A key factor in ensuring the Googlebot will visit your site regularly and return it on the first page for a search is that it sees your content as not only relevant, but also fresh.
Google states:
Stale content refers to documents that have not been updated for a period of time and, thus, contain stale data (documents that are “no longer updated, diminished in importance, superceded by another document”).
Google indicates 4 factors that they use to determine whether a document is considered “fresh” or “stale.”
- Query-based factor: analysis of which pages in Google search results are selected by users.
- Link-based criteria: analyzes the page backlinks - a decrease in links may mean the document is stale.
- Traffic-based criteria: a large reduction in traffic may indicate that the content is stale.
- Behavior-based criteria: the content is probably not fresh if people spend too little time on the page.
Ways to make certain Google sees the content on your site as fresh include:
- Document creation date - add fresh content on a regular basis. This is why an onsite blog is so helpful to web sites. An article section is also helpful. Once your articles have been indexed by the search engine, you should then syndicate them out using Zimbio, Qassia, etc.
- Anchor growth and traffic - drive traffic to new pages by linking to them, rather than to the home page. Make sure your links are keywords relevant to the content topic. When you make blog comments, leave them on sites relevant to your new content and link to the new page.
- Change and improve content on your site over time. This doesn’t mean you have to change your content weekly or monthly, but over time things change and content does get stale, so make sure you stay on top of it. If your rankings drop, take a look at your content to see if it’s time for an update.
- Link growth - get links to your site and specifically to the new content on your site.
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Tags: backlink, backlinks, content, Google, SEO, traffic
25 Comments
It never ceases to amaze me at the number of business websites who believe that a web presence is a “set it and forget it” solution.
You have to nurture a website for it to grow and these are GREAT tips for nurturing any web presence - blog or static!
Of course, a blog makes all of the suggested “actions” in this post much, much easier!
Nice tips indeed. Fresh content is a must if you want to become at least medium fish in so big www aquarium. Also it is important that content is relevant to site topic. And when you have steady fresh content then after site time you will have heavy information site that Google loves. Second step is to create backlinks, but if you have quality content, they will come itself as visitors will post them for you on other pages for recommendations.
Useful tips you have there! Fresh content is absolutely needed. It has to be relevant of course and not some non-related odd looking content in contrast to the rest of the blog.
Roger Hamiltons last blog post..T.I.N.A. - The unfriendly copy made in China - The Beetle . . . [Andreas Wiedow]
More good tips SeoDiva. Deep linking is really a great tip. I try to use social media sites to build deep links to posts on my blog.
Ryan Martins last blog post..8 Homes for Sale in Bellingham that Cash Flow
nice post mate…..you have done some deep research….thanks
It gives lot of useful information which can be very helpful for beginners like me. I only knew that you have to use good keywords and content in the website but i didn’t know that one has to keep on refreshing the content as well. Thanks for a great post
I agree fresh, quality, updated content is the way to achieve decent rankings in the SERP.
IT Supports last blog post..Microsoft set to announce ‘Windows Cloud’ soon
One of the best ways to add content is add blog in the site.
Totally right, fresh content is one of the key factors in SERP. Does this apply to your meta tags as well? Will it help changing the keywords every so often?
@Kingston Property - I don’t mess with a title unless the site is not ranking well, and I think it can be improved. Google ignores the meta keywords; only some of the smaller search engines use them.
Very important #2 STOP LINKING TO YOUR HOME PAGE. You’re on;ly hurting yourself in the long run.
Excellent article, a true testament as to why SE’s LOVE blogs.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Do Advertisers Judge You By Design? What Do You Think…
i don’t get what dennis said. why should you not link to your main page? isn’t it you want people to check your site and not just one page of your site? i would understand the need to link to the new content since it would be necessary to improve in internal links. i also want to link to my main site of course.
Good question Busby.
1 Key point - too many links pointing to the same page with the same keywords will get you slapped up one side and down the other by Google.
You want as many pages of your site to rank as possible, not just the home page….a key factor to that is inbound links.
If you just want people to know about you and your blog, why not link to your About page? 2 birds/1 stone…..you DO have one right?
Blog commenting (you knew it was coming) - one of the very best ways to gain inbound links…assuming they’re not garbage comments.
Why link to your home page in the URL field? Ex.: mycoolsite.com vs. mycoolsite.com/checkthisawesomepost - which would peek your interest more as you hover over the link?
Hot Tip: IF you have a post on your blog that compliments the post your currently commenting on - LINK TO IT in the URL field.
Important Tip: If the blog you are commenting on is using the CommentLuv plugin (like this blog) you DO have to link to your home page…it will screw up the plugin and show weirdness instead of your last post.
Lynn Terry wrote a very good article on this subject, aptly titled “STOP LINKING TO YOUR HOME PAGE”
http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/knowledge-link-love-1-what-are-your-favorite-social-networks-and-why/
Dennis Edells last blog post..As Promised - More Link Love for Knowledge Link Love #1 Participants
Wow long comment, sorry lol
Dennis Edells last blog post..As Promised - More Link Love for Knowledge Link Love #1 Participants
Oh nuts, wrong link. Lynn Terry’s article is…
http://www.clicknewz.com/1427/stop-linking-to-your-home-page/
Dennis Edells last blog post..As Promised - More Link Love for Knowledge Link Love #1 Participants
@Dennis - no problem…I couldn’t have said it better, and you saved me about half an hour!
P.S. Lynn Terry’s article is very good!
LOL glad I could save you some time. After I posted it, I thought I should just make it a blog post lol.
Lynn did it best though
Thanks for dropping by my blog! (the boxes will be filled SOON I promise lol)
Dennis Edells last blog post..As Promised - More Link Love for Knowledge Link Love #1 Participants
Wow! I like the concept of building links deep into the site, and not just to the home page. I’ll get started with that and watch what results from that effort. Thanks!
@John in Vancouver - those deep links are very important.
Thanks for sharing the info.. It seems now i can improve my web rankings
Great information! Not only blogs, but areas like articles, news or something like this can help you to keep your site “fresh” for googlebot eyes.
you have mentioned almost all the tips to keep our content fresh. awesome!!
busbyseotest!s last blog post..The Easiest Way To Build Page Rank
Internal Link Building is an important aspects of SEO. In order to rank well in search engines it is advised to add relevant content along with anchor text not only in your home page but also in other pages too.
Thanks for the post
It gives lot of useful information which can be very helpful for beginners like me. I only knew that you have to use good keywords and content in the website but i didn’t know that one has to keep on refreshing the content as well. Thanks for a great post