It is a fact that Google and other search engines value content.  Old news.  Any SEO company is going to tell you that for a dollar.  And apparently not going anywhere.  This concept can be frustrating, as filling up some sites with content is not really natural, necessary, or valuable to the end user.  Of course, in many cases it is very valuable, but there are only so many leather buying guides I want to see when i’m shopping for a wallet; it gets overdone really quickly.

However I digress. The fact is that content needs to be continually added to any site that needs to rank. So here are some basic ideas for how to incorporate continuous content into your site.

1. Blog.  Every site does not HAVE to have a blog, but just about any site CAN incorporate a company blog into it’s format. Link to it from the homepage. Featuring the most recent articles on your homepage is good too.  If you think you have nothing to blog about, think again: Here are some content ideas that will keep you busy.

2. A collection of articles:  these can be organized as resources on your site, categorized using your keywords, and continually updated.

3. Industry News: if your site lends itself to current events in your industry, an entire section can be built and kept updated at least weekly with articles.

4. Buying Guides and Advice: the ideas and “How To Choose” articles here can be organized along with your categories. Or can incorporate into your collection of articles. Every feature that a client has to choose can be broken down within the categories. Sizing guides, features guides, what to look for in a service, anything to help your customer make their decision without leaving your site to do their research.

5. User generated content: customer reviews of products (offer a coupon if they fill one out), customer testimonials, customer suggestions, customer top 5 lists

6. Glossary: this may not continually update, but can be updated occasionally and is a great way to get more content on a site.

7. Case studies. Huge selling factor in addition to the content factor.

8. Related companies, with a blurb about them, using affiliate links potentially to generate some other revenue.

9. Frequently Asked Questions: again make this useful as well as keyword rich for SEO, and it can cut down on your customer support resources.

10. Specials/promos: every time you have a new special, create a page highlighting the details, and link to your buying guides when appropriate.

Tags: content for seo, content ideas

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.