Take Advantage of Knol
Google’s new service, Knol, is their version of Wikipedia – a repository of knowledge that people can create and add to. But that’s not all it is.
You can create a page, which is a standalone article, on any topic. Others can contribute to your page if you allow them to. Or not. Others can also comment on and rate your page.
How to Use Knol
Knol is totally simple to use. Click on the “Write a Knol” button, give your page a title (which of course contains relevant keywords), a subtitle if you wish (containing more keywords), and a summary; then place your content in the body section. You can add links and relevant images. Click “Publish” and you’re finished. You have several options you can choose, such as enabling Google Adsense, controlling the authors to your page, and inviting others to review your page.
More focus is placed on the author than in Wikipedia. You can complete a bio (there is a simple verification process via a PIN code through your cell phone, if you want to utilize it). Another difference between Knol and Wikipedia is that whereas Wikipedia is strictly factual, the author of a Knol page can express an opinion or point of view.
Another Squidoo?
Some are comparing Knol to Squidoo, but I don’t think that’s a valid comparison. Squidoo lenses tend to be light-hearted, with lots of pictures, polls, guestbooks and other fun modules. Where else can you write a page totally dedicated to your Blackberry Pearl cell phone? Knol pages tend to be more educational and formal.
SEO Benefits
Where this will go is anybody’s guess. Knol may be a huge success, or it may disappear in time. Nevertheless, as an SEO strategist, I recommend taking advantage of Knol. It’s one more way of getting info about your company or service and links to your site into the webosphere. You can add pages using relevant keywords as time permits, eventually building up a nice portfolio of articles.
Google promises Knol pages will be indexed and will appear in search results. So of course you want grab your business name. If you’re selling real estate, now is the time to snag your target city. If you’re selling a product, snap it up! If you’re late, you’ll lose – don’t let that happen.
Interesting – You are the first to inform me of this so well done!
I wonder if this will really take off – There seems an endless supply of these types of platforms – to me it looks almost like a wordpress blog or perhaps I’m missing something?
@JBO – it’s not a blog, the pages are meant to be more informative a la Wikipedia. It may take off just because it’s backed by Google. It’s worth getting some articles in there, just in case.
True – I guess *most* Google backed projects have been pretty successful so I guess it’s worth a shot.
Thanks
Is there any sort of a rating system inside Knol? I mean it sounds like a great way to share knowledge and build credibility but how do you ensure your page isn’t buried with in the confines of the others masses of information?
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@Seo Diva ~ Knol puts nofollow tags on all outbound links, but Squidoo allows for some author link love. However, knol could generate some decent traffic to your website or blog. Google’s new site could also be a 1st point of contact for service industries.
@Ryan – so far, I’m not seeing any “link condoms” on content links.
I signed up so I will try something later when time permits. You never know how these things work or where people may find you. Thanks for brining it to our attention.
Eric- New Orleans Cos last blog post..Louuisiana State Bond Money- Works for Condos too!
This sounds like the wiki site: AboutUs.org. I’ve used AboutUs to a limited extent so far, and the SEO benefits have been very good. Any thoughts on using one over the other?…or both? Thanks!
@Eric – good thinking…get your business name while you can. You can always go back later and add articles.
@John – that’s good to know about AboutUs.org. Thanks for the tip. I would use both!
I’ve read elsewhere that knol entries are actually beating pages with higher PR in the SERPS in early testing.
However, I didn’t know knol was practicing nofollow. I’m sure with Google backing it, this will eventually unseat Wikipedia.
Just started to use Knol and uploaded a few articles. Need to see its effect in the future.
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I think that the main benefit is the opportunity to earn from Adsense. I think that you can get more traffic on your Knol page than on your blog.
Looks great, but I think, It’s too late…
Looks great but there is much competition nowadays and competitors like aboutus and wiki are too strong but wish the good luck to Google
“knol” looks great.
@Dor – I’m still waiting to see if the info I put on Knol shows up in the SERPs. It’s certainly worth a try though, especially since it’s a Google product.
REally nice thing from google to combat danger of wiki and squidoo.
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Thanks for providing info about Knol. I visited the website & it could be a nice online page where you can post info about your company or services. After all sub domain KNOL is comes from GOOGLE. So as far as SEO is concerned (off page optimization) it will definitely help.
Ayush
interesting way to promote your business. it cannot hurt that is for sure! 5 mins of your time to stake a claim.
great tool, you just introduce me to!
please check out our Knol write up
here
http://knol.google.com/k/morun2-express/nagas-hopeful-of-reconciliation-goal/245c9pll8cn6n/1#
I created a couple of knols, but they both got deleted. They was nothing wrong with them, maybe my quality of writing is just not good enough.
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I don’t understand how can this be useful if it’s nofollow, I mean, of course direct referer links, but anything else? Thanks!
Thanks for the helpful post, I have came across Knol before but didn’t give it a deeper look.
But i have something to say (also replying to Dwiki), Those type of articles we should put up in Knol are very hard to write, they need a special writing style, they are more like an academic articles that is wrote by Ph.D Professors in University and Authority websites like .edu domains..etc for researches, They need to meet a very high standarads to be accepted, adding references and so on.
I guess if anyone don’t have the writing skills or the time to do a comprehensive research first before writing those type of articles and still want to take advantage of knol, you need to outsource it to some professional writer, simply you can goto getafreelancer.com, open a project and hire a copywriter and tell him/her of your needs first before they start writing for you. it will cost you money but i guess it’s very well worth it. they also need not to be less than 5000 words per article, But imagine the PR and traffic you will get from a link back to your website from within those articles. you also need to have a high quality website to meet the same standards of the written articles that you will post into knol. so your visitors won’t get shocked of disappointment by the quality difference and go away as soon as they arrive lol
like Seo Diva said earlier, they are more formal and the style of normal articles we all write for our blogs and websites won’t meet their needs. and will be easily rejected before they even appear in the knol website.
Btw, Seo Diva, i like your blog alot, full of high quality infromation and very nice and unique theme design.
Keep up the good work
Good Luck
Kind Regards
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I know this is an older post – but I am new to your site….has anyone had any PR success using Knol as a SEO tool?
@All – thank you for your comments, I appreciate them but fell behind on my responses.
@Anything Tips – thank you for your great advice and thoughtful comments!
@Lafayette Lawyer – over time, I haven’t found Knol to be helpful.
Thanks for the response.
How old is Knol? I started to hear about Knol about recently.
I’ll probably might start using it but if it’s still new then I’ll let google work out all the bugs and whatnot…
I think it has been around for a while now – but I don’t know the exact date.
Are the links no followed? Good for traffic then but poor for link juice?
I’ve written stuff for Know a few times and found it to be of very little value for both traffic and SEO. There was a lot of hype surrounding it when it first appeared – maybe because it has the Google name on it. After this much time since its launch, I expected it to be a lot more popular than it appears to be now.
Knol seems to combat the problems that Wikipedia has, in that it stops anyone posting nonsense. The only way I can see it helping you get more website hits is by making you seem an authority on your given subject.