The Importance of Content Explained

Why is Content Important to a Search Engine?

Search engines want to deliver the best results possible to their users. They want to give them the leading sites for a particular search term, that is their ultimate goal. If a search engine delivers the best possible results it goes a long way to gaining customer loyalty. This can be seen by the quick rise to fame of Google. I think we all agree for the most part that Google delivers excellent results and enjoys a huge fan base.

What factors determine quality content? 

Search engines keep track of everything, they probably know more about your site than you do. They know how long a visitor stays on your page or site, where they click to, how often your site gets bookmarked, how much new or updated content you have etc etc...you get the idea.  

Logic says that any good web site should be updated with good content or resources, why else bookmark or return to a site that never changes? 

What Are Your Options for Content? 

There are a few different types of content you could potentially use on your site to improve your ranking results. 

Writing Your Own Content 

This is always important as unique content - content only your site offers - is scored very highly. A visitor to a site containing content they have never seen before tends to stay longer than a visitor who has seen the same content on x number of other sites. This visitor is also more likely to bookmark your site and return in future. These are all important factors when a search engine is trying to determine the value of a sites content.    

RSS Feeds 

RSS Feeds are a very nice way of streaming valuable content to your site automatically. You can offer several types of content like news or sports headlines for example. This content again gives value to the user which can result in increased time spent on your site. It also helps your site remain updated with new content if implemented correctly. 

Forum Boards for Discussions 

Forum boards are a great way to keep visitors returning to your site if you are able to build a little "community". This will result in an ongoing source of unique and constantly updated content. When installing a forum board don't forget to use a search engine friendly version. This basically means a version that will allow the spider (info retriever) to easily navigate through the pages, without having long complicated query strings. Feel free to email us should you need any recommendations.

Visitor Polls 

Polls are a good way to keep content updated and visitors returning. Usually all that is needed is to  install a simple script on your website and you are good to go.  

Visitor Reviews 

As per a site like Amazon you may choose to let your visitors submit reviews of products or services. Again, this will create fresh new content and increase visitor time.  

How Much Content Do You Need?

This is an important question only if you want to rank in the top 10 for your search term.  

There are quite a few tools available that allows you to enter any search term and get the average number of pages used in a top 10 site. You can then use these as a benchmark for your own site and decide how many of the content options above you will need/want to perform.

The Importance of Links Explained

Search engines view links as votes for your site but also understand that not all links have equal value. A link from a top ranked web site for example would carry more weight than a link from a site ranked 1 million. The process of determining the quality of links is a very complex one. Here are a few things a search engine may look at: 

The relevancy of the site linking to your site 

Logic says that if you have an excellent site about bicycles, other sites within the bicycle industry would link to you. This is the exact reason you should never be afraid to ask for a link from a competitor. If the competitor is any good they will know the importance of links, if not, you can explain it to them.

Always remember that you want to get as many links from within your industry as possible in order to establish a solid foundation. You can furthermore not really be penalized for incoming links. Links from other industries will simply carry less weight or in the worst case have a weight of zero.

The PR (Page Rank) value of the page linking to your site

The PR score of a page linking to you IS important, the higher the better. This however does not carry as much weight by itself as it once did. Simply download the Google Toolbar to view the PR of any site. This provides a good yardstick for the sites value. You must however also keep the items below in mind and not only base the power of a link on its PR value.   

The frequency at which links are added/edited/deleted on the page linking to your site

A search engine may monitor how a site uses its linking power. What this means is they will keep track of how many new links are added, the frequency at which they are added and how often they are deleted or replaced. They do this in order to get a better idea of a sites link stability. This helps determine if a site is actually a "good site" or one that is merely selling links. Sites that sell links will logically be more active in the add/edit/delete categories.

Search engines give more value to old links that have "aged" than to new fresh ones. Links that you have had to your site for 2 years would logically be more valuable than ones you have had for 1 week. This is why new links are put in a "sandbox" and not fully counted for 6-9 months. Keep this in mind if you ever wish to purchase links, you will need to commit to at least 1 year. 

The IP address of the site linking to your site 

Location of a link is important. A site that is linked to "naturally" will have links from all over the net. They will not only have links from sites on the same "address" as them. That does not seem natural. How can a site only have links from one place and expect to be truly popular? To win an "election" you need links or votes from all over.

Another reason the IP address is important is due to the fact that webmasters would build huge networks of interlinked sites.

Use the C-Class checker tool to find out the exact location of anyone you wish to trade links with. This of course does not mean turn down links from similar locations, just try keep it all natural.

The ownership details of the site linking to your site

Again in order to combat link networks search engines may look at the "whois" info of a site. This way they can determine if several different people are linking to a site, or if it's all the same person. Should you wish to view the "whois" info for any site simply visit www.whois.sc  

Should a top ranking site develop "organically" logic tells us it would have many links from several different sites each with different owners.  

Where to Purchase Links

Remember when purchasing to links to do so from relevant sites - sites in a similar industry to your own.  

Below are two excellent sites you should visit:  

www.linkadage.com

www.text-link-ads.com

Where to Purchase Traffic

Purchasing traffic has several advantages if done correctly. Always remember to track the campaign performance in order to monitor the Return On Investment.

Below are three excellent sites you should visit:

www.adwords.google.com            Google Adwords

www.overture.com                       Yahoo Listings

www.msn.com                            Microsoft Listings

www.metricsdirect.com               Metrics Direct

Why Are Web Directories So Important

Getting other web sites to link to yours is the single most important thing you can do to improve your search engine rankings. The goal is always to get as many quality links as possible. The quickest way to do this initially is to purchase them.

Listing your site in a web directory has several advantages:

1. The listing is Permanent in most cases so you don't have to worry about your link partners removing your links from their sites.
2. You get to select your title and description
3. You receive Google PR
4. Any extra traffic you can get to your site is always good