Fresh Content

[Adammo]

Hi all,

I run my site off of a WordPress blog, and something i've heard before is to keep placing fresh useful content on my site. Does this help SEO in anyway? I was thinking about static sites as well as they do not change all that much. How do they keep themselves up in Google?

Thanks!

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

Any time you can update your site/blog, keep it current, without just writing nonsense stuff, will help with SEO. All the search engines have spiders that visit your site and look for new content.

 

[Adammo]

Thanks!

I assume this is a little more difficult when you don't run a blog type site (Wordpress)? I am guessing that those who run sites without a blog try to pick really specific niches?

Thanks again for your help, going to go write now

 

[David Jackson]

I assume this is a little more difficult when you don't run a blog type site (Wordpress)? I am guessing that those who run sites without a blog try to pick really specific niches?

It's not about specific niches or anything like that. It's about having quality content on your website that other quality sites will want to link to. It's really as simple as that. If you have enough quality sites linking to your site, your website's ranking will eventually reap the rewards of those links.

David Jackson

 

[Adammo]

It's not about specific niches or anything like that. It's about having quality content on your website that other quality sites will want to link to. It's really as simple as that. If you have enough quality sites linking to your site, your website's ranking will eventually reap the rewards of those links.

David Jackson

This certainly makes sense. Any tips for the typical newbie. I realize no one can help with quality content, but i'm not sure how to get other websites to notice your work. I found a website similar to my niche ranked high in Google, so I decided to search for his/her link. I found multiple site/forums describing what you are saying now...people linking to his/her site. Now i'm not sure if the web site owner was performing these posts, but I guess i'm just wondering how to get yourself noticed.

Hope that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[David Jackson]

Any tips for the typical newbie. I realize no one can help with quality content, but i'm not sure how to get other websites to notice your work.

Adammo, it really all comes down to the content on your website, and whether or not people trust it. I'm not being facetious when I say that, nor am I simplifying the facts.

Other websites will link to your website based on the quality and trustworthiness of your content - period. That content doesn't necessarily have to be articles. It can be anything that appeals to your target audience.

For example, other sites link to the Weather Channel's website, because they know that they can count on its weather related information. People link to the 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums, because they trust the information, etc, etc.

If you want other websites to link to your site, you have to give them a reason to trust your content. So how do you do that? Study the top ranking websites in your field, figure out what they're doing, and do it better or differently.

David Jackson

 

[Oregon Coast Guy]

Concentrate on building that quality content for your human visitors first and foremost. It's a magic snowball from that point on. The search engines take notice, the bloggers take notice and on it goes.

Your human visitor always needs to be your first priority. Give them exactly what they want, they'll come back, hungry for more and will tell their friends.

 

[Adammo]

Thanks everyone, some good points! Lots to learn, lots to learn

 

[adsquare]

People always deny it, but content IS king

 

[David Jackson]

People always deny it, but content IS king

I don't think anyone is denying that content is King. I just think most marketers are lazy, and prefer to look for the miracle solution - the magic bullet.

Let's face it, creating quality content is hard work, and most marketers don't want to put in the work.

David Jackson

 

[Work At Home]

You may consider add your wordpress blog to a static site. Like this you can add fresh content to wordpress easily and new comment in blog also count as new content.

 

[Adammo]

I was thinking about this a little more recently and am curious how people handle niches that are harder to keep fresh content going? One of my first ideas in affiliate marketing was to do a sports jersey site. The problem I found was that it would be difficult to blog about jerseys. I figure you could blog when a new jersey is unveiled, but for the most part the site would not contain much fresh content. When a niche like this comes around, do marketers typically try to find a low competition sub-niche so that they are found a little easier?

 

[djbaxter]

I was thinking about this a little more recently and am curious how people handle niches that are harder to keep fresh content going? One of my first ideas in affiliate marketing was to do a sports jersey site. The problem I found was that it would be difficult to blog about jerseys. I figure you could blog when a new jersey is unveiled, but for the most part the site would not contain much fresh content. When a niche like this comes around, do marketers typically try to find a low competition sub-niche so that they are found a little easier?

Actually, your blog is about the Team Canada hockey team and you're hoping to use that blog to let people know that you're selling jerseys.

So, what you do is you blog about hockey, especially Olympic or international hockey, and especially Team Canada hockey. Write about previous versions of Team Canada, current and possible selections for the team, recent successes by Team Canada in international play... perhaps the Junior international team as well (we had the Junior tournament here in Ottawa last winter).

It doesn't have to be all about jerseys. In fact it's probably better that it is not all about jerseys. Just make it relevant to international and Olympic hockey.

For one thing, you might want to sell other hockey related products from this blog as time goes on...

 

[David Jackson]

I was thinking about this a little more recently and am curious how people handle niches that are harder to keep fresh content going?

Adammo, this is a great question. When it comes to creating fresh content, it's all about being creative. For example, you could create trivia questions. You can get a lot of mileage out of trivia - plus it's fun for your readers.

Also, you don't necessarily have to blog about jerseys. Don't limit yourself in that fashion. You can blog about anything that's relevant to the overall theme of your blog.

Again, it's all about being creative. So put your thinking cap on.

David Jackson

 

[Adammo]

Thanks to you both, makes sense. I currently do that with my current site, but have always tried to wrap my head around what would happen if I didn't have things to talk about. For instance, let's say I wanted to sell hockey sticks. I think it would be tough to captivate an audience with a blog on hockey sticks . So I guess it would be best to create another similar hockey blog, and have sections/posts related to hockey sticks?

I'm not actually considering this, but ust trying to use an example

Write about previous versions of Team Canada, current and possible selections for the team, recent successes by Team Canada in international play... perhaps the Junior international team as well (we had the Junior tournament here in Ottawa last winter).

I had no idea you were from Ottawa. I read your location as "So Cal" (Southern California). I attended a couple of those games last winter in Ottawa. My girlfriend is from there, but came out east (where I am) for school. We travel twice a year to Ottawa...love that city!

 

[djbaxter]

I had no idea you were from Ottawa. I read your location as "So Cal" (Southern California). I attended a couple of those games last winter in Ottawa. My girlfriend is from there, but came out east (where I am) for school. We travel twice a year to Ottawa...love that city!

Linda is So Cal (Southern California) so as a joke I made my location So Can (Southern Canada).

 

[Linda Buquet]

I wondered when I saw that David, but the joke went right over my head,
so I guess you could say the joke was on me.

 

[Joseph Ratliff]

Adammo, this is a great question. When it comes to creating fresh content, it's all about being creative. For example, you could create trivia questions. You can get a lot of mileage out of trivia - plus it's fun for your readers.

Also, you don't necessarily have to blog about jerseys. Don't limit yourself in that fashion. You can blog about anything that's relevant to the overall theme of your blog.

Again, it's all about being creative. So put your thinking cap on.

David Jackson

Great addition David!

Adammo,

This is the concept of "engaging" your visitors and making them take "small actions" on your site. People do look for entertainment when surfing the web, and if your site is the one that engages them in a fun way that they'll remember...they will possibly subscribe to your RSS feed or keep coming back on their own.

And, like David said...be creative, think about making your site a pleasure to visit as much as it provides value for the visitor (in fact, I might consider entertainment part of providing value).

 

[Adammo]

Great addition David!

Adammo,

This is the concept of "engaging" your visitors and making them take "small actions" on your site. People do look for entertainment when surfing the web, and if your site is the one that engages them in a fun way that they'll remember...they will possibly subscribe to your RSS feed or keep coming back on their own.

And, like David said...be creative, think about making your site a pleasure to visit as much as it provides value for the visitor (in fact, I might consider entertainment part of providing value).

Thanks, good points!

I know that i've seen static sites before offering various products and always wondered how successful they were. I guess if the competition was low they could do well, but otherwise it would probably be good to engage the reader and hope they will navigate to the products you are offering.

Again using the hockey sticks example. I would think a site based on hockey sticks would be a little dull. But I think a hockey blog containing a few SEO optimized hockey stick posts would work? Again i'm not pursuing this, but just want to make sure I understand. Off course i'd need to add good content, but i'm just thinking in general terms right now.

Thanks again everyone, always lots to learn!

 

[Linda Buquet]

I think people were responding to the post title and the core of the questions in this post which are around "fresh content". So all the points about fresh content have been really good.

But I just wanted to mention, that there ARE pure shopping sites that only have product info that are successful. Typically this is what the merchant's site is, but sometimes affiliates have pure product sites too. Fresh content in these sites comes from changing inventory mainly, but many of them also display articles and industry news or other changing content.

Affiliate datafeed sites used to do really well for awhile. These were just like stores filled with all the merchant's products. But then Google decided they didn't like datafeed sites very much and called them 'thin' affiliate sites. So now affiliates who want to have datafeed stores have to get pretty creative, tweak the datafeeds and add lots of unique content.

Just wanted to make the point that there are different kinds of sites, even hockey stick sites, I'm sure.
But for getting started, I think building a site around a niche and people's interests is easier than trying to make a pure play product site work.