by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: February 17, 2009

There is no doubt that on the Internet, content is king. The importance of quality external links from a website, backlinks to it and the promotion of same can not be disputed but content on a website is what the visitor wants and what counts most towards increasing its profile and contributing to its success.

It is not simply important to have content on our website, however. The content on any successful website must be relevant, focused, fresh and original if it is to best serve its intended purpose. This means that we have quite a number of factors to take in to account when deciding what content should appear on our website and when it should either be changed or added to. The type of website we are creating makes no difference when we are considering the following principals regarding content. Whether it be a business website, a personal website or a website devoted to a particular place or location, the principals are exactly the same in each instance.

The first step when adding content to a new website is making sure that it is extremely relevant to our subject. We should not be diversifying or heading off in a tangent. If we have something significant to say on a different subject, build a separate website about it. The content you put on the site should describe your business, you personally or the place perhaps that you have devoted the site to.

The content on any website must be truly original and never copied or even adapted from another source on the Web or elsewhere. The best way to ensure this is the case is of course to write said content yourself but if you are out-sourcing it, ensure that you do so only to a very reputable company or individual. Duplicated content is a pet hate of Google and all the search engines so never be tempted to go down this road, however good you may consider such content to be.

If you are including on your website details of perhaps a sales promotion you are running through your business, this is of course extremely relevant - but be sure to remove this content as soon as possible after the promotion ends! It is fatal to any website to include details of such as promotions which have closed, or promoting events which have now come and go on. This is something which we have to ever be aware of and diarise such procedures in order that we don't forget to take the prescribed action.

Even if our website content is not likely to become out of date in the foreseeable future, it can become stale if we do not update it on an extremely regular basis. It is essential to add more information regularly not just to satisfy any returning visitor but to maintain the level of our profile with the search engines. Any website which lies untouched by its administrator for any length of time, however good it may be or high it may rank, will soon slip down those said rankings.

I hope that by considering the principals outlined above you can now increase the traffic to your website by improving its profile and standing with the major search engines.

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