The 10 Biggest Search Engine Optimization Mistakes: #8: Not Enough Content

You can have the prettiest looking website in the world which is extremely user friendly, offering everything your prospective customers are looking for – but nobody can find it. Search engine have decided that it isn’t important enough because it doesn’t have enough raw text based content.

Now and for the foreseeable future content will be king on the Internet. This means that is your website is too Macromedia Flash or Image heavy, then search engines will tend not to rate it as highly as other similar genre websites with more text based content.

Vanity not sanity

There are still far too many website design companies who design websites to look good simply to appeal to their client’s requirements. Such companies are either too vain, or aren’t ethical enough to insist on educating their clients about search engine optimisation implications before agreeing on a project specification.

Start with at least twenty pages

Every business should be able to start their website with at least twenty pages of unique, original content relative to their products, services or industry. This will give something for search engines to initially ‘chew on’ and help with their understanding of the industry sector in which the website sits.

Add new content every week

Once a website is ‘finished’ it’s only just started. Your initial website will not reach and stay at the top of search engines unless you continually add new content. That way you’re showing search engines that your site is ‘current’ and therefore more relevant to the user.

Consider Blogging and RSS Feeds

Blogging is a great way of you new thoughts on up-to-date industry relevant topics to feature on your website. A ‘Blog’ (short for a Web Log – an online diary) can automatically inform search engines and other directories that new content has been posted to the site.

RSS Feeds let your website users subscribe to receiving updates as soon as new content has been added to your website. They also assist other website directories and search engines by informing them of recent updates.

Some of your new content that you add could also be in the form of video or audio podcasts. In addition to keeping your current visitors up to date with your new content and gaining you new visitors, podcasting will also form an additional ‘entrance’ path to your website.

Each page should contain some relative text based content Whether your page is intended to market your podcast, image or flash based webpage, you should still include a couple of hundred of words that are text-based on that page. The main reason for this is to inform search engines of the purpose of the page.

No matter the type of website that you have, if you don’t have enough text-based content on your pages, then you’re radically reducing the chances of your site being ranked highly in search engines. If you want to use Macromedia Flash, make sure that you add text content underneath. Likewise, if your website is video based – and more and more are – then again, add a text overview of the video at the side or below.

To conclude, it’s just a matter of integrating design prowess with successful search engine optimization and Internet marketing strategy. Don’t spend lots of money on a website that can’t be found.

David Bain is founder of the independent business articles resource, http://www.BuildYourOwnBusiness.biz. BuildYourOwnBusiness offers the latest business news & management advice on how best to build your own business - business articles on Strategy, eBusiness, Change Management & much, much more.





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