SEO: Tricks and Tips-IV

Basic SEO: Tricks and Tips - Where to Get Content

There are numerous places to get content for your site. Keep in mind that all material you use should be appropriate to your site; this article is about SEO after all. Check out the following list of useful sources:

Websites – You can use material from either articles or newsletters, but you must contact the owner and get their permission.

Products – If you sell products on your site, ask the manufacturer for material about the product in question.

Content Syndication Sites – Material on these sites is free when you provide a link back to the original author's website. There are also sites that allow you to pay for material. Make sure you manually put the material on your site to preclude any SEO-related conflicts caused by browser-side inclusion methods (searchbots don't read browser-side code).

Government – Material made by (not for) the U.S. government does not have copyright protection, meaning it is free and in the public domain (the U.S. Postal Service and National Technical Information Service are exceptions).

Open Content – This is content that is available for modification and redistribution because of what's called copyleft, which basically means the original author released their work on the condition that no one else can claim original authorship. You might also want to check into content released under a Creative Commons license; there are several variations of this license, and not all of them will let you repost content freely. You will need to do a little homework.

RSS feeds – If you find a site that provides an RSS feed with boatloads of material related to your site, you should install an RSS aggregator to put the material from the feed into your website. This can be complicated for those without experience, so I suggest you do your research or get someone who knows what they're doing.

Create User-Generated Content – You can get content from your visitors by adding a Question and Answer or Frequently Ask Questions section to your site. You can also add a forum (sometimes called a Bulletin Board System) or blog on which your users can comment. Just search for the appropriate software on any search engine.

When finding content to put on your site, don't forget that you're doing so in order to optimize your site for the search engines. Make sure you search for content with your keywords. Just search for the specific type of material you want and add your keyword(s) to it. If you have a site focused on the Great Lakes, you could search for Great Lakes press release, for example.

That's all the tips I have for now. I'll see you next time.