April 17th, 2010 by Susie

The regular addition of relevant content to a site is one of the basic components of an overarching search engine optimisation strategy. Major search engines appreciate content more than some of the more ostentatious parts of a site. Their web crawlers are attracted to sites which receive frequent content updates, and the search engine results pages reflect this. However, the content has to satisfy the diverse tastes of users too. Otherwise, ennui can lead to users deserting for more intriguing sites, so the following tips may be of some utility.

Be informative

Users appreciate the opportunity to learn more about developments in a particular sector. Depending on the site, industry news can be effective in making the first tentative steps towards authority status. Clarity and an avoidance of inordinate detail may be central to a site’s search engine optimisation success with regard to this function. Statistics can also make a positive contribution if they are relevant and presented in an accessible form.

Be entertaining

The extent to which this is appropriate will relate to the nature of the site concerned. In some sectors, humour can be subtly used to good effect. Humour does have to be handled carefully; it must never stray into potentially offensive areas. In others, an amicable tone may pay dividends. Sometimes the deployment of stylish writing can help keep users returning for more. Simply using words well and paying attention to what they can evoke can help to separate high grade content from its inferior relatives.

Be variable

Almost everyone likes surprises – things which break up mundane patterns. Users appreciate content which does not appear to come off a conveyor belt. They like the uncertainty of content which is not provided by automatons using formulae. Interesting opinions can attract comment and provoke additional interest. Of course, it is possible to go a bit too far in the quest for variety, but most users welcome the colour it provides.

Be up-to-date

The beauty of net content is that it can be right up-to-date with the latest trends. Books may be great information sources, but the time taken by the writing and publication process can mean that their contents can sometimes be irrelevant with respect to the most recent revolutions in technological progress. In spheres like search engine optimisation, the nature of the game is in perpetual flux. The impact of developments like Google Caffeine is best assessed as soon as is feasible and net content can deliver these types of provisional assessments with an immediacy which is often welcome.

Be useful

Many users do not wander round the net in search of entertainment alone. Nor is the provision of industry news always enough reason to return to a particular site as it can normally be absorbed from other sources. What can really draw in large audiences is the promise that the accessible information will be of some practical benefit. This is not possible on all sites, but it is perhaps has more SEO potential than some of the other tips offered here.

Link to us

If you want to link to this blog, copy and paste the following HTML code to your website.