site_design_tips

1. The Importance of Content Explained a) Why is Content Important to a Search Engine? b) What Are Your Options for Content? c) How Much Content Do You Need? 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. SEQ: 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? I have listed 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. Click here for an example of RSS Feeds. 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. All you need to do is install a simple script and you are good to go. Click here for examples. 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. The top 10 tool we have developed allows you to enter any search term and get the average number of pages used in a top 10 site. You can then use this as a benchmark for your own site and decide how many of the content options above you will need to perform. Source: StartRanking.com