| I was recently struck by the fact that the top-ranking | | | | appear more than three times, meaning a very low |
| web pages on Google are consistently much better | | | | density. Many of the pages did not contain the |
| written than the vast majority of what one reads on | | | | keyword at all. |
| the web. Yet traditional SEO wisdom has little to say | | | | Sub-headings. On most pages, sub-headings were |
| about good writing. Does Google, the world's | | | | either absent or in the form of images rather than text. |
| wealthiest media company, really rank web pages | | | | |
| based primarily on arcane technical criteria such as | | | | Links: Most of the web pages contained ten or more |
| keyword density, link text, or even | | | | links; many contain over 30, in defiance of the SEO |
| PageRank?Apparently not. | | | | bugbears about "link popularity bleeding." Moreover, |
| Most Common Website Content Success FactorsI | | | | nearly all the pages contained a significant number of |
| took a close look at the top five pages for the five | | | | non-relevant links. On many pages, non-relevant links |
| most searched-on keywords, as identified by | | | | outnumbered relevant ones. |
| WordTracker on June 27, 2005. Here's what I | | | | Text content: a significant number of pages contained |
| found.The web pages that contained written content | | | | little or no text. These pages were almost all image |
| (a small but significant portion were image galleries) all | | | | galleries (there was one Flash movie), with the images |
| shared the following features: | | | | being photographs of the subject covered by the |
| | | | keyword. |
| Updating: frequent updating of content, at least once | | | | Originality: a significant number of pages contained |
| every few weeks, and more often, once a week or | | | | content copied from other websites. In all cases, the |
| more. | | | | content was professionally written content apparently |
| Spelling and grammar: few or no errors. No page had | | | | distributed on a free-reprint basis. Note: the reprint |
| more than three misspelled words or four grammatical | | | | content did not consist of content feeds. However, no |
| errors. Note: spelling and grammar errors were | | | | website consisted solely of free-reprint content. There |
| identified by using Microsoft Word's check feature, and | | | | was always at least a significant portion of original |
| then ruling out words marked as misspellings that are | | | | content, usually the majority of the |
| either proper names or new words that are simply not | | | | page.Recommendations |
| in the dictionary. Google almost certainly has better | | | | Make sure a professional writer, or at least someone |
| access to new words than the dictionary, with its | | | | who can tell good writing from bad, is creating your |
| database of billions of web pages. Supposed | | | | site's content, particularly in the case of a |
| grammatical errors that did not in fact violate style | | | | search-engine optimization campaign. If you are an |
| rules were also ignored. Google would certainly be less | | | | SEO, make sure you get a pro to do the content. A |
| conservative than a grammar checker in evaluating | | | | shocking number of SEOs write incredibly badly. I've |
| popular stylistic devices such as sentence fragments. | | | | even had clients whose websites got fewer |
| Paragraphs: primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no | | | | conversions or page views after their SEOs got |
| long blocks of text. | | | | through with them, even when they got a sharp uptick |
| Lists: both bulleted and numbered, form a large part of | | | | in unique visitors. Most visitors simply hit the "back" |
| the text. | | | | button when confronted with the unpalatable text, so |
| Sentence length: mostly brief (10 words or fewer). | | | | the increased traffic is just wasted bandwidth. |
| Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled | | | | If you write your own content, make sure that it |
| throughout the text rather than clumped together. | | | | passes through the hands of a skilled copyeditor or |
| Contextual relevance: text contains numerous terms | | | | writer before going online. |
| related to the keyword, as well as stem variations of | | | | Update your content often. It's important both to add |
| the keyword. The page may contain the keyword | | | | new pages and update existing pages. If you can't |
| itself few times or not at all. | | | | afford original content, use free-reprint content. |
| SEO "Do's" and "Don'ts" that Don't Really MatterA | | | | Distribute your content to other websites on a |
| hard look at the results slaughters a number of SEO | | | | free-reprint basis. This will help your website get links in |
| bugbears and sacred cows.PageRank. The median | | | | exchange for the right to publish the content. It will also |
| PageRank was 4. One page had a PageRank of 0. | | | | help spread your message and enhance your visibility. |
| (Note that the low PageRank would seem to discount | | | | Fears of a "duplicate content penalty" for free-reprint |
| the idea that these pages owe their ranking completely | | | | content (as opposed to duplication of content within a |
| to numerous incoming links.) | | | | single website) are unjustified. |
| Frames. The top two web pages listed for the most | | | | In short, make sure the bulk of your investment in your |
| searched-on keyword employ frames. | | | | website is devoted to its content, rather than graphic |
| JavaScript-formatted internal links. Most of the | | | | design, old-school search-engine optimization, or linking |
| websites use JavaScript for their internal page links. | | | | campaigns. Joel Walsh is the owner, founder and |
| Keyword optimization. Except for two pages, | | | | head-writer of UpMarket Content. To read more about |
| keyword optimization was conspicuous by its absence. | | | | website content best practices, get a consultation with |
| In more than half the web pages, the keyword did not | | | | Mr. |