Many website owners often wonder if fresh content posted regularly really makes a big impact on search engine rankings? There are many different opinions about this topic, but I definitely think that fresh content is important for search engine optimisation.
I first noticed that posting fresh content on my website got the search engines attention in about 2006. The problem was, I would slack off from posting and see a lull in traffic and engagement. At that time I was not making great money from my websites, as I did not really know how to monetize a website, so my enthusiasm often had its ups and downs.
If I posted an article every two days I would see amazing results, then I would share and promote this article, creating a buzz. The buzz on the website would continue if I posted another article and repeated the process over and over. It was pretty much like a hamster on a wheel. I knew I could not step off for too long.
This exact lull in traffic happens today but comes along much faster than it used to. For example, I would get away with not posting for at least a week or two in the old days, but now it is only a couple of days until I feel a ghost town growing.
So do I feel that fresh content is important? Hell yeah! Well hell yeah maybe….
If you wanted to be in the race for rankings you needed to realise how important fresh content WAS.
How is Fresh Content Good for SEO?
Yes you can rank, usually pretty well, for fresh awesome content. BUT at the moment I think Google is having problem with it’s algorithm. I think their obsession with good results has turned them into useless results.
Glen Allsopp says that Google has taken fresh content too far and I have to agree in some circumstances. Especially when you check out the latest results in the search engines. For example when searching for WordPress SEO in Google, Yoast comes in at 1,2,3,4. Does a person searching have any choice here? Every result in this search leads to one thing, the WordPress SEO Yoast plugin. Not just that, I feel that these posts have been around a lot longer than 2013, as the publish date shows.
Before the most recent Google updates it tried not to duplicate results and it was seen as spamming the search engines, but now I cannot say what is going on. But from experience, I know that Google will have to fix these results quickly as this is just pathetically bias results. But for now when you type in WordPress SEO you only get the Yoast WordPress plugin. If it came up for “WordPress SEO Plugin” then I would definitely understand why.
Is the Yoast plugin the only answer for WordPress SEO? I think not.
Why Fresh Content for your website (was/is) Important?
Fresh content was important so the human searching could see the most up to date and relevant results. At the moment, the way the search results are working I cannot say that this works in a white hat way. The results can easily be scammed by simply changing the dates on articles or simply leaving them out. There are so many scams going on I really cannot pinpoint how the results work.
Fresh Content is King (or non dated) – Not Content
I am not seeing the same results that I did before this recent update. I see a lot of awesome content that should be at the top and evergreen, dropping out of the rankings to nowhere land and junk fresh content or content without dates rising to the top. I do not think the rankings have dropped due to errors, it is a Google thing.
Check this one out. My site has been ranking on the first page of Google for “computer tips” for 6 years and now does not exist for this keyword. Well sometimes it is on page three and other days nowhere to be seen.
Funny thing, I never got any great traffic from it but I am pissed off because absolute junk has taken its place. My whole site is full of thousands of computer tips but this one post (computershopper.com/feature/the-best-computer-tips-and-tricks) was ranking number 4 on page one (only one of many more examples). So one page of crap can outrank a site with thousands of computer tips and nothing but awesome content.
Check it out below. I am sickened to see this kind of rubbish showing on the first page.
Yes it has a title, a description, a picture, and some links. But where the F is the content? I am sure this website did not mean to rank for this so easily and I am sorry to say that this content is crap, but people must speak up.
My site stills ranks for many keywords and phrases but when I noticed this, I could not believe it!
There are others that rank if you just have the keywords in the URL like blabla.com/best-computer-tips but the site is about something different and just have one page of tips. WOW, but remember it is fresh.
Here is another one.
Ouch! 4 results from the same site, all pretty much the same content. WTF?
Even Rand from MOZ Whiteboard Friday thinks something fishy is going on with Google’s obsession about freshness.
Fresh Content Creation – Stay Motivated
My recommendation is to keep creating fresh quality content even though Google will probably not notice for what it is worth. Well it is hit and miss. Eventually they will have to fix this absolute stuff up in the results as they are not only showing rubbish but they are also not the results we expect.
I like seeing fresh content in the search engines, but only content that deserves to be there, not junk. As for the Yoast plugin ranking for WordPress SEO all over the first page, that’s not junk, but it’s not all there is to WordPress SEO. It is a WordPress SEO plugin and should ranks for that!
What do you think about Google’s obsession with fresh content and the recent results that are showing due to this latest update?