Content Writers Around the World Target US Market

Content writing worldwide tends to focus on Western markets, and in large part, the United States. While China is becoming much more competitive in this respect, Western markets like the US, Canada, and the UK are still the most robust internet markets with the most internet users. The internet in the United States is largely unregulated, with little to no government censorship compared to China. While the winds of globalization shift quickly, right now the main target audience for content writers is still the American middle class internet user.
In order to target American internet users, it is important for content writers to possess a mastery of written English. Everyone has encountered terrible writing on the internet. Whether it is out of laziness, a lack of editing, or poor coding, some content providers churn out low quality writing all in the same of making money from clicks and SEO. The global outsourcing of content has created a race to the bottom where those willing to work for the lowest wages sometimes do not have the skills required to create quality content.
As a brief personal example, I have taken several years of high school and college level Spanish. I received high marks, and my understanding of spoken and written Spanish is adequate, but hardly fluent. I can write at a basic level, but by no means can I write at an advanced or academic level. Even if my Spanish writing is grammatically correct, it is awkward, and unnatural. Someone fluent in Spanish could surely tell that I did not grow up speaking the language. The same is true with English. It is easy to learn enough to understand basic conversation, but it is much harder to write at an advanced level. Without further education, I could not produce acceptable content writing in Spanish as my second language.
With this in mind, it is quite important to maintain high quality standard for content writing and particularly to avoid content that resembles Spam. In response to the proliferation of so-called “content farm” sites, which provide often low quality articles based on SEO keywords, Google has responded with an algorithm change to lower the rank of these sites. Google Panda was released in February 2011, and is designed to lower the ranking of “content farm” type sites, and also to combat the spread of sites that were designed solely to divert SEO traffic in order to make money from Google Adsense. The programmers at Google recognized that these sites were taking advantage of the incentive structure the current search algorithm and providing ‘junk’ content that was often misspelled, illogical, or just plain gibberish.
This was a smart move by Google, as it promotes quality writing and helpful content for the consumer. Many content farm sites previous to Google Panda were confusing, unhelpful, or misleading. Some blatantly spread Spam, Adware or Malware, and other unwanted advertising (Acai berries, anyone?). None of this helped the consumer find what they actually wanted. In fact, it was designed mostly to take advantage of the search engines, practically disregarding the needs of the consumer. Web developers may view outsourcing for content writing as less productive, or as far less of a overall savings. Google Panda seems like a smart move, as long as it provides better content for the consumer and prevents unscrupulous marketers (of which there are many) from purposefully gaming the SEO system. Their action promotes a healthier and more honest marketplace for the consumer. Now, maybe Google can get to work on eliminating some of those “One Weird Trick” sidebar ads I seem to encounter on each and every website I visit!