Should you build a one-page website? Is it okay to build a basic five-page website and leave it as-is for years? Should you be deleting old blog posts and keeping just a few new posts? No to all three, because a large website is a major SEO advantage.
Imagine two websites: one that has been online for ten years, with daily blog posts over that time, and a one-page website. The large website will have detailed information about many related topics. All that content will be using many different keywords. Other website owners will have linked to the various posts and pages over time, assuming the content is good.
The larger website will be a more valuable source of information, from a search engine’s point of view. It will be more trustworthy and more useful. Search engines will prefer it, all things being equal, over a smaller website with less information.
Do you already have a large website?
- Make sure that all your pages are indexed. If your website has hundreds of pages but Google only lists twelve, you aren’t getting the SEO benefits of having a larger website. Check by searching “site:www.yourwebsite.com” where “yourwebsite” is the web address of your site. Use Google Search Console for more precise data.
- Check your analytics. You might not know which pages get the most visitor action. Check your analytics and focus on the underperforming pages and posts.
- Organize all the content well. Make sure that people can find your content easily from the homepage. Also be sure that your web visitors can find their way back to your homepage and to other important pages from every page or post. If your site has just grown organically over the years, you may need help with this.
- Repurpose and update as needed. We’re working right now with a website that has quite a bit of great content, but much of that information is not optimized for search. There are pages with just a picture and a single line of text, and pages that aren’t integrated into the overall site architecture. If you have stray pages like these that don’t get much traffic, it’s worth bringing their content into new blog posts, rewriting and updating them, and/or changing the navigation to spotlight them.
How can you beef up your website?
If your website has just a handful of pages, adding more useful information should be a top priority. The best way to do this is with a blog. Regular blogging gives you new pages focused on different keywords that answer the questions people who need your services search with.
It’s usually more cost-effective and more practical to hire a professional blogger through a company like Haden Interactive than to try to fit blogging into your day or into your team’s workday. While blogging for your practice or facility won’t be a full-time job, it will be too time-consuming for your receptionist or other current team member to do a good job of it alongside their current duties.
You may have content on hand that you can repurpose for your website to give you a jumpstart. For example, if you’ve been sending out a print newsletter or making information sheets to hand out to clients, you can use the text of these print items as a starting point for your blog posts.
Before you do this, make sure that the content is not already published online.
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