July 23, 2007 21:19
Category: Writing
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Even as writing content remains the old flavor, the web has meanwhile evolved a lot over the past decade. Time was when getting your website rank well in SERPs was not much difficult. You'd have needed basic optimization done for your pages, and if some of them could manage a few inward links, that would be icing on cake.
Today ranking well in SERPs is extremely difficult what with millions of websites debuting everyday. However the early success stories still persist, and so a new entrant is led to believe that top rank can be achieved without much bother, without may be the thrust on writing content.
In reality the prospect of achieving top search rank these days is pretty much an impossible proposition. It may usually take several months of relentless labor of writing relevant content, building links, and much more to come in the reckoning. Even then you cannot afford any slackness in your effort in order to retain your position and inch ahead.
In situations such as above, it is tempting to get drawn to PPC ads for instant traffic. Theoretically, it's indeed a possibility. In practice you may find your site battling with several others vying for those 'elusive' keywords that you know are relevant for your site.
This means you'll need to be prepared for spending good amount of money spread over hundreds of keywords for your PPC campaign. Not many can manage that amount of money at the initial stages after their sites have gone live.
But suppose you do have a war chest. Would you plunge into PPC ads before having organized your site, which would mean several pages of writing content, each possibly optimized for chosen keywords?
The answer is a qualified 'No'. The most obvious reason is rather simple. When visitors click your ad to come to your site, what do you expect they would do? They would of course roam around trying to get a feel of your site, and in the process reasoning within them whether to bite your offer.
In other words, your site will require solid contents to keep your visitors' interest alive as they make rounds of your site. May be they'll leave your site but come back second or third time to do you favor.
If you're with me, you're likely to accept my contention that writing content actually enhances the staying power of your site as much as it increases the possibility of your visitors spending more time in your site.
If so, why not try plain old search engine optimization for the pages of your site when you add contents to it? If you do, you'll find your site is gradually gaining an identity of its own, which you can further nurture and grow.
On a rough estimate unless your site has something about 1000 pages, chance is quite slim to achieve and retain respectable search rank for more common key-phrases. There is no study yet to correlate the 2 aspects, but looking at what many large websites have been doing of late, I've little doubt that writing content after content is the way to go.
Having said that I agree it is not possible for one person owning a website to go on adding say 4 to 5 pages of contents everyday. I know this because I can hardly afford time on a daily basis to write contents for my websites such as this one.
It's not that I run short of ideas to convert into contents. It's just that after my other assignments I'm not left with enough time to do justice with my websites.
The answer to overcome this problem is to hire writers like I write for other websites. It may be a bit difficult to locate writers who can consistently churn out good contents as you need, but it'll be time worth spent. Once the wavelengths meet and the flow of contents from your chosen writer becomes steady, you may find you'll need his service longer than you initially thought.
If you ask me (not that I ask you to hire me right away), I'd say investing money to build relevant contents for your website is a much surer proposition than going for PPC ads.
You do need the PPC ads, but keep that for later. First build up content. As always it's better to plan long-term to see you through thick and thin than giving in to short-term lures. You wouldn't repent writing content for your site. In fact as time passes and your contents pile up, you'll be glad you did it.
