By Alvaro Bellido
1. Fresh content is a key ranking factor
We have heard many times how important updating your website with regular content is. However, your website structure should not be changed regularly because it would confuse your users, that’s the reason why blogs are the perfect tool for publishing regular content.
I have always wondered if the publishing frequency was actually an important factor, so I decided to test it myself. During a period of 2 months, I increased my publishing frequency from 1 to 3 articles a week in my blog. The result was a 1,000% increase in traffic coming from Google. A similar experiment carried out later by a fellow blogger under similar conditions confirmed that this is a key ranking factor and that blogging frequently is a great way to increase traffic to your blog.
2. Google loves good quality content
It is known that Google likes websites with lots of good quality content, but why?
Google’s main asset is its users who are looking for information on the search engine. It is in Google’s interest to help these users find answers to their questions. Google will then increase the rankings of those websites providing good quality content.
After the Google Panda algorithm update, it is not about creating hundreds of pages with a few lines. Google now monitors very closely the quantity of the content within each page, penalising those which create very little copy per page. It is a concept they have called “thin content”. The length of your copy will also affect your rankings.
3. Your customers love content
Google likes good quality content, but there are thousands of potential customers looking for this content ready to subscribe to your newsletter or your feed if your content is good. This is the perfect way to create a link with them so they will buy from you when they are ready, because there is a trust built through your content. You are an expert in your field.
One of my favourite examples of this is the SEO company Moz. Apart from their regular blog articles, they started a weekly video article called Whiteboard Fridays presented by their former CEO. Receiving SEO classes from the CEO of a SEO company like Moz is priceless and many SEOs follow this series every week (including myself!). They must think good quality content is important if they get their CEO to make a weekly video!
Investing in regular good quality content pays off. It will boost your authority in your field, engage with existing clients and help you find new ones.
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Alvaro Bellido is a digital marketing professional passionate about SEO, Blogging and Social Media. Based in London, I help travel clients and non-for-profits to make the best out of their marketing budgets. Find out more about me on: digitalmindlondon.com
Image courtesy: freedigitalphotos.net / Stuart Miles
Thanks for this informative and interesting piece. Short, sweet and most importantly, very precise.