Recently there’s been some buzz around the SEO blogosphere about a new SEO strategy using content curation websites. If the hype is to be believed, content curation has the potential to drive site traffic and even help generate site content.
First, it’s probably important to establish just what the term “content curation” means. As anyone who has surfed the internet knows, most of the web is a vast sea of worthless, boring, spammy and misinformed junk. Finding good and fresh content can sometimes be a daunting task.
Content curation is a means of collecting the web’s useful information on a particular topic into one place. Say for instance, we were looking for great content related to former president Lyndon B. Johnson and did a Google search. Naturally, some of the sites that the search would turn up would be legitimate sources of information. However, quite a few of the hits would be akin to About.com articles.
Benefits of Content Curation
Now say that instead of searching for LBJ on Google, we found a content curated site devoted to the president. If the curator has performed his function well, this site would contain only quality sources of information on LBJ and we wouldn’t have to look around the site very long to find exactly what we were looking for.
Moreover, we can be assured that all the sources were reviewed by a human eye and not just the Google algorithm. The site curator (most likely a LBJ enthusiast) would dictate which information is the most relevant to LBJ and bring his or her expertise to bear on the subject.
Consider another example too. Perhaps, I am a wild French film enthusiast and simply can’t get enough of the Cannes Film Festival. If I found a curated site on French film I could subscribe to that curator’s RSS feed and perhaps follow him or her on Twitter.
That way, I could get constant updates on French film from a source that I know and trust. In the weeks leading up to the Cannes Film Festival, I wouldn’t have to scan the web for film reviews, director interviews and actor gossip, I could simply watch the information pass by in my Twitter feed.
And if I particularly liked one of the sites that I found through the curator, I could begin following that site’s Twitter feed as well. Over time, as I discovered more and more sites, I would be able to build a little network of film enthusiasts.
Look for more on Content Curation next week including: How Content Curation Applies to SEO.