What are Content Rich Sites

What are Content Rich Sites?
By S. Housley

What are Content Sites?
If you are like many of those who started out with intentions of making millions online and are struggling to capture the attentions of the large search engines, you are in good company. Times have changed, and due to the low cost of entry, the online world is becoming very competitive for businesses starting out. Unless a website has a regional appeal or caters to a very niche product or service, it is rare that a webmaster can create a website that is only focused on selling.

What is the answer?
The answer is content. The concept is not new, it comes down to the simple concept of bartering, give something in order to get something. In this case the trade off, is free information in exchange for website traffic and search engine ranking. The key is to create a website with content that other webmasters, bloggers, and publishers will want to link to. In order to generate interest and incoming links that result in web traffic, you will need to provide unique content. Related content drives traffic, understanding what makes one website a stand-out when others fail is the key to building a content rich portal.

How do I use content to sell my stuff?
First off, the content you provide must be of interest to potential customers. If you are selling a product, why not provide dimensions, customer ratings, reviews, warranty information, additional product suggestions, color or size charts. In addition to additional product information, consider your demographic, and find content that will be of interest to individuals (or businesses ) that you feel typify a potential customer. It is also best if the content your provide is related to the product you are promoting.

Lets take a look at some content rich examples:

Gourmet Living (http://www.gourmet-living.com )

How does the site Gourmet Living that is focused on selling cooking items use content to promote their products and sell their wares? Gourmet Living uses recipes to draw in individuals interested in cooking. The topic (recipes) is clearly closely related to the products they are selling (cookware and gourmet cookbooks), additionally the recipes targets their potential audience, those with an interest in cooking. The Gourmet Living website uses additional food preparation tips and articles that discuss gourmet cooking to generate additional interest.

Recipe Directory - http://www.gourmet-living.com/recipe-directory.htm
Tips for Food Preparation - http://www.gourmet-living.com/category.html?category=preparing+food
Along with articles that discuss gourmet cooking - http://www.gourmet-living.com/gourmet-articles.htm

Dog Pound (http://www.dog-pound.net )

How does Dog Pound, a website promoting products for dog care, use content to generate website traffic. The Dog Pound website has educational articles related to dog breeds and training. In addition, the dog pound website has videos of common dog breeds, cute pet photos, and free recipes for dog treats. My recommendation would be to take the photo section a step further, encourage individuals to send in their favorite doggy photos and conduct a dog beauty contest.

Articles about dog training - http://www.dog-pound.net/dog-articles.htm
Videos with dog breeds - http://www.dog-pound.net/videos.htm
Dog Treats - http://www.dog-pound.net/other-dog-treats.htm
Photos - http://www.dog-pound.net/dog-photos.htm

Security Port (http://www.security-port.net)

How does security port, a website that does not sell anything and profits from advertising, use content to attract traffic and promote their website? The security port focus is on aggregating a host of security resources, from security glossaries to security forums. By creating a topical portal with information relevant to security, they are providing one stop shop for security information.
Searchable Security Databases - http://www.security-port.com/security-databases.htm
Security Blog - with related security news - http://www.security-port.com/blog.htm
Security Articles - http://www.security-port.com/security-articles.htm

Remember, at the end of the day that all of the advertising campaigns and attractive affiliate programs will only result in traffic spikes which will be transient. Generating a content rich website that is useful, educational, or entertaining will attract and retain customers. While it's hard to assemble a content-rich site that motivates others to link to you, it is certainly not impossible. Keep in mind that search engine rankings are influenced by the amount and quality of a website's content. Provide content that will make webmasters want to link to your website.

Internet Marketing Quiz

By Sharon Housley

Question - If I need to target a specific region, is it helpful to have a domain from that country?

Answer - Yes. Both hosting location and domain extension matter and can influence search engine ranking in regional search engines. If you are attempting to target a specific country, you could very well benefit from purchasing a domain with that countries extension and hosting the website on a server that is located in that country. The larger country specific search engines, generally rank local domains higher in the search results.

Question - What is the difference between Google's aging delay and the so called sandbox?

Answer - Great questions. The aging delay is often labeled and assumed to be the same as Google's famous sandbox (that may or may not exist). The Google aging delay is not a penalty, it is merely a filter. Google does not feel new websites are necessarily "trustworthy" so while they acknowledge that the new websites exist they don't generally include them in their search index results. They continue to monitor the new websites over time, paying particular attention to who and how many websites are linking to the new site. Gradually, as the site matures and gains a reasonable amount of links over time, Google will include the site as part of its search results. The sandbox refers to websites that are usually removed from the search index results. The removal is typically a penalty for what Google views as poor behavior as it relates to search engine optimization, spam, or web content.

Question - What does the Can-Spam Act actually mean?

Answer - CAN-SPAM is an acronym for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, came into effect in the United States as law on January 1, 2004. It establishes requirements for those who send commercial email,and spells out penalties for individuals and companies that choose to violate the law. The primary purpose of the act is to restrict the advertising or promoting of a commercial product or service (including content or a website) by defining guidelines.

Besides spelling out the penalties, the CAN-SPAM Act prohibits false or misleading header information. This means that you cannot "spoof" the 'to', 'from' or routing information, the sender must be accurately reflected.

The CAN-SPAM act also prohibits deceptive subject lines. In other words, the subject must relate to the actual message contents. Email recipients must be provided a method to opt-out of any future email. The opt-out requests must be complied within 10 days. The final large contingent that is stipulated by the CAN-SPAM act is that commercial emails must be identified as advertisements and must include the senders valid postal address.

Question - What is a sticky website and how do I make my website 'sticky'?

Answer - A sticky website refers to a website that attracts and retains customers. The best way to create a website that will be continually visited and returned to is by producing and creating new content. Give your website's visitors a reason to come back. Another component to stickiness is a good communication channel. This might mean providing the content via RSS, so visitors are immediately aware of any new information available. It might also mean an opt-in newsletter that is sent on a regularly scheduled basis.

Question - What is the Long Tail, and how do I get one?

Answer - The Long Tail pertains to a relatively simple concept, that capturing all of the the small volume, and will result in a collectively large volume. With regards to the keyword long tail, the idea is that there are only a few words or phrases that receive a large number of searchers, but there are a huge number of obscure phrases or keywords that receive a small number of searches each month. By capturing top ranking for all of the less popular terms you could in effect receive more traffic than you would if you had top ranking for the popular terms.

Capturing the keyword long tail, is very difficult. It requires massive amounts of unique content. Webmasters have generally found the easiest way to generate unique copy is through user-generated content (ie. forums, blog comments, or user reviews).

Question - What is deep linking? And How do I deep link my website?

Answer - Deep linking refers to links to all levels of a particular website. A website that has an extensive network of quality deep links, shows true value. By having incoming links to multiple webpages at all directory levels, the website is perceived as content rich by search engines. A website that only receives incoming links to the "front page" will not fair as well in search engines because the assumption is that it is not a content rich website.