I am a newbie in the SEO world so please be gentle. I have a website that is database driven and has 300k pages that have been indexed. Foolishly I figured if I build it they will come. I am only seeing 800 visitors a day with 1500-2000 page views, so obviously this hasn't happened and consequentially now I am dipping my toes in the SEO pool. Focusing SEO attempts on all 300k pages is going to be impossible, so I was thinking of other options. Since the pages are all very similar I was wondering if I should remove all the pages from sitemap and build a static type page for each of the main areas and work on SEO for these pages (150) and let that page drive user to page they are really looking for. Is there a better option I should be going with?
To make it simple, you need to login to your Google Webmaster Account and click on the search queries. Now in this list check out the keywords that are ranked in positions of 5-20 in SERP. All you need is to do some optimization of the posts/pages that are ranked for the keywords you selected. Hopefully it will help you.
You need to be using a blog, they're way better for SEO. Focus on using social media to drive traffic to your site..it's easy and it's free. Good luck!
It does depend on your overall site layout but you do have a few options. I'd check out what search queries you're ranking high for and improve those and work your way down the list. Improving the ones that are already good is going to be easier than improving the ones you're ranking badly for. And you're right; unfortunately many people come online with the mindset of "build it and they will come", unfortunately this isn't true in the internet world as there's no such thing as foot traffic. Organic SEO is your best and most fruitful option for traffic - make sure you have a good backlink strategy backing up your content. I'd also recommend what ninjamtlt1 has said; Social Media is a killer! If you've got that much valuable content and a pretty strong visitor base, surely you could create a nice little social media network and increase repeat visitors and a brand presence. Obviously some of this stuff relies on your website being brandable and marketable - is it? or is just a simple MFA? A strong brand that becomes authoritative is the holy grail but requires a lot of hard work and planning well in advance. In summary; if your website seems well crafted with your on-site SEO, focus on offsite; Social Media, Link building etc etc
u concentrated more on seo then ur site i think so. my site had indexed 1000+ pages but i am getting 50000 unique visitors per day.
@mrchuck, Your issue is likely 'duplicate content' as it's called by Google. Validate your site with Google Webmaster Tools and look into their suggestions - if they've indexed them, they will be able to tell you what the issue is (if one is present). My guess is you'll have 290k pages or so showing as duplicate content, and what that means to Google is that you are a 'content farm.' They do not like content farms and released an update specifically to target them. My guess is that you are cannibalizing your own pages, by having them similar enough that Google will often 'select the best' and ignore the rest. Post-panda, duplicate content or having multiple similar pages (especially if they have weak content) is a big no-no. There are a lot of things you'll need to learn fix this, but the easiest way (assuming you are being hit with duplicate content issues) is to actually remove ALL pages and start indexing them again with new and diverse content. I know you put a lot of work into it, but the truth is having that quantity of pages is never helpful unless they are highly unique. You need to show Google that your content is not being farmed, but instead careful curated to deliver the best answers. Google likes unique content, and hates content farms. Hope that helps. I've worked with several companies (and 10's of millions of pages) right after the big panda hit, many of them in the same boat you are in now. Duplicate content can absolutely be the issue, but to confirm that it is your problem, you will need to check in Google Webmaster Tools. Cheers, Kris
You have to improve your website content , layout , website speed etc. There are many factor which are responsible for website traffic. Try this method, select the particular keyword from your website and check with google inside search. And do the seo on that particular keyword. This will help to improve your traffic. You don't have to do seo on 300k pages.