Do Content Sites Really Rank Better?

You’ll hear this advice all the time – add content to your website to improve your rankings. It’s about as common as being told to build your backlinks. But does content really help you in the rankings?

It’s not a question that is easily answered. The quick answer is yes, but the details depend on how you interpret improved rankings. Certainly, more content gives the search engines more ways to find you. But it may not help you with the keywords you are expecting to get results for. This is generally a good thing, as people will search for phrases you’d never have thought up on your own.

However, if you mean will it improve your rankings for a particular search, it can be much more difficult to say. More content about a given keyword phrase improves your on-page factors, but on-page is not the only thing that search engines look at.

It also depends on how you define content. Are you just using one of the many tools out there to snatch a few sentences from other websites and calling that content? Yes, such pages have been known to rank well for a time, but search engines also tend to find ways to filter them.

Content is not just articles. Sales text describing your product is content. Pricing information is content. Anything you put on your website can be considered content.

One important thing to remember about content is that you do not want to duplicate the same content throughout your website. Search engines work hard at limiting the amount of duplicate content out there, so duplicates may be filtered out over time, even if they rank well for a time.

Let’s search for baby clothes online. The first three sites on Google are online stores as of this writing. Not what most people mean by content sites, but likely what someone typing in “baby clothes” is looking for.

Now, this is not to say that content sites lose out. As stated above, people search for phrases you’d never think of. Content improves the chances that you will be found for such searches. It also gives you a chance to be seen as an expert, which can encourage people to buy from you.

What’s the bottom line? Content may not be king, but it is important. Everything a search engine can read on your website IS content. Make the most of it, but remember to target it to your visitors and not just the search engines. If your page is hard for you to read your visitors won’t like it either, no matter how much the search engines adore it. Keep your efforts balanced to maximize the potential of your online business.

Add to Your Social Bookmarks:

Comments	Date

Name:
Email:
Comments :