Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

No one likes traffic when it’s something you’re stuck in during an I-95 commute in South Florida. But it’s highly desirable among those who avoid that morning commute by running a website from their home office or a company that wants to increase its number of online customers.

At Breakaway Solutions, my award-winning website development company, building a high-traffic website is the ultimate objective of the entrepreneurs and corporations that use our services. But how to get there?

You can always turn to experts like myself when you want more eyes landing on your home page. Some of our advice is practical, some of it philosophical. Yes, page layout plays a part, search engine optimization is a key consideration; and creating links, utilizing social media and optimizing your database are all crucial. But over and above those essential elements, it’s universally agreed that content is still king in creating return traffic to your website.

Some simple rules

Content is generally considered to be the text on your site and it has its own set of rules. You should ask yourself some questions before creating content: Who are your readers? What information can you provide that will give them value, a reason to return to your site and, optimally, incentive to share it with others. For example, this is my personal website, separate from the website for Breakaway Solutions, yet inherently intertwined with my business. My goal here is to impart advice from my experience to help others reach their entrepreneurial goals. By it’s also a personal site, so I try to convey some of my own inspirations for success in a way that’s both educational and motivational.

Above all, know your audience! Your content should be tailored to those you want to reach while being original, engaging and an incentive for further exploration of your site. Depending on your purpose, strive for timeless information with a long shelf life.

How much is enough?

How much content should there be? It’s true, copious and continually changing content stacked with the right keywords is important. For keywords, think of yourself as a typical Google or Bing user and incorporate search words they might use to find the sort of information you are providing. Length can also be a consideration. Some of my peers would discourage lengthy pages and might recommend posts of anywhere from 500 to 1,000 words.

Personally, I think length should be determined by the amount of space necessary to convey good, usable information, with some links to a few outside sources that you would also deem valuable, or which share a similar message. Links are also important for SEO purposes.

Other reputable sources

For example, if you want to know more about some of the tools and tacks of building a website, I might recommend other like-minded bloggers such as Tim Ferriss, whose content is always eclectic, insightful and, maybe most importantly, shared. He sets a good example and I feel confident that my audience would benefit from many of his topics, including How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself.

I mentioned Steve Pavlina in my previous post and his name bears repeating here. Steve writes some excellent content on personal development, so we have kindred interests. His thoughts on building a high-traffic website are definitely worth a read and, as he points out, sometimes differ from what some other experts might recommend. But he has some definite ideas about content. He sums up his philosophy in a way that I would agree with: Even if you forget all his tips, he says, “just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

I could not have said it better myself.

Written by

John Romano is an entrepreneur, marketing strategist, Internet consultant, blogger and an expert in the technical, conceptual, and content development of online startups. He is the founder of several ecommerce sites and has helped multiple companies launch successful online businesses.

8 comments

  1. Ndeto

    Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

    Hi, I feel you should have include the importance of the content. Remember that the purpose of content is to provide value to others. Is your content worthy of being read by millions of people? Do you provide genuine value, and is it the best you’re capable of providing?

    • Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

      Content is indeed king… for both the visitors and search engines. However, if implemented incorrectly, it can also derail the success of your website.

  2. Justin P.

    Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

    I choose to focus on Word count. It’s somewhat surprising that there seems to be so much confusion with regard to what is probably one of the most important aspects of online writing. Ask ten people about what the proper word count should be for blog posts and you will likely get ten different answers.
    What is the reason for all this confusion? Why should most people have different ideas on what the proper word count for a blog post should be?
    In most cases, the type of content you are offering will often determine the structure and word count of the article. What you should always keep in mind is that you are writing in the service of your readers. You should therefore strive to present information in a logical and structured manner.

  3. Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

    Hey good people I have a quick question,
    When I am analyzing/ doing word count for a particluar key word and I want to avoid keyword stuffing, does Google consider the alt and title tags keywords in the images I upload as part of keyword count?
    Thanks!!

    • Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

      Yes, Google most probably detects those tag terms. I recommend you use one of the many tools out there that help you optimize the page for the keywords you are trying to rank high for. I like MOZ, however there are other tools/platforms as well.

  4. Cindy

    Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

    Hi there,
    I would precisely describe the image. If it’s a picture of a breast cancer screening the ALT should be ” breast cancer screening”. Don’t insert the brand name unless the image contains it, or the person in the image uses the brand and the text below it is their testimonial.
    I hope this helps you.
    Regards!

  5. Bill

    Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

    I agree that “content is king” on the Internet, especially if you’re in “it” for the long haul. But I think it’s important to point out that it’s the audience that defines if your content is “king-worthy” (Well, that and Google.) I’ve seen it many a time – Internet blogs falling into the “if I (author) think its interesting and informative it just must be.” Be careful. Sometimes you might only be entertaining and informing yourself. Preparing good content takes research and time. Spend the time to find out what your target client is interested in. And use a keyword search service – there are many out there. Following the many trends in keyword searches is imperative. You can take this quote from this post “to the bank” – ‘Above all, know your audience!’

  6. jon terns

    Content is King When Building a High-Traffic Website

    I realize that content is king, but if no one shows up to see it, does that make SEO more important? It works very differently for YouTube and I am trying to switch from video channels to actual websites and need all of the help I can get.

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