Outsource Goals 1st, Tasks 2nd

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In May 2011, Google’s Amit Singhal published an excellent article that outlined what today’s webmaster must do to achieve and maintain a high quality website or blog. In this article, Amit cleverly pointed to the “why something is valuable” rather than to the “what makes something valuable.” In doing so, he demonstrated changes in two important things.

Ranks and Emphasis

First, he demonstrated changes in the way Google currently ranks domains. As we’re all well aware by now, Google’s new search algorithm significantly modified which websites show above all others. Low quality websites were either dropped completely or ranked really, really low.

Second, he demonstrated changes outsourcers must make in their current internet marketing strategy. Outsourcing marketers previously hired service providers with the intention of achieving specific tasks: X articles, X software downloads, X backlinks, and so on and so forth.

Today, at least according to Amit’s article, outsourcers must now place emphasis on specific goals with less emphasis on how those goals are accomplished.

Read Between Amit’s Words

Take another look at Amit’s article and you’ll see that the end result – not how the result was achieved – is stressed first. Examples:

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Instead of simply shoving 1,000 articles up Google’s index, for example, it’s now suggested that you focus on establishing trust and expert knowledge. Instead of rushing to be the first listed, first noticed, and first clicked, it’s now suggested that you focus on making your visitors comfortable with giving you their credit card information. Read between Amit’s words and you’ll easily discover what your outsourcing campaign must zero in on:

• Trust (Would you trust the information presented …?)
• Expert information (Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast…?)
• Originality (Does the article provide original content…?)
• Comfort (Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information ?)
• Genuine interest (Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers …? )
• Quality control (How much quality control is done …? )
• Objectivity (Does the article describe both sides …?)
• Authority (Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?)
• Professionalism (Was the article edited well…?)
• Recognition (Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source …? )
• Completeness (Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description …? )
• Discovery (Does this article contain insightful analysis …? )
• Sharing potential (Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, …?)
• Expectations (Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine…?)
• Care (Are the pages produced with great care…?)

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Do any of those goals sound familiar? I actually made a mistake earlier. In the beginning of this post, I wrote Amit’s article demonstrated changes in two important things. It really demonstrated changes in three important things — with the last being a yearning for earlier online marketing strategies. Earlier, that is, prior to PageRank, Followers, Fans, Likes, paid traffic, and yes… even Adsense, internet marketers worked hard to reach the same goals (listed above) that we never should have lost sight of in the first place.

Now that we have those earlier values back in the forefront where they belong, we can readjust our plans to not only bring real value back to our own websites, but to the entire Internet as a whole.