Do you need lots of content for good seo?

[ChuckMorgan]

I recently came across this article about the merits of lots of content for good seo, and it posed an interesting flip side to the story.
What are your thoughts or experiences?
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/s...content/12810/

Thanks
Chuck Morgan
http://www.virtualwebvideo.com

[Lynn Terry]

Great article, and great topic!

Here's the answer...

Web pages do not need "constantly updated content" or "fresh content" to rank well. I have pages that I put online years ago that still rank #1 for their keyword phrase.

How often you update your web pages or your website as a whole, determines how frequently the major search engines will "spider" your website. If you update daily, they'll spider daily. If you update very little, they will spider you much less frequently.

The benefit to updating/adding to your website is to get spidered more frequently, so that when you do add new pages or make changes to existing pages - those changes/additions get picked up VERY quickly in the major search engines.

In addition, your content needs to stand on it's own two feet. Meaning if you strip out Adsense, affiliate recommendations/banners, and any other form of monetization... does your content still add value to the visitor? See:

http://www.clicknewz.com/1854/thin-affiliate-sites/

I have some evergreen sites where the content is great, the same today as it was 5 years ago when I put it online. There's no reason to update or change that. That said, I do get fresh links to those pages now and then, which helps it to maintain its top rankings.

[carlos123]

It's surprising how litte content sometimes makes it into the top ten.

I recently read a newsletter that talked of a site named TipDrop. And I checked out what they were saying about it.

I am not yet sure how they are doing it exactly but a fair number of TipDrop pages are showing up in top ten rankings on Google.

It's one of those sites like Hubbpages, EZine, and others that Google really seems to like. Such that if one creates a page at any of these sites they will tend to get ranked faster than creating it as a stand alone page under my own domain type of thing.

So definitely...it seems absolutely without a doubt clear that having a ton of content is not necessary. If TipDrop rankings are any indication.

Carlos

[Lynn Terry]

With some of those public content properties, the main site has enough authority to help the member pages. And new content tends to rank well quickly, then tank just as quickly if it doesnt get any votes or links.

[Lynn Terry]

There's no problem with having content out there on other domains & properties, strategically linking back to your own. But you do it as it makes sense for your business model, for your market, and your objectives. You don't have to go crazy with it - or believe every red headline you read.

Content is great, and inbound links are gold - but some of the suggestions out there are really overkill. That's all.

[carlos123]

Just a couple of more thoughts on how much content to have for the search engines...

Please bear in mind that I am not one to speak per se as I have never yet had a site of mine appear in the top 10 spots at Google or even on the first page of search results but I have done a lot of reading and discussing of these issues with others and here are some observations I have gleamed to date.

But bear in mind also that I have never really even bothered to focus all my efforts on getting a top ten ranking either LOL.

These days I really don't focus too much on getting search engine traffic. I mean as in making it the end all and be all of marketing myself or my services over the Internet.

I have found that the best approach for me is to initiate to put ads in strategic places around the Internet, to post meaningful comments on blogs with a link to my web site when it is allowed, to post in forums when a signature is allowed (like this one allows), to write an article or two here and there, or even for my market to make telemarketing calls to local business owners to introduce myself and my business to them.

In other words I don't wait on no search engine LOL.

Notice that none of that involves attempts to look great to search engines.

While such an emphasis is wortwhile it is not as entirely necessary as one might think. We CAN survive and do well without a top ten search engine ranking LOL. Honest.

If you think about it there is only so much room in the top ten spots for any search phrase so if top search engine placement is an absolute must for success in an internet business...well...most of us ain't gonna succeed LOL.

Having said that it seems to me that the best thing to do is to focus on developing great content for readers or visitors to our sites without undue concern for how things are going to appear to the search engines. In other words it's best to focus on providing great content to our ideal site visitor or reader (if we are blogging).

I've broken all kinds of "rules" about blogging yet have a little blog that is very successful in it's own right. It's mainly focused on Christian topics but still...I've had some pages of mine viewed by hundreds without me doing hardly anything to try and get traffic to my blog. Admittedly I have been helped by having it started it within the context of a site that Google likes a lot and a site where I had become somewhat well known but still...my point is that I didn't go out of my way to try and get noticed by search engines. Not at all.

I just don't concern myself with search engine optimization techniques. I figure they will find me out and give me a good ranking if my content truly is valuable not to them but to my site visitors and readers. And sure enough that's the way it seems to happen.

While people go here and there to and fro all over the place trying to figure out how to get good and noticed by the search engines I just happily go along writing great content for those that I want as ideal site visitors and readers.

It's really not complicated I think.

Just my additional two cents worth on this...again take it with a grain of salt since...well...I don't focus much on trying to impress the search engines

Carlos

[Lynn Terry]

That's all fine and good if that's how you choose to do things for your own site, but being in the field of web dev you'll definitely need to be up on the rules of basic on-page optimization for your clients.

I recommend http://www.seofaststart.com - free download by Dan Thies

SEO is super easy. And it makes me A LOT of money.

[carlos123]

That's a good point Lynn. I can certainly appreciate your experience and the knowledge you have gained from it.

In general...I still say that SEO stuff is way overhyped as the end all and be all of Internet based success.

Of course there are a lot of things that can be done to enhance search engine rankings for web sites but if a web site owner doesn't have great content...that other stuff is not going to cut it with respect to giving them great placement at least not for the long haul. On the other hand if they have great content and people start knowing they do...they will end up having a great ranking in time even if they don't follow all the latest SEO techniques.

That's just my opinion mind you but it seems to be backed up by various SEO related guru's.

Below is a link to one of the better SEO related articles I've ever read (I probably need to read it again ). It's nuts and bolts without any of the usual hype about SEO.

Here's a quote...

As Google says on its philosophy page, "Focus on the user and all else will follow." Google wants webmasters to feel the same way -- that if you build the best site possible, your good rankings will follow. This isn't the answer that most webmasters want to hear.

The rest of the article can be found at http://websitehelpers.com/seo/

The article is really a series of articles on SEO. They are well worth reading.

Again just my two cents worth. Take it for what it's worth.

Carlos

[carlos123]

I recommend http://www.seofaststart.com - free download by Dan Thies.

SEO is super easy. And it makes me A LOT of money.

That's a winner Lynn! I've read his stuff before. Great stuff.

Maybe we're saying the same thing in a different way. Maybe I just need to do some re-reading of things like you and I have both read apparently or maybe I just need to pay more attention .

All I know is that the things I am working on such as putting together a possible joint venture to propose to internet marketers is going to bring a lot of traffic my way without any attempt on my part to cater to the search engines. I am focused on getting traffic in non-search engine ways and that's a focus I want to continue to have while building great content.

And that's a focus by the way that I recommend to my clients. Try and find ways to get traffic without relying on search engines while continuing to develop useful and great content which will eventually get you good organic search engine results too.

Carlos

[carlos123]

Here are a couple of notable quotes I found in the article I linked to...

Do NOT think about the specific nuts and bolts of how a search engine will rank your pages. Instead, build good, quality pages for your visitors, and trust that the rankings will follow.

You get good rankings by building a quality site, not by trying to figure out exactly how the search engines rank pages. It's counter-intuitive, but you get good rankings by ignoring rankings and focusing on quality.

One more...

People seek out my advice about search rankings because they know my sites rank well for a whole host of search phrases. And I promise you I didn't do anything special beyond what's listed above. I certainly didn't worry about keyword density, META tags, submitting my site to the engines, reciprocal link requests, or any other nonsense. I simply tried to build quality sites. In fact, early on I didn't even consider my search rankings. I just built good sites and then noticed that they ranked well. Really well.

Good stuff.

Carlos