I've written about this many times here on our blog and it still remains true... if you want to get higher rankings for your website, add lots of great content... period! (ok, exclamation point)
It even works better than buying links - check it out:
Paying for Content vs. Paying for Links (nichepursuits.com)
That topic was the idea of either paying for links or paying for great content. Basically, Duane covered a quick anecdotal story of a webmaster who used to spend nearly $100,000 PER MONTH on links (Yes, that’s a crazy high amount!) to help his sites rank better.
Then I believe some of those link networks got taken down (not sure on all the details), but he decided to instead just focus on hiring writers and producing great SEO friendly and sharable content.
The result?
He was getting more traffic AND natural links by producing great content for the same $100k per month investment than he was spending on links before.
Of course, SEO (search engine optimization) is comprised of having great content on your website (along with on-site SEO) and getting other websites and social media to link to you (off-site SEO).
That article goes on to explain how Google doesn't like websites buying links on other websites. That's true... kinda. It explains how it might not be completely apparent to Google that a link was purchased, which is true - but how would they know? And then if it was that easy to get a website banned, it would be worth buying links on websites for your competition, right? They'd all get banned then and you'd be on top! That sounds a little too easy, so I'm not sure that the "link buying" rule is hard and fast.
Then there's hiring SEO companies to build links for you. How would Google know if you were doing that? They can't. You could even pay someone at your company to build links, so is that the same thing? No, of course not. My point is, it's a mixed bag.
I personally feel that it's a "chicken and the egg" type of thing and Google is the one giving us this idea. What I mean is, they typically don't rank a website unless there are some links pointing to it. So, in order to get things kick started, you do need to do some link building - which you either pay for or do yourself. I've tried some experiments with a website with great content and not many links and Google didn't seem to give it the time of day until I threw a few, good links at it. That tells you right there that Google is telling us one thing and practicing another... they're a bit hypocritical in that way.
With all those politics aside, the rule that has always held true is that Google wants good, original content to give to their customer - the searcher. This has never changed and it's the best SEO rule to stick to.
The big question I get is, how much content should be added? The answer is enough to beat your competition. Well, how much is that? Well, you have to find out. One way to find out is to start writing and see how you rank.
In reality, it's going to take more writing than you think or more writing than you probably want to do. It's a bit crazy to think that a company selling hardware has to be in the copywriting business but that's true. No matter what you're selling or what kind of service you're offering, you need to be writing really good copy for your website in order to get ranked. Can you copy and paste text from somewhere else? Abosolutely not. It needs to be original and very, very good.
Not only that, how you write the content and post it is important. Check this out:
8 Ways to Create Share-Worthy Content (websitemagazine.com)
Social-SEO (the idea that social signals help improve a company's placement on the search engines) is an idea that is gaining speed. Many believe that Likes, Shares, Comments, +1s, Retweets, etc. lead to higher Web rankings.
As for what degree of truth there is in social-SEO, people (the ones behind the search engines and those who practice SEO or provide services for it) disagree. Regardless, the fact is, providing quality, shareable content is good for users and that is (hands down) good for SEO and social media efforts. Here are eight ways to create share-worthy content.
Things like including pictures, video and following trends is important. You also need to focus on keywords as well as some keyword phrases (still - maybe not for long).
If you want more traffic, write good content! It should be content that answers people's questions or solves their problems. It needs to be better than what your competition is doing.
Personally, I don't get why people don't get it. If you spend an hour writing some really good content and then post it on your website, that content works for you going forward. It just doesn't work for you that one day but every, single day into the future. It keeps working. It's residual. Not a lot of work at most businesses is that way. When you come upon something that does work that way, as a business owner, you have to seize that opportunity and do it.
If you are not a writer, then hire one. Webstix can help with that. We have SEO-minded writers available to help you get ranked higher.
The one thing you don't want to do is not do anything. Start writing. Don't watch your stats and just sit there - do something... anything but do it. You should preferrably have a plan but sometimes people plan to plan but then never do anything. Ask anyone who answers the phone at your company what your customers are asking for and then write about that... start there.
-Tony
