When it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), content matters a lot. And not just what content you have, but how much. For example, I created this mini-site for 1st Financial Foundations. It’s purpose is to help people thinking about withdrawing tax free cash from their pension.
Initially, the site had 3 pages…
- Homepage
- About us
- Contact us
The content is optimised for the keyword ‘pension cash’. I created a sitemap, registered the site with my Google Webmaster Account, and waited to see where it would end up in Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages).
It ended up nowhere. It appears the competition for that keyword phrase is more organised than I realised. I started working on contextual and non-contextual backlinks, in an effort to get it somewhere in the first 10 pages. No joy.
It seems clear to me the problem is one of content. The site had only 3 pages, and one of those was a contact page. I’m now adding more pages in conjunction with the client. These additional pages focus on particular aspects of pensions (e.g. pension audit, types of pension, pension news).
Over time, I plan to build the site up to 12 pages.
Why over time? I want the pages to appear naturally, rather than all at once. I’ll also continue to build links back to the site. Based on results to date, I think it will be several weeks before the site appears on page one.
It just goes to show, it’s not only about quality. In search engine optimization quantity counts too.
This wedding site also has a content problem. It’s supposed to generate leads, and is highly focussed on wedding reception entertainment. The problem is two-fold…
- There’s no offer (lead generation requires an offer)
- The copy is client-centric
When writing copy designed to generate leads, the copy must be about the offer. Not about the company. It’s such a simple concept, yet it’s totally overlooked by almost every website out there.
