Adding new content to your website has a lot of SEO advantages:
- Search engines see that your site is still relevant and focused on delivering content to customers. Since a search engine is useless without something to search on, by providing more content, you are providing the chance for more results.
- More content means you will have expanded content. Once you’ve written about one aspect of a topic, you can then expand on it and write about other aspects. And after a while, if you continue to regularly add content on that topic, your site will be more and more valued as a place to find information on the topic.
- More pages of content provides more pages to be found in search. This is simple math. If I have a 10 page site and you have a 1000 page site, you have 100 times as many chances as I do to get a page view or search referral.
- New pages provide more linking opportunities. And every time you link to your older content, that sends a signal to Google and the other search engines that that content is still relevant as well.
- Regularly added content tells the search engine that your site is still maintained. And if you keep to a schedule, the search robots will figure that out and start spidering your site more often.
Create new and original content
By far the most significant first step any site can do is create new and original content. Search engines use web robots (spider/crawler) designed to search a website and grab keywords and text from the website to be listed on their search engine. If your site does not have a lot of content, your chances of being found are significantly decreased. For example, if your web page has ten pages and your competitor has 100 pages, it is a lot more likely that your competitor’s website will be found first.
Tip: Because of abuse from content farms Google and other search engines are paying closer attention to the quality of your content. Make sure all of the content is quality content and that it is going to help your visitors. Just creating content to create content does not help you or your visitors. Always be asking yourself “Is this page good enough to be in a glossy magazine or new paper article?”
Update content frequently
Update and add new content frequently. If your site contains frequently updated content, visitors have yet another reason to return and bookmark your site and search engine crawlers will visit your site more often. We recommend creating at least 2-3 pages of new content weekly or even better a new page every day. Sites that have not been updated in over a month are considered abandoned pages by most visitors.
Scripts and other tools can also post new content as it happens, hourly, or daily. For example, the Computer Hope home page has a computer related history event posted daily, monthly computer tips, daily computer word, and new forum posts and pages posted as they occur. This gives visitors another reason to visit again.
Add content even if your site only sells products
Most users do not visit a website only to purchase a product. If your site is trying to sell something it should have complete information about the products such as how to setup the product, how it can be used, reviews, and comments from other users about your products. Not only will this bring more visitors to your web page, it is also likely they will convert into visitors that buy what is being sold.
User generated content such as product reviews are also a must for any site that sells products. Most people expect at least a general review of a product and good reviews from many users can often talk the visitor into purchasing the product.
Format the content
Format your pages content in an easy to read and scan format. This can be done by creating easy to read, short, and catchy headings as shown on this page. Doing this will make your web page more enjoyable to read and help reduce your pages bounce rate. For the heading of each page, we also suggest surrounding it with the HTML tags. The heading tags help match keywords and can improve your search engine rankings.
Keep in mind that on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest of the piece. If your headline is confusing, tricky, or awkward, they won’t continue reading.
The importance of the first paragraph
The first paragraph of text is the most important paragraph on the page. Search engine’s pay close attention to the first paragraph and the first paragraph is what is going to catch the readers eyes. Placing important keywords into this paragraph and making sure it is well written can help improve your rank and will decrease your bounce rate.
Make sure each page has enough content
Individual web pages that only contain only a few dozen words do not help your page or your visitors. Make sure that at least every page has 300 words.
Add a catchy picture
People are visual creatures, adding one or more pictures that help grab the visitors eyes, build interest, and make sure they don’t leave the site immediately. When adding a picture also make sure to add an ALT tag to the image that describes the picture and has keywords that a search engine is also going to notice.
Free
Most people on the Internet expect information to be free. If your site contains free information, be sure to mention it, for example, “free computer help” is much more catchy than “computer help”. Do not abuse the word free though, visitors who follow a link with the impression it is free and find the page is not free, requires registration, or has some other scheme will immediately leave the page. Tricking a user may get them to visit a page or link but anyone who feels tricked is going to immediately leave and never return.