The short and surprising answer given by a Google employee is- no. So why is it commonly believed that website owners and content creators should be pushing out daily content? And if daily posting to your website doesn’t increase traffic, what can website owners do to help build traffic? Let’s dive further into these questions about understand better how Google ranks web pages in their search results.
The Myth Of Daily Posting To Gain Traffic
Google’s ever-changing algorithms are constantly adapting and adjusting for determining how to rank websites. This is frustrating and daunting for those ensuring their websites are search engine optimized (SEO).
It has been a belief that publishing new content frequently and regularly would keep readers coming back. But this tactic is not the determining factor in gaining new readers and website visitors.
More Pages Means More “Crawling” For Google
A Google Search manager has explained that creating a set schedule for posting doesn’t help with Google rankings. Even so, it does help Google show your website in search results by having more pages to “crawl.”
“Crawling” for search engines refers to the process by which they discover new and updated content. This process involves search engines sending robots, called “crawlers,” to search and find new content. This content can range from website pages, pictures, videos, and any other information that is posted online.
The more content you have on your website, the more pages Google will be able to “crawl” and index. By indexing your webpage, Google will be able to begin ranking your content in search results. But here’s the catch – Google has shared it does not crawl all content. This is frustrating for especially new website owners, trying to index their web pages.
How To Help Google Index Your Webpages
When examining why Google may not be crawling certain websites and content, it becomes clear that Google may not be indexing websites that are poor in quality. Having meaningful content that engages your audience is critically important when building trust and authority.
For those offering quality information to their viewers, it can still be challenging to have Google index their pages.
Google web analyst John Mueller has shared some tips to help get your website pages indexed by Google:
- Ensure that your web pages can be crawled and that no technical problems on the backend keep your website from performing better.
- Use a site crawler, such as Screaming Frog, to see how easily your web pages can be crawled. This service will also show you any 500 errors that are encountered- which would prohibit the ability for crawlers to do their job.
- Use Google Search Console to check for 500 errors. If you have not yet setup Google Search Console here you can read everything about how to install GSC. A 500 error means the page was unsuccessfully able to be accessed. If this error occurs, there is no way for it to be indexed.
- Use internal linking on your website so Google can learn what content is most essential and relevant to readers.
- Ensure that the quality of content is your primary focus, rather than quantity. Even there is a correlation between longer posts are ranking higher on Google than shorter ones, do not blow up your article just for word count.
How New Content Can Help Boost Traffic And Engagement
Identify the content that your audience engages with most. By focusing on topics most important to your readers, you can begin ranking better in Google search results.
Determining new content strategies may need you to test new topic ideas. Expand on your typical keywords, and try new tactics to gain a larger readership. These steps can help you learn what your audience engages with most and allow you to focus on what matters most to your readers.
While regularly posting is not a key factor in search engine crawling and indexing, it is an useful tool that allows you to understand your audience better. Using insights gained from popular posts and pages let you better adapt and adjust your content. This helps engage and grow your audience. All of these steps can boost your website’s ranking and increase organic traffic.
Some steps to gain more traffic to your Website
1. Create an editorial calendar
To create new content that meets the needs and interests of your audience, you need a plan. An editorial calendar is a great way to organize your content ideas and push yourself to create new posts on a regular basis. A calendar also makes it easier to identify recurring topics and issues that require immediate attention.
But an editorial calendar doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to write down every post idea or even prep dates for every post. You can just use a calendar — physical or digital — to mark days when you should be creating new content.
2. Find new topics to explore
You probably already have an idea of topics your audience cares about. These are the themes and subjects you normally cover in your posts. But there are also likely other themes and subjects that your audience cares about but that you haven’t explored in depth.
You can uncover these hidden themes by actively engaging with your audience on social media or through reader surveys. Maybe you’ve already published posts on the subject, but with a different angle or emphasis.
These missed opportunities to rank for highly competitive search terms are often the secret key to unlocking traffic from new, interested audiences.
3. Create great SEO-friendly content
You should always be thinking of ways to create great content for your readers. But you also need to make sure that content is friendly to search engines so it can reach wider audiences through SEO.
Don’t worry too much about doing everything right. Just implement the basic best practices and most of your content will be fine. If you do need extra help, there are plenty of books and courses that can teach you the basics of search-friendly writing or just have a look at our full fledged blog post about how to write SEO friendly blog post.
4. Share your posts on social media
You’ve heard a lot about how important social media is for building an online presence. This is true even if you’re already focused on creating great content for your audience.
Social sharing helps people to discover your content through discovery algorithms used by search engines. When your followers share your posts on social, they’re inviting their networks to visit those posts. Those network members might find your content helpful or interesting. This can be enough to rank it among the millions of other pages indexed by search engines.
You should encourage your followers to share your posts. This is also an opportunity for you to improve the reception of those posts through careful content curation. You should consider sharing the best versions others have created.
You should actively encourage your followers to share your posts. This is also an opportunity for you to improve the reception of those posts through careful content curation. You should consider sharing the best versions others have created.
Markus Schad | Senior SEO Strategist
Markus Schad is Senior SEO Consultant with over 8 years experience in getting more traffic and visitors for his customers. He is the founder of Commander-SEO.com.
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