April 27, 2007 13:02
Category: Writing
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Time to time content writers like me look for inputs that provide researched figures in support of active content in websites. It's not that there is any doubt about the necessity of active content. But statistical analysis is such that it helps to form a quick opinion and which is easy to convince the clients.
I've a website on search marketing articles and resources which was there before this site came. Even though my earlier site has good amount of articles, it has slipped in generating traffic. The main reason for that is it doesn't have active content for pretty long time, which is something we know search engines like a lot.
As a concept, active content is considered one that keeps on adding to a website. It's like changing flowers in your vase everyday, but taking care that stale flowers are not thrown away. The freshness of flower in vase or content in website is what attracts attention of web visitors.
Just how much is fresh content important? Quite a lot, because fresh active content - if it folows a well-defined writing program - conveys unmistakable signs of a 'vibrant' live website. We'll briefly discuss 2 recent studies (one by me) that confirm that viewers constantly look for new informative content to remain updated.
Studying Wikipedia
When Yahoo! Answers debuted last year and became a hit in short time, many SEO experts and watchers saw the end of Wikipedia approaching fast. But they have seen it too soon. As one who has extensively used Wikipedia for various needs, I've only seen Wikipedia's popularity rising over time.
At the time of my writing the article, Refer Wikipedia for writing help 3 months back in mid-January, it was the 17th most visited website as per Alexa ranking. Today, as I write this, it's the 10th most visited site.
In a study that concluded last month (report out this month) by Pew Internet & American Life Project done in US, it is found that 36% of adult Internet users consult Wikipedia. Despite controversy over the reliability of contents, 50% of educated people (with at least one college degree) consult the site. See the report here.
Just how popular Wikipedia is among Americans can be gauged from the fact that on a typical wintry day this year, nearly 8% of online Americans consulted Wikipedia.
Traffic figures given in the report courtesy Hitwise shows that in the week ending March 17, the share of Wikipedia was 24.33% in the category of educational and reference websites, which is nearly 6 times that of second-placed Yahoo! Answers at 4.23%.
Popularity of Wikipedia
Why is Wikipedia so popular? 2 main reasons are cited in the report, and I quote them:
First, there is the sheer amount of material on the site, covering everything from ancient history to current events and popular culture. Because authors can create and edit entries at any time and in any location, new entries about emerging tech terms, celebrities or political scandals can be published or updated within a matter of minutes.
Second, Wikipedia's dramatic growth is strongly correlated with Americans' affection for search engines. Over 70% of the visits to Wikipedia in the week ending March 17 came from search engines, according to Hitwise data.
What Can Be Inferred?
Without doubt, massive quantity of constantly updated content is the backbone of Wikipedia's success. But there is more to it than what is easily apparent.
If you probe the second reason above, you'll appreciate that search engines rank pages from Wikipedia very high in SERPs for a large assortment of keyword phrases, which is why traffic to the site never abates.
Yes, internal linking among various Wikipedia pages as well as links from outside sources play a crucial part in top rankings, but the fact is multiplicity of linking happens on the back of multiplicity of contents. If there's less arrival of fresh and active content, linking too will lag.
Wikipedia is therefore a prime example of inevitability of website content positioning supported by active content.
My Experiment
Compared to Pew Internet Project's study of Wikipedia, my chance experiment is too insignificant to merit voluble explanation. Nevertheless, it has been a good reminder for me as to why active content is important.
During routine submission of one of my websites to different directories early this month, I chanced upon 'Re-QUEST dot Net', that asked to complete a demographic survey before submitting (it did not accept submission even after, but that is another story).
I was skeptical about the survey, yet I ventured into taking it because it was not asking my email and since my browser was set not to open any pop-up ads. I was also hooked in because I was interested to find out what people mostly reply to the question: What do you feel is most important about a website?
The results aggregating the replies of some 9700 respondents are a big revelation. 46% (4487 out of 9773) felt website content provided is most important, which is more than twice the next-placed answer: Accuracy of information (21%).
At 34%, college graduates constitute the largest number of those who participated in the survey. Of the respondents, 73% are male, more than 3 times the women respondents (24%), while 3% preferred not to answer.
Summing Up
There are many pointers that direct you to conclude that fresh contents contribute heavily to website's good showing in search rankings. Newspaper websites, better known as Mainstream Media (MSM) are a good example. In other words, the 2 keys for a website to do well are lots of internal linking (as well as incoming links preferably armed with 'anchor text') and active content.
So, if you're good in writing, just ensure you've active content day in day out. Your website is bound to be favorably noticed by search engines. Guaranteed.
