September 8th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

I still agree with the original premise that content is not king. Decent content plus a lot of links is still going to beat amazing content. (Unless the amazing content also has tons of advertising which would bring in links/traffic.)

There is a lot of leeway between amazing content and spam content that wouldn’t pass a manual review.

September 8th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

Content is King but Anchor links is the master of the universe!

If people don’t know about your site(bad or excellent), they won’t visit you.

September 8th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Even if it’s not called keyword sniping, the concept is still valid. Those of us that have followed your writings on the subject since the beginning (Nov/Dec 2007 for me) get the fact that content — real content is still a vital part of the equation.

You didn’t get to be #1 on Google for “colorado lasik surgery” by copy-pasting the phrase 200 times, you got it by writing new content from scratch and linking to it intelligently. I don’t find anything about that misleading, either for us or for Google, which is why I find the concept so fascinating.

I’m unsure where you’re heading with the premise, but I’ll be watching closely.

September 8th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Court,

It takes a big person to admit they are/were wrong. Thank you for the clarification of what you have found and being big enough to not lead others down the path of incorrect information.

One question. Does this mean that sites like your lasik site and others that you create like that one are in jeopardy according to your new views? Would you recommend people that have built keyword focused “sniper” sites go back and tweak content?

Just curious!

September 8th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

Court is this move a reaction to your Internet Marketing ranking disappearing? or do you think that the dip is just temporary from maybe getting too many links too fast with that anchor text?

September 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

That’s a bit weird turn of events, if you don’t mind me saying that. So what are you suggesting now? That people shouldn’t create Adsense niche sites anymore even if they have original content?

September 8th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Shall we say not so much that content is king, but that Google is king? the price of being politically correct and staying in favor with not only peers but Google.

September 8th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

I’m glad you told us about this issue. I would have wondered for ages if you suddenly changed you mind.

Content is always king because *people* read content. If you don’t have content know one will visit. You could have a billion links to your site, but if know one wants to read it = FAIL.

I can’t wait to see your new content related posts. It always seems more morally right doing better content, since you will win in the long run.

September 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

I keep my stance that, with SEO, links are “king” in terms of ranking. But content does play a role in internet marketing. It also depend on how gray you want to get.

Many people read into content isn’t king as “content doesn’t matter”. It totally matters, as long as people get that content alone will not rank you. You can rank with bad content, but good content will keep you ranked.

I think many people want to grab just one item that is THE way to go. They all interact, so you cannot separate them. I still consider page title and links as the MOST important ranking factors.

It also is important to note that not all sites are equal. As a “blog” and not a niche site, content is important since you’re dealing with social traffic, feed readers, and comments

September 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm

I’d really like to know Vic’s and Grizz’ opinion about this. This really turns around everything I have been reading for the last couple of months. I’m lost

To be fair, you neverd advocated writing crap content, but it’s not as like the web sites that we were supposed to build contained top killer content.

I understand your point of view though, a few days ago I was putting the name of your site in Google and couldn’t find it. So I knew something was going on.

Said that, I wonder if on site optimization will become more and more important. The Cuil search engine got off a bad start, but this SE is more focused on on-site relevant content. You’re number 1 for “internet marketing school” by the way

Google is king +1

September 8th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Yes content is VERY important. Without it your site is basically worthless.

However, links are just as important (if not more important) because even a site with not so great content can do very well if they have enough inbound links. And there are tons of sites with amazing content that never get anywhere because they don’t spend enough time building inbound links.

Content and links really do go hand in hand. A site can do well with just one or the other, but the sites that tend do the best usually have both.

September 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

Good Comeback Courtney however….

I’m still NOT buying it! (No Offense) Here’s why.

Google (a Web 2.0 Monopoly) is gonna do whatever it pleases unless the Federal Government intervenes. (Ex: Microsoft)

Just because they say that “Content is King”, doesn’t mean their correct.

In fact I personally know of too many sites with Google Page Ranks of 7, 8 & 9s with basically nothing but RSS Feeders and Adsense Marketing.

While its true some of those sites do receive major traffic, none of them post “Quality Content”.

In addition those same sites are STILL being indexed in Google’s Search Engine!

Excuse me but isn’t that a contradiction of Google’s own “Content is King” Philosophy?

Please understand that I’m not knocking GREAT sites like yours which publish Excellent articles, but until Google ceases indexing sites like the ones I described above and lowers their Page Ranks, I’m NOT buying it.

Keep it coming Court!

September 8th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

Court, thanks for having the courage of going back and change your previous position. It is interested to understand that Internet Marketing is not a fix theory, in fact it seems we are all learning each day .

September 8th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

I don’t say this with any malice Court but I fail to see what’s new. Surely you already knew Google can de-index you / someone can report you for questionable content?

September 8th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

Court,

Thanks for having the courage an insight to admit when an error in judgment has been made. You concept on keyword focused niche sites is a sound one, and I am using it with some success.

Thanks again, you advice is still very valuable.

September 9th, 2008 at 12:10 am

This is an interesting turn of events with the about face on content versus links. I agree that are both are inextricably linked. If you develop outstanding content and no one finds, you don’t have much. If you develop MFA sites with tons of backlinks you risk getting the boot from Google and losing out on all that organic traffic. Ideally you do both, develop outstanding content and back links and then you’ll be in good standing with everyone. But for me and if the chips were down - I take a good link over content, but maybe that’s because I feel like I can create strong content whenever, but getting a good link is damn hard…

September 9th, 2008 at 12:30 am

Getting rid of your keyword sniping posts sure takes a lot of guts! I’ve followed your keyword techniques on one of my niche sites with success, but I’ve always believed in writing good content too. I think you shouldn’t disregard the fact about keyword sniping as one of the best ways to gain search engine, it’s just that it has to go hand-in-hand with quality content.

Looking forward to more of your insights.

September 9th, 2008 at 1:15 am

Court,

I’m impressed by your honesty with us here in the school house. It takes a big person to admit their mistakes to themselves, and an even bigger one to tell their followers the same.

I just started “keyword targeting” last month. I have researched my KW’s, purchased my URL’s and have started generating content for the sites. I followed Mark’s recommendations and have several sites up, running and aging while I step through each in a prioritized manner building content site by site.

While your opinion may have changed about content, I don’t think that negates the general idea you were advocating with your keyword targeting series. It just emphasizes the importance of spending some effort on the content portion of the process. I chose KW targeting as a way to experiment with building some passive income potential and to learn some Internet marketing strategies before I start a flagship blog on a serious content area that I still have on the drawing board.

I would encourage you to consider restoring the KW targeting series (including the WP themes) on your website. The series has great information and reader interest. I think you could refine the series a bit, placing more emphasis on the content aspect of the process and still be able to live with your conscience.

On a personal note, I think the “S” word is very appropriate, even if you place more emphasis on site content. When I think of the “S” word, a vision of Army and Marine Corps snipers comes to mind. I am quite confident that it takes a great amount of skill, study, practice and individual effort to graduate military sniper school. I think your (and our) work to do the same on the Internet requires similar levels of effort to be as successful. If focusing some effort on content is required to graduate and succeed, then so be it. But I don’t think it invalidates this method as a way of generating traffic, serving advertising and selling products.

Keep up the great work.
-Jeff
I’m Minding My Own Business, are you minding yours?

September 9th, 2008 at 1:48 am

Wow…this is all kind of weird. Was there a specific event that occurred between your last post and this one that triggered this change? In my opinion, your keyword sniping series was your finest, most useful work. It has changed the way I approach internet marketing, and has made me real money. I’ve always done my best to create useful content, so I don’t think you were leading anyone down the wrong path.

The oddest part is closing down the membership site suddenly…after all that time and investment, why close down a private site? It seems you could just share your message of links+quality content to your members, ensuring that everyone (users, site owners, Google) gets what they want.

I just have this weird feeling something else is happening behind the scenes we don’t know about. Thats OK, I suppose, I’ll just keep doing what you taught me. I’m very grateful for what you’ve done in the past, and I’m sorry to see the content go. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

September 9th, 2008 at 6:39 am

Have you considered that the “Keyword Sniper” thing isn’t the reason behind the slap? The concept is quite valid and the quality of the content of a ’sniper’ site generally has to be decent to retain its ranking.

I’m more inclined to think that it’s due to you having so many “Internet Marketing” backlinks from your themes, Blogging Zoom, article marketing and other sources. When they run across a site that has 100K+ backlinks for a single high profile term they get suspicious. Given also that probably a lot of those sites are on a single class C, Host Gator, probably adds fuel to the fire. It makes it look like you were using unsavory methods to boost your ranking for the term.

September 9th, 2008 at 6:52 am

I’ve been following the keyword sniping series and have sites gradually climbing in SERPS. I never interpreted them to read - ‘content doesn’t matter - throw anything on’. I am well aware that Google can de-index thin affiliate sites and have made an effort to add quality content to my sites. Unless there’s some other reason, why not leave the keyword sniping posts there for others to read but add a bit more emphasis on adding content?

September 9th, 2008 at 6:53 am

I subscribe to your site even though I completely disagree with keyword sniping. To me it is a means to an end (getting good content ranked), not an end in itself (getting any old garbage ranked).

Search results are full of ad-laden crap. Keyword sniping promotes that. If Google had the courage to remove all that junk (it’s a major conflict of interest, I know), we wouldn’t need keyword sniping and related concepts (because it wouldn’t pay off).

That said, turn your power to good!

September 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am

Court - when did you change the title tag - before or after the dip? Could this just be a re-ordering as your main keyword has changed? Just pondering…

Also the shear volume of “Theme Designed By” links that you have amassed could have set off a flag but I think this would constitute a recalculation on G’s part rather than a slap. The curious thing is that your name was bounced back a few pages which is strange and reminiscent of Chow - this more than anything makes me think a manual ranking has been performed rather than the algorithm. Of course this is all conjecture and unless G wants to tell you what’s up we may never know. In any event if I can help in any way please ask.

September 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

I never understood this phrase. In my opinion nothing in KING, all elements work together, the right keywords are king, the content is king, the monetization method is king, on page factors are king, inlinks are king…and so on and so forth.

I’d also like to know how much these manual reviewers get paid per hour. I mean there’s only so long you can be so vigilant before you start letting things slip through the net. My content always ends up taking up some middle ground, not bad enough to get flagged, but not word perfect stellar content that takes hours to research and produce.

September 9th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Oh what a shame you’ve closed down your site Court, I just blogged about it last week! Anyway, I think the keyword sniping series is great and I’m building some new sites around the concept. I wish you all the best with your new direction.

September 9th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Court,
As you know I’m usually a critic when commenting here but I’ve got to give you props for this post. I actually think you probably could stick with the Keyword Sniping name and concept but just weave in the idea of creating valid useful content etc.

In any case, as I said, I respect the choice you’ve made. A lot of people wouldn’t have the guts or the conviction to do so.

September 9th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Another reason the idea of “content is king” is a solid one is that, in a sense, your content is a product. Sure, people don’t ever see your product of you don’t market it, i.e. link building. However, when people get to your site, you have other issues: Do they like what you have to offer? Do they stay? Do they trust you? Do they tell their friends? Do they come back?

A legitimate business would consider their customer in the equation, not just blasting advertisement to the ends of the earth.

Content is king because, as is often said, “The Customer Comes First.”

September 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Hmmm..interesting, not usre what to make of it, but I guess time will tell

September 9th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

[…] Content Is King […]

September 9th, 2008 at 4:58 pm

I think keyword sniping is a fine way to describe a philosophy. Would you tell a sniper in the US Marine Corps that he is not a well-rounded and solid soldier? Or would you realize that he is EVERYTHING that most marines are, AND MORE because he has specialized skills above and beyond, ie: sniping!!!!

You and Vic are starting to scare me! LOL
AL

September 9th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Allow me to start by saying that I have been reading you for a while now and felt that I should write in at this point. It takes a lot of guts to not only be open to the idea that you might be incorrect, but to also admit it. In my opinion that earns respect.

As far as content goes, the issue to me seems like it is not as binaric as “is king’ vs “is not king” but a wide spectrum of characteristics in order to dictate success. Solid sites are a living breathing thing that needs to have some sort of harmony depending on the subject matter. Not only is content an integral part for a blog (or any other dynamically structured site) but that aspect of “conversation” is also vital to success as well. People want to feel connected, whether for personal reasons or for information: they want to know that there is someone on the other side of that screen. And given the number of comments you get, its working.

September 10th, 2008 at 12:01 am

Wow, Court - I have been out of the loop! All that hard work. And good information, at that.

Keep us updated with your new direction.

September 10th, 2008 at 12:48 am

Court, your keyword sniping posts were some of the best and now they are down? That’s quality content you took down. What a shame! That content was interesting, unique, helpful, informative and well received all around. What else could quality content be if it’s not that?

Censorship, ah, that’s another story altogether! Some feel that perhaps the message behind your Quality Content was at odds with the geeks who own Google. No freedom of speech I guess on the internet. The Goog Father will slap you around if you speak out of line. Man, it makes me think of the old soviet union.

Here’s a ballsy statement and I’ll probably be wrong to boot but : I don’t think you had a change of heart or mind. I believe that you are just over reacting in a slight panic over your site here. This has resulted in you taking down that MOST EXCELLENT content and replacing it with this ‘google propaganda’ stuff to cover your ass. I guess if you need the money that bad what else can you do?
But from a principled, albeit not pragmatic standpoint, I think allowing your thoughts to be censored is giving away WAY too much of your personal freedom, but then again I’m a true blue American type and the idea of thought control gets my goat!

Court I don’t comment here much but I have always LOVED your site!! However, in my crappy old opinion, you have just taken the REAL content off of your site and replaced it with ‘google-ass kissing-propaganda’ garbage.

Bring the Real Court back. I’ll always like your site though:)

September 10th, 2008 at 1:37 am

[…] This brings up another problem. While we were active in the blogosphere we were taught that we must have good solid contents in order for us to earn the links and get into the good books of Big Daddy G. When we started to foray into the world of Internet Marketing and doing business online, we started to learn and realize that we don’t actually need solid contents in order to get ranked in SERPs What we needed was tons and tons of backlinks with varied keywords and the theory of Content is King is thrown down the drain. It was something I too learned and implemented and still do, even after reading Court’s post, As It Turns Out, Content Is King. […]

September 10th, 2008 at 5:33 am

Well that surprised me. I liked your site. Better yet I like that you are admitting you need to go in a different direction. I will keep watching where you are leading us.

September 10th, 2008 at 5:58 am

[…] recently posted again, stating that he has changed his mind, and that Content Is King. Why did he change his mind? He says that he realized that a crummy site can be crushed by Google. […]

September 10th, 2008 at 6:57 am

Is your site penalised in Google due to this as it doesn’t even ranks for it own name
http://www.google.com/search?q=courtneytuttle&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enIN288

September 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am

I feel sorry for you, Court. I’m a fan of yours, and have always taken in your postings except the “Content is not the king”. It got me thinking, and I felt you were going overboard. Now I’m glad you have changed your stand and say content is king.

September 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

I am sure that perfect content and links are KINGS! Both are important to good site.

September 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

Court,

I still believe keyword sniping is both valuable and legit. IMO, your changing your stance will prove fruitless with G, but if I was in your shoes I would do the same.

MJ

September 10th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

Just by writing a post that says “Content has never been the King” and then get slapped by Google is simply beyond comprehension. I’m with David who commented:

“It’s possible, but thats rather evil, if true. Despite the fact that the post disagreed with Google’s published philosophy, it was, in itself, quality content. If disagreement with Google is enough to get you slapped, thats pretty sad.”

Court has always posted quality content. Every blogger has a right to his or her own opinion in their writing. I would like to believe that Big G would not react to what can be considered as freedom of speech on the Net. But if they do, then it’s “pretty sad” as David puts it. Google must be evil.

But no, in fact, I don’t believe it’s that post that got Court in trouble. It has to be something else that’s got Google’s goat. So many theories and answers from people. I’m in no position to put in my two cents but why not go and hear what Vic has to say on his Blogger Unleashed blog.

September 10th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

This is a manual slap from the GoogFather. They don’t like him giving away powerful information that capitalizes on the deficiencies of Google algorithm.

It’s censorship, imperialism, thought control and is a sign that Goog is becoming for all intents and purposes a monopoly. My prediction is that soon, in the coming years, Goog will be the Microsoft treatment.

Let’s not forget now who we are talking about. Google is a scraper site. A black hat site. A site that profits from your content. They are a FOR PROFIT site that will arbitrarily wipe your site off the face of the planet if they don’t like your message.

Courts content was TOP FUCKING QUALITY CONTENT! Who disagrees with me? No one? Ok.

Yet he still got slapped. It’s censorship guys and gals. It’s corporate bullying. Google has denied internet surfers everywhere the right to read and educate themselves with courts excellent content by making it impossible to find now.

That does not benefit ‘the users experience on the web’ does it? In fact it makes it harder for the avg joe to find ‘quality content’ which of course defines precisely courts now deleted posts.

But Google doesn’t care. Remember, they themselves really are the greatest black hat site of all and if courts thoughts are going to interfere with their bottom line then right or wrong, google is going to slap court down.

September 10th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

I don’t want to sound brusque, but this whole flip-flopping, and everything else, is the result of your business being slapped by Google. It has nothing to do with philosophical arguments over content vs links. Why not mention this in the article? Just be honest.

September 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Just remember this if your business is based on adsense. If they get mad enough they not only can slap your site but kill your account.

Not sure what to make of this but it is disturbing to say the least.

September 10th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

Court, a comment question about content: I have a site ranked in the top 5 for every “big” search engine. Been ranked for about 3 or 4 months now. The keyword that I’m ranking for gets about 18,000 “hits” per month. I have damned good content, rich and unique. I get about 3 visitors a week! I figured I would get a lot more traffic than that. Can you explain or have you ever had a situation like this before?

September 10th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

You can have keyword snipping AND quality content. I understand, Court the impression you think it will make, but I have used your KW snip techniques and still added lots of great content, one has nothing to do with the other.

Also, I could see how Google may have tripped over the content has never been king post, but that is just one post out of tons of great content posts that you have provided here and it seems really unfair to be slapped so far back in SERPS, this just reinforces the fact that Google is King!

September 10th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

Court - I am confident this site will again be on page one… as others have rightly pointed out, this domain is loaded with quality content…there’s no way to get around that.

Also, there are at least two other domains that are ranking on page 1 for “internet marketing” that are TOTAL crap compared to this site….both in terms of quality and volume of information. One has about 1000 LOW QUALITY pages indexed (crap information), and the other is bordering on keyword stuffing…. (and only has 45 pages indexed and ~400 inbound links)…. Totally ridiculous if you ask me.

- Dave

September 10th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Wow, Court - I am SO disappointed that your articles and tutorials on keyword sniping are gone. Why not simply edit them to state your belief that you need good content FIRST?

Those posts of yours are some of the best information on the internet for those trying to understand deep linking, etc.

I also want to mention that while it is possible that a post or large amount of same text back links could have caused this situation…. I am not really thinking so.

Here’s why…

For about the past month, I have referred others to these posts and tutorials of yours. I can’t tell you how many times I would get an email back saying they couldn’t get your site to load. When I would check, sure enough, it would just hang and then time out on me, too. I could give you an exact date of one of these instances if you’d like. I happen to have an ongoing exchange between a student of mine and that conversation reflects how he tried many times to read the pages I referred him to…and how neither of us could get it to load.

Perhaps it is possible that a manual review DID take place… and took place when your site wouldn’t load?

Just a thought.

Best of luck with your new direction and plans for your business. I have always respected and enjoyed your content and look forward to more.

Jennifer
~PotPieGirl

September 11th, 2008 at 3:53 am

I have always said that content is king. It just makes sense when the words you use needs to be found in the search engines if you want to be found but if you aren’t using words that others are looking for then that content is really king.

I can be so stubborn at times it borders on a mental problem I am sure. You can talk until you are blue in the face and you most likely won’t convince me I am wrong until I have had time to sit alone and think about it again.

September 11th, 2008 at 11:32 am

[…] talked about the importance of backlinks which seems reasonable to me and in his latest post he has turned around his point of view completely but at the same time, shut down his work on keyword sniping and announced that he will updating his […]

September 11th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Court, you should have called your post Google is King And He Wants To Be Emperor

If I had a dollar for every crappy site out there with a page rank of 3+ i would be rich. Content isn’t King and never was and never will be, personal experience.

I don’t think Google gives a S#!T about content, there aren’t computers powerful enough to process the absolute enormous amount of information being created each and every day. More practical for them to focus on linkbacks as the main source of PR and have Mr.Pion Geek at the head office, penalizing sites that have caught on to Google’s charade. Their hope, i suspect, is to keep the Sheep in line by controlling the Dawg (Yes Court, you’re the Dawg).

You clearly offended the Big G, and you don’t piss people like that off unless you’ve got under their skin. You have proved them wrong way too often, and they are getting back at you with the hope of keeping us in check.

More now than ever, keyword sniping will be my main focus.

September 12th, 2008 at 1:44 am

Chris (above) has said most of what I was going to say about ‘G Power’. It sucks.

But it could still be something other than the ‘keyword sniping’ and ‘content (isn’t) king’ posts which caused all this. I still think it’s a lot to do with your Wordpress themes, even though some say not…

Apart from that, I’m sorry to see you make such an obviously obsequious post purely for the benefit of big ‘G’, but I guess I can understand why.

Luckily I (and I guess many others) have already downloaded the content of your keyword sniping posts for future reference

September 12th, 2008 at 6:10 am

[…] couple of days ago Court posted As It Turns Out, Content is King, where he admitted he was completely wrong and therefore was proclaiming that content was most […]

September 12th, 2008 at 7:15 am

[…] Before I give you the results of my keyword experiment so far I want to talk about Court’s latest post - As it turns out content is king […]

September 12th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Content is important, sure, but it’s certainly not king. There are lots of “resources” type of websites that’s very popular. They compile content instead of creating content themselves… websites like Google itself!

September 13th, 2008 at 10:26 am

Wow! What a post! I’m looking forward to more of your articles on this topic. When I first read your keyword sniping material, I loved it (and still do). However, I applied the concepts not to a keyword sniping sites, but to my larger, social blog, and the results have been through the roof. My view is that Google wants to give web surfers the most relevant, quality content it can. Most (but not all) keyword sniping sites don’t represent quality content. So even if a keyword sniping site works for a while, eventually Google will catch up and hammer these sites in the search engines. So while I toyed with starting keyword sniper sites, I quickly abandoned that effort. That said, the concepts behind keyword targeting are excellent and can be applied to any website or blog.

As to content vs. links, I think the answer as to which is king is clear–they are both king.

September 13th, 2008 at 10:31 am

[…] 8, 2008.  He posts a retraction.  “As It Turns Out, Content Is King.”  A transparent attempt to regain favor with Google.  Only time will tell if it […]

September 14th, 2008 at 1:34 am

I have been reading your site and agreed with most things until I came to the content is not king page. I had to disagree and I am happy you have come back to this realisation.

I have a few websites that I built many years ago and they still bring in traffic with no promotion. The content brought in visitors. Saying that content is not important is like suggesting that you only married your wife because she was a woman. I think we all tried to marry someone because of the content of their character.

September 14th, 2008 at 2:50 am

[…] Court’s IM School - As It Turns Out, Content Is King […]

September 14th, 2008 at 10:56 am

I can definitely respect any person who knows and can come forth and say that they were wrong–For any reason. For that, thank you for coming out with this and also providing your readers and follows with valuable content that will HELP THEM, which is why this is called the Internet Marketing School! Thank you.

September 14th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

I couldn’t agree more with you, content may not be King, but is .truly important, great post and let’s keep this going.

September 15th, 2008 at 1:20 am

I think at some point of our obsessed work to manipulate our google rankings we lost our ways through the internet. The internet was made to communicate and inform and the only way to do that is with good content the rest are just reminiscences of our trial to boost our site.

Just write quality content and let the rest work for itself… at least it has worked for me

September 15th, 2008 at 8:55 am

It’s ok to change your mind; we all do. But why did you delete the old post and redirect it to this post? If anybody wants to read the old post, they can from Yahoo’s cache of the page.

September 15th, 2008 at 10:07 am

This was a mistake, Court. Your Keyword Sniper Idea was sound and helping folks. To tell them now that they have to go and make much better content, something that 99.9% of them can’t or won’t do, is going to hurt more folks than you can help with this change.

The bottom line is that Google isn’t likely to penalize people who try to make good content and fall short. Even following your KS technique, “good content” is created… It’s the PLR junkies and ppl creating doorway pages who deserve to get slapped hard… Not people trying to provide good answers to popular questions.

I own 385+ good (not great) quality websites and when yours got slapped, so did 90% of mine. The interesting thing is that the 10% that didn’t get slapped, were NOT my 10% with the best quality… Far from it! -They were the 10% with THE MOST LINKS.

We have no real idea why Google slapped us. I’m more sure than ever that links are more important than content though.

-Luke Parker

September 15th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

I think quality content is important for readers to keep their interest and it is important to have for Google ranking , but you do need to link your site to get traffic as well. So, having both is beneficial. I mix quality content with links and social marketing and I am seeing some progress.

September 15th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

the content on this site is fine but u dont even rank for your name meaning…

google is king.

good luck getting back on their good side, I personally think they didn’t like the fact u were selling memberships to what they thought was ways to beat google

September 16th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

In my opinion, you are not wrong Courtney, it is just that there are some stupid folks that are lazy and thinks of doing keyword sniping without even 0.0001% care towards contents. But actually, whether you are wrong or not, 2 facts stays:

1. That keyword sniping lesson is important, whether it is in the gray area or not. That lesson has helped me creating a better website that get indexed pretty fast.

2. Google is the king:D.

September 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 am

[…] Courts Internet Marketing School считает, что король блога это контент, так как Google […]

September 22nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Court,

I commend you on your honesty and integrity. Once you discovered your mistake, not only did you correct it and apologize for it, you cut out a chunk of your income that came from it. That takes integrity and determination.

I hope that everyone else here sees this as well.

Tim

September 25th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

I just had much of one of my websites copied word for word by someone else on a new site. Good thing I have some links and continue to show up in the serps.

It is obvious that content is NOT king and that links ARE king. It is too bad you have to put up this somewhat misleading post and act like you are sorry just for Google’s sake. Now people read your post and all the comments and come away thinking “well, it looks like content is king after all”.

Content is NOT king as it can be stolen any time, any where, by anyone. Links are what get you to the top and keep you there, not your content!

September 30th, 2008 at 5:06 am

Wow …. just discovered this site. There’s SO much good conversation here I am going to have to go back to the top and read it all over again.

As of now I do believe that Content is King. It’s what people search for and what G want’s to deliver to them. Content is the driver. But hidden content is worth zilch so links are part of the King’s army. That doesn’t make Links King. Without content, links are worthless … links to nowhere.

We need to qualify with Original Content, Unique Content, Fresh Content … etc.

All for now … so, back to the top to read about the Court of the King.

John Gordon
The Infotainer

September 30th, 2008 at 8:33 am

Courtney - did you rule out the possibility of being hacked? This article explains how hackers are adding a whole bunch of links to bad neighbourhoods to Wordpress blog footers that are causing some sites to be deindexed. The links are only seen to the Googlebot.

Just got this in the mail today.

http://deanhunt.com/has-your-wordpress-blog-been-hacked/

October 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 pm

When it comes down to the big G, they can do anything they please. This is why we try not to disturb them

October 6th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

I think content is by far the most important aspect of a blog. If your blog has nothing but crap for articles, no one would ever take the time to come back. Providing good posts can keep people coming back which always helps your traffic and overall stats get better.

October 7th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

It seems like Google is constantly evolving with one goal: get the most relevant user content ranked highest. It seems that in addition to employing solid SEO techniques, having the highest quality content will do nothing but benefit you as search engines keep changing. Over time, we have to believe, a site will be rewarded more and more for great content.

October 7th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

Content is always king whether someone agree on it or not. I start my SEO with content part of my websites, this is the only reason they are on number uno google page

October 9th, 2008 at 8:34 am

Well, I’ve created a reasonable site with fairly decent content about Warren Buffett aka the Oracle of Omaha, but so far it isn’t ranking at all, so clearly there is something that needs to happen for a site to get to page 1 - keywords and backlinks no doubt, but how do you get the backlinks? A post on how to get targetted backlinks would be good.

October 10th, 2008 at 12:53 am

I’d say that content is king, and value is the queen (aka king of the kings) … lol

October 20th, 2008 at 6:04 am

Content is king because no matter how many links you have but if you do not have a specific content then no one will return to you back. So having good free content as in my website is quite usefull for users to return back every other day they are in need of somthing. So hats off content

October 20th, 2008 at 9:57 am

content is queen, decent quality anchor text pointing back to your website is king…

October 28th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

[…] networks precedes content creation success, but without great content the effort will fail. So while content may not be king anymore, it’s certainly […]

October 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am

I’m a little late to the party here - I just found this post and don’t have the luxury of knowing the entire history of the story

But as far as whether or not content is king, I don’t believe it is. It’s one building block for a successful site, but as several other comments have pointed out, there are plenty of sites with crappy content sitting in the top 10 on Google. Most of them are there because of links.

Content is important if your site ever comes up for a manual review, and if you’re building a site that you want to be successful in the long term you’re going to need to provide value.

But you can still have a successful site with mediocre content and good links. Or even with mediocre content and some copywriting skill in your autoresponder series or advertising.

I’d say these things all work in tandem:

1. Content
2. Value
3. Links

Plus, this is all assuming you rely on Google for your traffic, your monetization, or both. There are lots of other ways that you can drive traffic and earn money that have no bearing on whether or not Google “likes” your site.

Another way to look at it is whether top-notch content trumps grey/black hat linking approaches. I’ve had sites with great content get killed because I tried things that were a bit grey on the linking side. That tells me that content isn’t more important than anything else.

November 3rd, 2008 at 5:20 pm

[…] all heard that Courtney Tuttle withdrew his keyword sniper posts a little while ago? …having been most likely been Google […]

November 4th, 2008 at 3:04 am

Whoa! It takes some guts to say something really outrageous and later say that you made a mistake! Good going!

Content is always the king, as quality never fades, it only spreads.

November 4th, 2008 at 10:54 am

Courtney - Glad to see you came around on this issue! Relevant, quality content is the best thing you can include on your site if you want to build a reputable site with people who actually return to see what you’ve written. If you’re doing this correctly, keywords should fall into place naturally. Kudos on the flip flop : )

November 5th, 2008 at 12:34 am

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the phase content is king - but it’s true, and I agree with you all the way.

November 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Court:

Could you edit all your old posts containing the “s” word, replace the “s” word with “target”, “aim”, whatever, and then re-post them? Seems like what you said was valid. If not, I don’t know what to think.

BTW, Go-ogle slapped ALL my sites, including the one linked here, around the beginning of October. Is Go-ogle the anti-Christ? Completely arbitrary, seems to me, just like our governments. For an interesting blog post, Go-ogle the search string (without the quotes) “google high school popularity” . Check out the first search result listing.

Dave Bean

November 10th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

As a videographer, writer and website developer I’m glad you’ve seen the light - Content IS King, or certainly should be.

Only Content persuades surfers to linger, to buy, or to return; no amount of backlinks can replace it when absent.

November 17th, 2008 at 10:17 pm

This is what I’ve been confused about while doing SEO for my site. How much content is needed… do I really have to write a unique review and summary of each product on every single page just to make sure it isn’t blacklisted on Google?

I’ve really been trying to do my best to give my viewers something extra to read on every page while creating unique content for each and every page. This can be very difficult if your product is fairly self explanatory.

-Jason

November 18th, 2008 at 4:06 am

When optimising a site i always make sure that i have long descriptive paragraphs with my keywords, and not sure sentences full of keywords because Google can read that as spamming.

November 20th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

I agree absolutely that content is king, but the problem for most of us who are managing several sites, is that keeping abreast with all that is coming your way by way of push technology, RSS feeds, etc. becomes overwhelming to say the least. So, the sites are updated, but not nearly as frequently as I would like.

November 21st, 2008 at 8:41 pm

[…] “as it turns out content is king…”  Hmm some more…  […]

November 22nd, 2008 at 2:35 am

I think most people read his blog to discover what they can about Google’s thoughts on search engine optimization. I specially thanks to the growing power that computer engineers and software coders wield over. MY special view is that Success making money with keyword sniping depends heavily on your keyword research skills and finding good qualified long tail keywords. do you agree with it..? I just want to give some quick props to Courtney Tuttle. Keyword Sniping works! It’s been about a month now since I set up a wordpress blog on a domain name Hiphop94’s Weblog with http://hiphop94.wordpress.com and you can get here. Thanks for all.

November 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm

Content is King but the Anchor makes the Music. If you aren’t known as well nobody will see your great content.

November 26th, 2008 at 9:53 am

It takes a lot of research to write quality content.However, there are some good (and free) tools you can use to find out what people are talking about and then write posts about the “hot” topics.

November 28th, 2008 at 4:50 am

Thank u for specification, bolding up that; content alone doesn’t conquer! Presentation and user friendly links are so important to handle the site to next step

November 28th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

“I am remarkably stubborn sometimes…” Well…who isn’t, really. I have friends in various nationalities, and I can’t think of one friend who isn’t at some points. We, human is well know for being only that. But i have to say i was convinced by that “Content has never…” article, pretty much.

November 29th, 2008 at 6:27 am

“Content has never been the king”
I think it is right, but a well as with the amalgamation of all the tools it works.
I don’t know which point made you to apologize.

November 30th, 2008 at 8:20 am

[…] It’s now 4 months since I started using the keyword sniping technique outlined by Court ( he has since withdrawn his keyword sniping posts read this for an explanation As it turns out content is king) […]

December 6th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

I can not seem to get them to see my last 6 months of articles anyway….

December 10th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

Content is definitely king. When I get my act together and post more than normal, I see immediate results in visitors and commenting.

December 18th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

I come from a marketing background and feel very strongly that it is just as much what you say as how you say it.

December 26th, 2008 at 3:44 am

Court I’m really sad to see the end of the keyword sniping articles. They actually worked for me - I mean REALLY worked, and I have been able to build a number of sites by following your strategy that run very profitably.

December 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

Very good information. I am so atraktive.

December 31st, 2008 at 6:48 am

What difference does it make? Attempting to make money from Google ads is an exercise in futility. You can write brilliant articles, get a high ranking and subsequently get a crap load of traffic to your site, but at the end of the day while you make have a crap load of impressions, your ad clicks will be low for two reasons: 1. Google’s algorithms are seriously flawed when it comes to matching relevant ads with content (Their Competitive Ad Filter is a joke). 2. People have simply stopped clicking on ads or banners.

Face it, the days of the average site owners making money from Adsense are over. The only one who is making any real money is Google and a modicum of business owners who have always used the internet to marketing their products or services. If any site owner or blogger tells you otherwise, ask them to show you a copy of their last tax return.

January 1st, 2009 at 3:49 pm

[…] there is a point to this. Yesterday a fellow left a new comment on an old post on Court’s Internet Marketing blog. His name is Jim Green and he left the following comment; What difference does it make? […]

January 4th, 2009 at 6:08 am

I can see where Jim Green is coming from. I was sceptical too because of the amount of crap that is on the net about making money online but if Jim comes back to this thread, take it from someone who was also a non believer that you can earn from Adsense, it won’t make you a millionaire but it is good for $3/400 a month. As long as yu have the view that it is what I call top-up income then it is easy to get your head around it.

January 6th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

Getting rid of your keyword sniping posts sure takes a lot of guts dude!

January 11th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

Court,

I disagree with you on your point that your theory was wrong,

As I recall in one of your keyword snipping posts (which were awesome by-the-way) you said thay you could probably get a better click through rate if you used content that was not so good, but that you preffered good content so the site would pass inspection.

Now that is not word for word,

But I never took your info to mean create bad content.

Keep putting up solid info court you do very good job

And I would never have found out about keyword snipping if I had’t read it on your blog.

Len

January 21st, 2009 at 7:46 am

Content is very important, may be most important thing for any site. But it is not the only thing which is important. Inbound links are also important. Infact, according to me, the whole process of search engine optimization is very important. If your site is not properly structured then content is not going to help, because surfer could not find anything in easier manner. So, from my point of view ” Proper Search Engine Optimization with Good Content” is king.

February 6th, 2009 at 9:12 am

Haha, very good Griz.

Back to the article in hand and although it is pretty nobel of you to come out and say that content is king I think the one thing that we should all remember is that there is more than one way to skin a cat.

February 7th, 2009 at 5:36 pm

You are exactly right about this. That’s why new marketers can do SO well by putting their content on an article directory and then doing a backlink campaign to that. The article directories are so chock-full of content, they are not going to be buried anytime soon…especially those with High Page Rank.

The new marketers can use the leverage of the article directory to drive people to their sites, with or without Google. And who cares if someone came to your site through an article first? What matters is that they came to your site.

February 10th, 2009 at 2:17 am

What it all boils down to, is that online marketing - just like traditional marketing - requires regular effort on the part of the marketer. Many people would like to just create a niche site, and then sit back and watch the bucks roll in, which probably explains why your original keyword sniping article became one of the most commented-on articles I have ever seen. Getting a consistently good PR requires the implementation of a range of complementary strategies.

February 24th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

[…] Keyword Sniping […]

March 7th, 2009 at 6:53 am

Very interesting! It seems like Google rules the world. Does this mean that one can’t post interesting, relevant, and thought-provoking content less they get Google slapped. I thought your “Content is NOT King” post and your keyword sniper material was great. I guess I think if Google’s going to manually slap you based on what you teach, they should take the time to really check it out. If they had, you would have never been slapped, because it was obvious from the start that you’ve always “secretly” believed content is king… or, at least, a very strong queen.

March 10th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Hi Court,

I discovered Griz’s blog about two weeks ago which led me to your site. I’m gutted that you have taken all the content about keyword sniping off the net as I’d love to read it. Isn’t there a way you can still make it available to those of us wanting to make up our own minds? A nofollow link to a pdf file maybe or set it up in an autoresponder?

Please?

March 12th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

This is a very interesting discussion. I think that we are dealing with two beasts in regards to content. Firstly, attracting visitors through search engines and other traffic driving activities and secondly, once we have the visitors, making certain that we give them the information they need to see value in what we are offering. Once we have visiitors, we need to make our site sticky, lead people through an online sales process and good content is the key to this.

To achieve high rankings, we have to satisfy the search engines that the content is relevant, do the basics such as on page SEO as well as having a healthy number of themed links coming to our page. I also agree that the SEs are only a part of the solution to attracting qualified visitors and that content strategies such as articles, blogs etc are similarly important.

The primary issue that I see is having a proposition for the visitor to do something, - buy, subscribe, contact me by phone or email. If you consider your website as being a 24*7 sales tool and that the content and sales funnel within the site mirrors your best sales person, then I think that the content you have increases in importance considerably.

In many ways, this is where the traditional marketing processes mets the internet. We still need a Unique Value Proposition to outstrip our competitors and we need good, informative content to keep visitors coming back. From a sales perspective, research from companies such as Marketing Sherpa confirms the success strategies of the best sales people that for the majority of people/companies a constant contact program of up to 8 contacts is still needed before someone is willing to do business with you. The internet and your website is no different and so getting your content relevant assumes a high priority to getting people to return to your site before they are comfortable in taking some action.

I agree that getting your rankings is very high on the priority list and should continue to be so, but if you are already up there, content if not King is pretty close to being the highest priority. In short, I think you need to pay due attention to both, one without the other just doesn’t work in the long term.

March 18th, 2009 at 7:34 am

Blogging is a learning process, even for those starting from a point of strong topical knowledge.I am impressed with your forthrightness in admitting your mistake and the additional steps you took on top of that. Abandoning a blog is always a hard thing. You did the right thing by taking it down instead of letting it languish in the blogosphere as so many are prone to do!

April 1st, 2009 at 1:56 pm

[…] but good content will keep you ranked.” comments Justin (SEO Zombie) on the blog post “As It Turns Out, Content Is King” by Court […]

April 3rd, 2009 at 10:55 pm

i totally agree with court - Good content rules ….SEO is the easy part.

great content gets people linking to you. I have a site that gets over 1000 visitors a day in less than 9 months with only 105 backlinks. Of course I tried to use good anchor text on my backlinks but the main thing about my site is there is nothing like it on the internet.

April 8th, 2009 at 12:57 am

Content Is King for Good Keyword

April 9th, 2009 at 2:42 am

Content Is King .. YES…

April 20th, 2009 at 4:39 am

Imagine a site with no content, but lots of links out and in, pics with alt text keyword rich.

Compare this to a site with fantastic content, keyword rich, but no links in or out and pics with no alt text at all.

Which would fare better in Google serps? Remember that keyword density is part of content, not something separate.

April 22nd, 2009 at 5:58 am

Whether the site is content-rich or image-rich, its popularity depends on how you market the website and let the world know about your website.

May 3rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm

No matter what bells and whistles you add, without good content there’s nothing to pull readers in much less make them return.

May 8th, 2009 at 3:23 am

In my experience the combination of creating more quality content with more keywords and more links has created more traffic. Content is king, but so is link building!

May 11th, 2009 at 3:33 am

I have to agree wih Office Refurbishment. True, quality content is king, however link building is too. I used to be a ghostwriter for the internet. And boy, do I tell you, whenever I have to write, I have to include at the header the title, description and the keywords related to the article. The keywords must have a 6% density in the article meaning must be mentioned at leat 6-9 times at the body which really gave me the idea that keywords are really important too however you have to balance the content and the keywords itself.

May 11th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

If content is king, then Links should be queen! A site with quality unique content people will want to link to. That way the links will increase naturally! But if you don’t get the words of the site out through links, people wont see the site ( the world to come to your door) and wont be able to read the unique content in it and therefore won’t attract the natural links.
So both should be done effectively…

May 21st, 2009 at 9:48 am

Пора переименовать блог, присвоив название связанное с доменами может хватит про них?

May 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm

1 п. “Не имей сто друзей, а имей сто шекелей” тоже хорошо рифмуется
8 п. Ты никогда не потеряешь работу. Когда закончатся фотографии можно размещать рисунки (да хоть бы и конкурс объявить на лучший рисунок Одри (-:), аппликации и фотографии поделок из пластилина…
9 п. Сто пудов !

May 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 am

Вообще, честно говоря, комментарии тут гораздо прикольней самих сообщений. (Не в обиду автору, конечно :))

May 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am

Мне кажется очень хорошо

May 24th, 2009 at 10:24 am

Так зачитался, что пропустил любимую передачу)

May 25th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

Здорово!

May 26th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

Interesting site, but much advertisments on him. Shall read as subscription, rss.

May 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm

Спасибо за статью оказалась очень полезной.

June 8th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

Ну естественно, действительно так оно и есть.

June 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

I agree that content is King. Without good content, there is no chance of traffic or any good results for Google.

June 17th, 2009 at 3:10 am

It is obvious that a combination of both content and links is needed to be successful. If you want to be on top of a competitive term then this is the only way to be successful for a long period of time.

June 26th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

Content that is SEO targeted and well written is the only way to make it to the top of the rankings. Links yes, but content first. I have articels with not one link that get 20-50 hits daily. The long tail is king too!

June 27th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Hey court good post. Very tough argument I understand how someone could be convinced which is more important links or content though it seems that if someone has excellent content they only need to work a fraction on their marketing compared to those who try to force their site up in the SERPs through pure grind marketing building link by link rather than producing link bait. I am still up in the air with the subject and have not posted anything official on my marketing blog yet. Anyway I like the keyword academy very nice little project you got going I have been checking the serps very nice work.

July 4th, 2009 at 4:09 am

Классно! - Cool!
Перевод - Transleit

July 4th, 2009 at 9:32 pm

good tips and i like it

July 8th, 2009 at 5:22 am

Well i think one must be careful about content and links … both are necessary ..
What you guys say????

July 9th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

I think marketing is king. Thanks.

July 9th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

I really like your articles with this and I feel lucky to be able to read your article, I really like your articles with this article because you have to give this a thought for more advanced again, many thanks

July 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 am

Content always be the king, and will be follow by traffic. thanks for the explanation.

From David

July 28th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

Content is king, anchor links just keep making the content better.

You need both, one will not work very well without the other just like a car will not run without petrol.

July 31st, 2009 at 11:12 pm

I think: content always be the king

August 4th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

I havent read all the comments, there are so many!

To addd to the comments, my understanding is content is KING and keyword is QUEEN, you need the keywords to be picked up by the search engines and you need the CONTENT to keep your readership interested.

Regards
Pete

August 13th, 2009 at 8:04 am

hi, the blog seems to me like to gain the attention of all seos and get the benefit of traffic.

whatever, i also agree with the title “content is king” and no body need to prove this as you might get your ranking high after doing black hat or some cheat seo tricks but when search engines find this they penalize you heavily and sometime it cost to get your website in black listed.

August 13th, 2009 at 9:24 am

Content is king while links is queen!
A web site with quality unique content people will want to link to. That way the links will increase naturally! But if you don’t get the words of the site out through links, people wont see the site ( the world to come to your door) and wont be able to read the unique content in it and therefore won’t attract the natural links.

August 14th, 2009 at 12:36 am

Hi, the blog seems to me like to gain the attention of all seo’s and get the benefit of traffic.

whatever, I also agree with the title “content is king” and no body need to prove this as you might get your ranking high after doing black hat or some cheat seo tricks but when search engines find this they penalize you heavily and sometime it cost to get your website in black listed.

August 15th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Court,

I think that Content Is King - not only does it bring traffic from the search engines, it also develops a good relationship with your visitors that keeps them coming back for more….

September 5th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Trust above all else can be gained with excellent content. The content can actually separate you from your competitors. It’s up to your and your content to determine which direction the people will go. Great post.

September 13th, 2009 at 8:10 pm

You’re either a genious or autistic. I think she’s brilliant and playing you all.
The contraversy created over her controversial post, will likely be what sticks in your memory the longest.

What I see: Create contraversy. wait. wait. wait. flip flopped and apease the crowd.

And if that’s not what was intended, at least her poker hand was bigger and this round goes to the house. Luck? or Strategy?

nice play on psychology dear.

September 13th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

@ panama texas guru — Courtney is a DUDE ! Dumb jack-leg, LOL
You should read a little more prior to commenting on psychological mindsets.

September 17th, 2009 at 10:18 am

There is nothing really new under the sun, we all do a little spinning in all our posts. Let us not kid ourselves!

September 20th, 2009 at 7:30 pm

Great blog. I love the debate that this topic has brought up. We all have our opinions but content is and always will be king. That’s what the internet is all about finding quality content. You have to outrank your competitors for the organic search engine traffic. If you have more optimized content on your website than your competition you will usually outrank them for your chosen keywords your going after. All other things being the same. Content is and always will be king!

September 23rd, 2009 at 9:49 am

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September 25th, 2009 at 9:54 am

Content is King that is a fact. This whole blog and the comments made on it, prove it!

September 27th, 2009 at 9:54 am

Geting traffic to your blog or website is the beauty of online biz.
To Make Money Or Sell Online All You Need Is Good Traffic.. 180 Thousand Traffic T Month Is Not That Too much…
with http://www.affiliatedecoder.blogspot.com you get the best result free reading good SEO articles from great writers. linking you to success is our atitude!

October 3rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm

Now… I have not visited for a tad…
Grist for the Mill:
Court always believed that content is king, and this blog in the original format, proved this point beyond a doubt. Court hammered all of the keywords, long and short — dominating Google as intended. So what happened? He suddenly deleted many of his bests articles and posts and radically restructured his (this) blog in order to force promote “The Keyword Academy.” Here, lack of “fresh” content and redirection… Add it all up and think about it; do I need to s-p-e-l-l it out? Google has not penalized Court. Court penalized himself. Is “snipping” bad? No. Now it is called “Keyword Targeting,” and it has become a for profit offering featured on the new blog.

October 9th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Content will always be king.. but then again.. you have to drive traffic to your site to make it valuable. Without it, your content is totally useless even if it’s considered as super content.

October 18th, 2009 at 7:42 pm

I never read your post “content is not king” because it is the first time I am on here. However, I must say from my experience that “original quality Content” is the king. I noticed that when I compare some of my blogs that the same content is spread out on the web I don’t get as good result as when I have original quality content on my site alone.

October 31st, 2009 at 11:40 am

Content is king and marketing is queen. Or maybe its traffic.

November 4th, 2009 at 9:45 am

Original content - continuously provided- establishes long term credibility in your niche, generates return traffic and ultimately improves income.

It just isn’t quick or easy.

Thanks!
MAS

November 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am

I realize I am a little late to the discussion here and my comment will probably not be read since it is so far down the page. I do agree (to a certain degree) that content is important.

But, if content really were king over all else, then why would sites like Amazon, NexTag, Wally World, and other “dynamically created” page sites rank so highly (at the top 5) in the majority of the terms they go for in Google? They are not creating content of the millions of pages each one has- just short descriptions and blurbs.

My position is that content is king for BOUNCE rate, which Google values highly as a metric to decide if a page/site is “worthy” of their ranking and what value it offers to the reader. The lower your bounce rate, the better Google views your site as being relevant to its users.

Just my .0002 cents (adjusted for recession)

Bill G.

November 10th, 2009 at 9:25 am

I have always believed that content is king and with my blog i am working on with this thought process only. However, your point has made me to rethink as you have defended your point really well.

November 11th, 2009 at 8:48 am

Content Is King - thats some old news

November 18th, 2009 at 8:18 am

Well, I am new to internet marketing, advertising and all this money making stuff. I am still in the process of learning many things, but I can say for sure that the content has huge value. You can have dozens of thousands of backlinks for a keyword phrase, and a hight PR, and that can beat the hell out the competition that has only a few hundreds or thousands, but if you don’t make that position numero uno in Google SERP justified with good, informative, not even great, it is sufficient that is delivers what the people want to see for that keyword phrase, you just wasted your time and/or money…

That is why I make my own content for my ebooks blog, it maybe is slower than some other methods, but I prefer making it for the long term, not just some immediate success.

November 28th, 2009 at 4:39 am

Great post, thank you

December 9th, 2009 at 12:07 am

There is so much mediocre content out there, to put it mildly. Links and content speak volumes. The old tried and true content based SEO will prevail for years to come. After all, what do we go on the internet for? To read! Videos are going viral but good conent still rules. Thanks for the great post and explanation.

December 23rd, 2009 at 10:41 pm

“Content is king.”

It sounds good in principle. Produce a truly great piece of content, and you’ll get all the links you could ever hope for.
Maybe it worked too, several years ago. The Web used to be a fairly quiet place compared to what it is now, and it was easier for people to notice great blog posts.
But not anymore.
Now great is no longer good enough. The Web is full of so much remarkable content that bloggers don’t have enough time to read it all, much less link to it.
If you want links now, you need to be more than great. You need to be connected.

http://arthur-internetmarketing-guide.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-content-really-king.html#more

December 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

I think people really should be making sites that have good, quality information. It is very frustrating to see a site up at the top and realize their content appears to be thrown together.

December 29th, 2009 at 9:01 am

This is a great site. Always good information to learn.
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December 29th, 2009 at 9:02 am

This is a great site. Always good information to learn.
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January 15th, 2010 at 10:19 am

Great Article i will book mark this site and come back again
thanks kevin

January 16th, 2010 at 3:45 pm

Original informative content is always good! Thanks again.
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January 16th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

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January 28th, 2010 at 9:43 am

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January 29th, 2010 at 10:04 pm

[…] there is a point to this. Yesterday a fellow left a new comment on an old post on Court’s Internet Marketing blog. His name is Jim Green and he left the following comment; What difference does it make? […]

January 31st, 2010 at 6:45 pm

I am of the content is king camp and am trying to get the spiders to crawl all over my site by backlinking to quality sites then go back and add a little content. I hope I amm not spinning a useless web but I hear they {Google} indexes about every two months. Anyway good reading you position. Cris

February 3rd, 2010 at 5:11 pm

Mhh…content may be king, bue backlinks to that content could be the queen, maybe?

February 4th, 2010 at 6:27 pm

Today, been reading the blog here. I have been working on content, but what I need to know is more about how to get the elusive back links everyone is talking about. I am putting together my sites to hopefully earn some affiliate funds, as well as exposure. I am also working on a site , that promotes hydrogen fuel for your car. There is lots of good content there but its taking time to get it where I want to go with it. its waterworks4fuel.com name tells the story pretty well. We decided on the name one night while brainstorming what to call it. as it turned out we discovered the name by running it through a domain search registrar. I have found that content alone doesn’t amount to much, but posting on a blog or forum can work wonders in getting meaningfull traffic. Name dropping does help.
signed: JT

February 4th, 2010 at 9:45 pm

Yeah, if you have good content, the rest is pretty simple, really =D

February 8th, 2010 at 7:05 pm

I think content matters and then some light SEO. One thing I am going to look into is paid ads - MySpace, Google AdWords etc. all seem to offer a lot of free money ($175, $75) in terms of credits for first time users.

At least enough to experiment with.

-Walter

February 9th, 2010 at 7:10 am

Trust above all else can be gained with excellent content. The content can actually separate you from your competitors. It’s up to your and your content to determine which direction the people will go. Great post.