Website Content: The Winner and Still Champion

No surprise here but content rules on the web according to Joel Walsh writing on webmasterbrain.com. Last June, Joel did a survey of "Google's top five pages for the five most searched-on keywords".

What he found was that the writing quality of the content on these pages was significantly and consistently better than the content on pages that didn't make the grade (or rank, as it were). Common factors of these sites' content include (with my advice for your site's content):

• Frequent updating
  Advice: Don't let the grass grow under your content. Keep it fresh.
  
  
• Good spelling and grammar
  Advice: Use your word processors spelling and grammar checker first. Then read it yourself and have others, particularly those with superior grammatical and spelling skills, check it also. Even if you have a professional writer create your content; double check their work. Nothing kills credibility for me like crappy writing and poor spelling.
  
  
• Write Concise Paragraphs and Shorter Sentences
  Advice: Keep it brief. Remember, people scan more than they read on the web.
  
  
• Use Lists
  Advice: Nothing says, "scan me" like a nice list. Don't neglect bolding, italics and the effective use of headings and keyterm rich links (both internal and external) to play up relevant points and increase scannability.
  
  
• Contextual relevance
  Advice: If you're writing about a blog, for example, talk about bloggers and blogging and blogs. Reference the blogosphere. Don't overd0 it. Keep your content readable and relevant but don't neglect using variations on a theme.
  

Source: Google's advice for your website: Content

So just like in real estate where the mantra is: location, location, location. The mantra on the web remains: content, content, content. Not only will you improve your rankings in the search engines but you'll create a better experience for the visitors that those engines bring.

Thanks for reading...

tom.gray@gemsolv.com
GeMSolv.com