What is fresh content?

[Steven1976a]

There is a lot of talk about "fresh content" being important for SEO. What do the search engines sea as fresh content?

Do the search engines see

fresh page titles, tags as fresh content?
Body Text?
Page Titles?
Pictures?

Do the search engines look to see if any of the above points have been changed and therefore by changing any of these they will view a page as fresh content?

The reason i ask is because a lot of our pages stay exactly the same with the exception of our product pictures and prices changing. We sell jewelry and when a product sells out of stock we simply over ride that product with a new product picture and price in a html website. We have quite a quick turnover of products and therefore our product pages are constantly changing daily.

So I want to know is this classed as Fresh Content by the search engines?

Some may say fresh content is fresh text information and to a certain extent i agree but not all content is text and fresh product is also fresh content?

Any thoughts on what you think and also thoughts on what is classed as fresh content by the search engines?

[incrediblehelp]

I think it is less about the freshness and more about simply adding relevant content to a website.

Yes maybe last year I had a different opinion about this, but I feel more comfortable saying that now it is not so much the freshness, but more that the fact the website is willing to add content the website and keep the end visitors informed/updated that can lead to better SEO success. This SEO success is probably not directly related to the algorithm rather how people interact with your website and can lead to more RSS subscribers, back links and conversions.

As for you website that fact that your pages are staying the same should be fine, but creating more end user interaction would help. For instance allowing users to comment or review each product right on the page (Amazon style) could help. Allowing users to pick and select their favorite products as great gift ideas would be cool to.

[Steven1976a]

Just a quick note for a Moderator, I was meant to post this thread in the SEO thread. I dont know how it ended up in here. Please could you move it to SEO thread
Thanks

[incrediblehelp]

Moved to Search Engine Optimization Forum

[factoring]

In every market that I can think of things change. There is constantly new news and updates on products. Fresh relevant content can be added to any and every website.

[mantawebsolutions]

I agree with the replies from incrediblehelp and factoring and I am not out to challenge the replies, I want to simply try and open up this discussion. I think it is a very good question....

factoring: any website needs change, always does, always will, but what is considered "fresh content"?

Adding "fresh content" to a website means what exactly?

If I have 5 pages on my site and I update or change the content within those pages (changes to page titles, tags, body text, pictures), would that be considered "fresh"
of
If I have 5 pages on my site and add 2 more pages that is relevant to my content, is that it...

Does "fresh" mean whenever a date of a file on the server changed?

I'm just rambling, but it is interesting to think about it.

[ctabuk]

The simplest way to add new and fresh content is via Google Alerts and then place a feed into your site as we have here. http://www.counciltenantsmortgages.c...ebuy-news.html

The news stories change about once a week, sometimes more, but it is a 'revolving'system set up for me specially by 'faglork'. I had the idea, he had the technical wizzardry - Google loves it and it creats a very large number of hits.

[ctabuk]

Wow - that created some site visits!!! How about posting and not just lurking????

[kapur]

What I feel is adding fresh content is adding new information for your visitors/clients on regular basis. Adding more pages to the site will increase internal links of the site.

[nozzmoking]

If you have an informational site with lots of 'how-to' articles then in order to 'freshen' these up would entail constantly going back and tweaking the text, which seems a bit pointless just for the sake of offering Google 'fresh content'.

Are we confusing 'fresh content' with 'unique content', i.e. stuff that's not been replicated elsewhere on the web?

[jtracking]

well I know that if the fresh content you push isn't found anywhere else on the internet then it's good in googles eyes...simply copy and pasting new content on your site that you got from another source isn't going to do you much good in the long run.

funny thing with that though is that someone copied my site content (text) completely and for a time, times and half of times has some good serps on yahoo (gibber engine) but finally dropped.

It's better to get your own fresh content...

[seoma]

Think of "fresh content" as "new content" and the means to growing your site: The larger the site, the more important it is perceived. However, new content should be informative, relevant to your product/service/industry, written in your own words and may help a visitor make a buying decision. Be sure to add a link to the new page from your sitemap and/or common footer so the spiders can find it. "Tweaking" existing pages (titles, metas, headers, text) isn't what I consider "fresh" - it changes the time stamp on the file but there's really nothing new to convey.

[Peter (IMC)]

This whole content issue is completely misunderstood by about 99% of the world. (that´s just a wild guess of me :) )

You wil always hear that you have to create content for your website, but hardly anybody is going to tell you what that means.

So there you go with your product pages in your jewelry website, adding bits of text and mostly you will hear that that is great because after all, it´s content. But all you´re really doing is taking care of one of the requirements for a successful website. I mean, without the text it literally is just a catalog online, with nothing but pictures and prices.

Updating those texts a bit every now and then doesn't qualify as "fresh" or "new" content.

But then what? Adding information about jewelry? Ok, that´s new content, and many stores do this, and the results are,.... well again a lot of work done for nothing it seems because you´re still not even in the top 10.

Then the big realization comes, you need to be more popular in order to get up in the SERP's. So the linkbuilding starts. Bad move!!!!

You´re forgetting once crucial step here. Link building is great of course but you need to give people a reason to link to you. And then you hear the great advice: You need to put more content on your site!!!

And now you´re running around in circles and not getting anywhere.

Forget about the word content. Focus on marketing your site. Not through the search engines, but apply offline strategies online. These can include:

* Advertising
Includes PPC, text link advertising, etc. Depends a lot on your budget of course.

* Do something special.
Here are some ideas:
Did a couple buy wedding rings from you? Call them after the wedding and ask for a couple of their wedding pictures where the rings are visible. Put them in your website, but make it a fun section of the site and don't try to sell in that section. Better would be if you get the chance, to go to that wedding. (will help you write about it in a much more fun way)
Do you have other special occasion jewelry? Ask those people also for some pictures or even a simple story on what happened. With ideas like this you are differentiating yourself and that will give you huge
benefits like:

* Try to get in a newspaper.
Did you differentiate yourself? Then contact some local newspapers and ask if they´re interested in doing an interview. They won't be interested if your site is nothing more than a simple collection of pictures of jewelry, but if you did those special things, they will have something to write about.

Well, you know your business better than I do so you should be able to come up with much better ideas.

Oh here´s one more advice that may actually be most valuable. Do NOT sit down with a pen and a paper in front of you to write down some ideas. That never works. You need to get people involved!!! Set up a meeting and invite at least 3 and no more than 5 people. The goal of the meeting: "to come up with ideas to market the website" Then let that meeting happen, don't try to controll it too much, and never say no to any idea. Even the dumbest ideas can help to get the creative power take over and you will end up with a huge motivation to build your business to levels you never even dreamt of before.

oh and in case anyone wonders what this has to do with fresh content.... just imagine all the new pages the above will result in. Not to mention the links you will obtain this way,. :)

[carol]

Sorry I'm late into this thread - but ctabuk, can you give us some more information as to how you (and faglork) set up that page? It is definitely cool...

[Ne0]

Originally Posted by carol

Sorry I'm late into this thread - but ctabuk, can you give us some more information as to how you (and faglork) set up that page? It is definitely cool...

This can be achieved using a RSS to Html Server Side Include (SSI) I made a video tutorial about a yr ago I think... which you can watch here... http://www.n7v.net/RSS_feed_for_your_fodder.html

And the Actual article with the neo.zip in it (with everything you need to turn this out in about 5 min's is here)
http://www.n7v.net/v7ndotcom-elursre...or-your-fodder

Good luck and if you have any questions about it... feel free to start a new thread :)

db / NeO

[Peter (IMC)]

Using rss feeds to automatically create content is also considered a form of content scraping and may not be so much appreciated by the search engines.

Not saying you shouldn't do it, but I believe it is a factor to consider if you want to try this.

In any way, just using obvious logic, fresh content is not so fresh if it was already published on other sites of course. And also, you´re not in full control of what is published on your site using rss feeds as content sources.

I'd advise to go the original way and do the work to get the fresh content. It's also a lot more fun to do... :)

[ctabuk]

Hi, actually Neo1 ours is not RSS, but Faglork knows the details. Judging by the number of hits we took from this topic I'll be interested in seeing how many IBL's it generates.
Peter, I cannot agree with you on this, sorry mate.If we were doing it on a topic like SEO then I would agree with you 110% and if it was a new site, then in hindsight I should have added this 'Don't do it on a new site, or if you do, narrow it down to specific subject. Also I would add there that you say you cannot be in full control.

Well let's look at that in terms of SEO. We use a Google Alert, so we know that the stories that will come in are via the UK press. Too quick for the duplicate content aspect, and they are all 'Printable Versions' - Also a little extra for all you bloggers out there. I have a blog, I keep it a secret, I create characters that post on it. And each Blog is Topic Related - So I have Multi Blogs within One Blog - So very often my own feed into my blog is on Google Alerts.
I also feed my username IBL's into it too. But that is another topic!!!
Our site has been up for 8 or 9 years, it is 'google loved' in fact Ask adores it and Live does too. The only one that shy's from it is Yahoo, maybe I have been too critical of it in my posts. So if you are reading this Yahoo Bot, we love you! (But not as much as you, you lovely Google Bot you, come here my precious)

[Ne0]

LOL@ David :D

And Peter... I will point out that I only use my own RSS feeds from my SEO blog to my SEO site and I use the first 150 chars of the post so that I always have fresh content on my site that is updated within minutes of my posting on my blog. So in that aspect I do completely control my content through the use of RSS - it's like a nifty CMS in a round about way ;)

db

[Peter (IMC)]

That way works fine and yes if you´re the one that provides the content it doesn't make that much difference. But this kind of technique is very tempting to be abused... That´s why I mentioned it,. :)

[ctabuk]

I am not quite certain who NeO's hand kiss is aimed at.- hehe
But it would appear that we have hit upon virtually identical tatics in SEO, not a bad thing. Creativity is the ultimate weapon of the serious marketer. Hey I like that, I just penned a new one, I hope it catches on.

Think SEARCHER always first and foremost, if you see something that you think your buying public will want to see or read. Then Add It.

[ctabuk]

Me Double Posting - Never !!!

This just came in on my stats and IBL's so I thought, hey this might help a few people out - I hope so.
• Social Homebuy News - Information by CTAB - of April there will be 23 new 'HomebuyAgents' covering every region in theCooper gave details of 23 new homebuyagents . These are described ... Yvette Cooper will announce 23 HomebuyAgents advice centres offering guidance
URL: http://www.counciltenantsmortgages.c...ebuy-news.html


Now this came in via Splut the well known Directory. Now there has been a great deal of controversy over whether Directories are really a good place to submit your site. The answer has to be...
YES if they spider.
Let's look at what has happened here purely from an SEO view.
www.splut.co.uk has created a page that it has called Homebuy Agents - I won't bore you with what they are, but they are intrinsic to my business.
Splut has spidered for links, and it has found - wait for it ...
My News Feed from Google Alerts.
It then extrapilated (Big word means 'it took')the relevant content out of a newspaper feed from my site.

So now you have seen how the topic matter actually works in practice. Nap time zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz LOL

[raj7]

Does reusing CSS constitute original content. I've tested this and it appears that google doesn't mind. Do people have info on Yahoo and MSN? Yahoo might seem to factor it in. Any good info on this?

Raj

[Duncan Pollock]

A business selling jewelry today is likely to have done so yesterday and is probably going to be selling it tommorrow, the day afterwards, and innumerable days, weeks, months after that. And just as selling jewelry is selling jewelry is selling jewelry, so coming up with fresh content is much, much easier said than done.
In my own case, I'm doing what I did yesterday and fully expect to go on doing so ad nauseum. Working for buyers is working for buyers is working for buyers ....
So do I have an answer?
Possibly not, but I am lucky enough to have an encouraging web presence and seem able to retain it, even though, in general terms, my site stays the same old same old all the time.
Nevertheless, apart from occasional tweaks to my main pages and, once in a while, the addition of a new link that I've stumbled across as being particularly relevant to my topic, I send a newsletter out every month and, by adding a copy of it as a subdomain each time, increase the size of my website by a couple of pages every few weeks. This in turn updates my sitemap and, I suppose, can increase the results when anyone uses the FreeFind search box I incorporate in a couple of my pages.
Apart from all this, though, I'm sure Google et al realize that innumerable websites are going to go on going on the way the businesses behind them are bound to do. Thus, fresh content is maybe no more than one of the countless factors that the algos have to -- and I'm sure do -- take into account.
Fresh content for the sake of freshness alone is perhaps of little interst to the search engines. Only if it's a worthwhile addition or extension is it likely to have a great bearing on your web postion. Or, if you wish, the need for freshness deserves to be set against the longtime advice that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Duncan

[amar]

IMO fresh content here reflects to the regular changes in home page content. Here i am not asking to change the whole content. However we need to have a section of the page where we can update the page with latest news related to that particular site theme.

Secondly, adding new pages to the website will always increase site visibility in search engines.

[SemAdvance]

Hi Steve

Look at the thread you started here.

This is fresh content in WPW eyes as well, as the search engines eyes.

Peace!

[ArthurNYC]

Originally Posted by ctabuk

The simplest way to add new and fresh content is via Google Alerts and then place a feed into your site as we have here. http://www.counciltenantsmortgages.c...ebuy-news.html

The news stories change about once a week, sometimes more, but it is a 'revolving'system set up for me specially by 'faglork'. I had the idea, he had the technical wizzardry - Google loves it and it creats a very large number of hits.

That is a nice idea. I use Google alerts, mostly to keep up on competition and any news on my sites.

Why does Google like it? Why does it create a large number of hits?

Any idea how that was accomplished?


Arthur