understanding SEO
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- ukit
Let's say you have a site with 100 pages and 1,000 links pointing at them, obviously helping your SEO. One day you add another 400 pages.
In your opinion, would that -
1) hurt your site rankings because what was once a 1,000 to 100 link flow is now 1,000 to 500.
2) hurt your site rankings because the new pages aren't linked.
3) help your site rankings because Google likes sites with lots of content.
- bored2death0
Call the CEO about the SEO. Maybe the CTO, too. ASAP.
- acescence0
wouldn't it depend on what's on the pages?
- ukit0
You mean in terms of targeting keywords and having good content? I think yea it matters but only up to a point. Take a look at sites that rank highly for competitive keywords and you'll often see that they don't necessarily have great content, they just happen to be linked by a ton of other sites.
- getting link-backs is best, since it means other sites think your pages are important. but that's often difficult.bulletfactory
- bulletfactory0
link relevance has a lot to do with it.
I would guess it would help your rankings as there is now more content along with the links. These new pages will also have links, and provide more relevancy.
- previous0
google has ruined everything
- airey0
400 more pages means more content added towards the 'usefulness' of the site so of course it will go towards improving the search value but how well would depend on how you implement your seo systems.
- bulletfactory0
I get emails on how to increase my site rankings 5 or 10 times a day, I can send you one if you like.
:)
- Etype0
it depends on how you are adding them....
- ukit0
What's funny about this stuff is that no one really knows, it's either sleazy e-marketers like bulletfactory mentioned in one corner, or you got "professionals" like airey uttering vague platitudes like "400 more pages means more content added towards the 'usefulness' of the site." ;)
- airey0
it's not rocket science. content is king so add real, new and written (not just lists or links) content and try to keep it updating and fresh. make sure the page title info is different on every page (so a page title that reflects the page content) and then look to the meta tags, although google swings in and out of using these at all so don't bank the farm on 'em.
google changes it's search algorithm regularly and it becomes more and more complex. effectively analysing content of seo techniques in relationship to the actual page and site content. so trying to be tricky might work one day but not the next.
people's focus should be on what and how they communicate from their site, which will in turn get the search results that you need. instead all the focus is on how to get a search bot ranking your site. the upshot being that you might get a million hits but no conversions to sales/clients when all you needed was 1000 hits and 10% conversion.
my 2cents. i'm probably wrong.
- airey0
the idea that you need the maximum number looking at your content to get % conversion is one that works on a passive tool like tv, where you have a captive audience. the net is totally different as anyone that looks at bounce rates can tell you. the focus seems to be on the wrong thing in my mind.
- ukit0
Yeah, I mean I hear what you're saying to a certain extent there. But I don't think it's a waste of time trying to figure out how Google works, and doesn't just apply to marketing.
Think about this, you're getting ready to launch a redesigned site with tons of new content - do you launch hundreds of new pages all at once, or roll them out gradually? There have actually been more than a few legitimate sites that have been knocked down in the rankings for this.
- previous0
like sands through the hourglass, like hamsters in a cage, like slaves in a galley
- airey0
i'm interested in seeing the info about site's losing search rankings through having more content? i've never heard of it? any links appreciated.
- ukit0
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googl…
It's definitely a real phenomenon. It's basically a result of Google trying to weed out the spam and as a result other people get caught up in the net.
- mrghost0
oh and my answer is #2.... but prob only less than 1%
it would be best to put them online a few at a time? (google is excited about user interaction {linkxx-dawwg} and nobody sane is going to sift through 400 pages of new content... right?)
- airey0
hey ukit, from cursory reading it seems like this issue wouldn't effect a site with only 1000 pages. it looks like it's a 'content cap' that, lt's be honest, would be more an issue for massive info sites.
i'd say a method around this would be to look into the sitemap priority given to different site sections / pages.
- ukit0
Yeah I'm not sure I believe the cap idea either. I think the basic idea that they are getting a lot more picky about what they index and what they don't is probably the best takeaway from that article in terms of how it could affect a small to medium sized site. So rather than cut you off at a specific number of pages (or even a dynamic cap of some kind), they might just look at whether a page is worth indexing, based from what I've seen largely on how many links it gets.
But what you seem to be saying is that Google, seeing that you have some pages that are linked (good PageRank) vs a bunch of new ones that aren't, won't penalize you for the new ones. i.e., the unlinked pages won't hurt you they can only help.
And maybe that's right but I think another possibility is that there might be more of a sitewide average being used. If you look at large sites that almost always come up in the top 10, like Amazon, Wikipedia, etc, my guess would be that they have a pretty even distribution of links to different pages in their site. So it's possible that it's a factor in terms of the overall success of your site, although I'll admit I don't have any real evidence to back it up;) I think it kinda makes sense though.
- trooperbill0
google would like your site but love it if all of the content is unique and visitor focused. more pages is just an opportunity to target more terms... if youre having problems then look at your site structure and make sure you have good internal linking.