Promise Media

Online content development often becomes focused on what drives the most clicks to an article, but too much of a focus on clicks becomes pandering.

Pandering undermines the credibility of a Web site. Visitors start to lose confidence in the quality of the site as a result.

Traditional media newsrooms at newspapers and TV stations debate every day what stories should appear on page one or at the top of the news program.

A common strategy has developed for many of them that combines interesting stories with important ones.

In other words, the important stories weren’t necessarily interesting, but they served a good purpose. The readers of these stories are fewer in number, but they are intelligent, well-informed and influencial.

Content Mix

his leads to the concept of mix, which is especially useful for any Web site. A political Web site may find it is best for a long-term strategy to mix interesting with important articles.

The interesting articles draw the clicks, the important ones server a higher purpose.

That mix broadens the appeal of the site to a wider audience, which in the long run may drive a larger number of visitors who visit more frequently and consume more pages.

The end result is a home page that appeals to multiple people, backgrounds and interests.

Defining Importance

t’s easy in the online world to determine what stories are interesting. They are the ones that get the clicks. It isn’t so easy to define the ones that are important.

Trust and authority are important site qualities for search engines. Imagine writing a 1,000-word article that cites sources and contains high-quality, original content.

Then imagine it ranks 30th in Google.

But maybe it ranks 30th because of competition. That doesn’t mean that Google thinks badly of it. The article can still develop trust and authority, and the links within the article to other pages on the site will carry that authority with them.

Putting the Two Together

ne story may be highly interesting and drive the maximum number of clicks. A second story may not be as interesting, but if nothing else it signals to the visitor that this site is more than about one topic and that it is not simply trying to become another lightweight media outlet that cares only about ratings (or clicks in this case).

Traditional media still has valuable lessons to teach online media. Develop a content strategy that has a mix of topics, some of which are interesting while others are useful and important. Maintain the broadest possible appeal. Don’t pander for the sake of clicks.