will find it.

By “planning”, I recommend two careful content marketing considerations:

1 – Is it enticing? You can be sure that most “seo” drivel is boring repetition of keywords. That stuff *is* buried and forgotten. Instead, craft quality content in the first place.

In the writing/marketing world this means a combination of knowing your audience and at times being provocative. (In the above example, don’t you want to know the “Swannanoa Palace secret” about “why you cannot die”?)

2 – Will others use it? This is an area ripe for discussion because traditionally creative people could only benefit financially if they kept all the rights and usage to themselves. There is still a need for this in some areas. However, it is also urgent to understand that your web content WILL be used by others, creative commons license or not.

So, plan for your content to be used by others. Embrace it. (Yes, this attitude takes practice.)

Here’s a brief example. A few weeks ago I wrote about renters, community gardens, and changes in land use legislation for Aol. The post lived there for awhile and fell off the front page in the perpetual motion of news. Days later, this post was picked up by Pepsi’s Refresh site. Pepsi followed some best practice reuse: crediting, and linking back. Why wouldn’t I, and Aol, not be happy? (Linking to this site would’ve been ideal, but, considering the norm of finding content work uncredited, I’m not complaining!)

Content’s longevity is exactly why I predict we’ll see more companies and organizations wising up to the bottom-line value of paying for quality content. Spend quality dollars for it’s development and role in marketing strategy — because content never dies.