Hi everyone, I know Google likes websites that have lots of new content on them, but I wanted to know if instead of adding new content/pages to my website, I could just update the existing content. The thing is, I don't want endless pages of contrived content just for the sake of keeping Google happy. What do you think?
Nopes.. that's not recommended unless your website has dynamic content. For CMS or static pages, create new content.
SEO should be included in the web development process? As long as your target keywords are used and placed naturally throughout web page content, you have optimized meta data for each page, and your home page is everything it needs to be... you should be fine. Assuming you do need work, I'd definitely update what's there but why are you opposed to adding new content? You don't need to maintain a dynamic website with new blogs every day/week, but you don't want your website to go stale either. If you want visitors to come back to your website, they'll need something new to come back to. Then again, it's really hard to advise with limited information. If you care to share more, I can give a more in depth opinion on the matter.
It really depends on the nature of your website. If its a blog then yes you can add new pages, if its a small business website then a content update would be better option. Think about your users first before you think about Google.
With the fresh Penguin update, Google has come up with an algo that will give users a fresh content experience. So it is a good idea to add new content. However, Google takes time to crawl new posts. But with the way new algo is behaving, searches that are as old as 2004 are coming up in the first page of Google! So much for the fresh content user experience. lol. In my opinion, just leave your previous posts - they aren't harming you. Go for new content.
I would't recommend that. Adding original and CS passed content is the key factor in higher google rankings.
Hi, thanks for your answers. Basically, my website is promoting and selling a book. So it is an ecommerce site. I just don't really want it getting cluttered up with endless articles as this would take the focus off the book I am trying to sell. How about if I had a news section? I could have that on one page and update it once a week.
Knowing details like that make all the difference! I think you have the right idea with adding a news section to publish press releases, events (book signings), maybe another section for testimonials and book reviews. You can still have the dynamic content effect, but the focus is on promoting your book so don't take away from that!
Thanks for your advice, that's really helpful. I'll add the news section on, and putting on extra book reviews on is a good idea.
No prob, Bob Book reviews are important too... especially off site. If you're falling short there, some people offer book review services (I know I'm considering it) but if you take that route, please choose somebody honest and ethical who won't just say good stuff just because they were paid. In fact, the best reviews can be negative or even mixed... as long as they are real! However, that's going off topic. On your website, I'd stick with promoting the testimonials and positive reviews/feedback. What's your book about? There's some pages you might want to add (for fresh content) such as inspiration, maybe another recommended reading list (good opportunity for white hat link swapping).
It's about relationship advice - as you would expect for this type of book, most of the readers are female.