SEO-centric New Website

[usabilityfreak]

In consideration of a new website client who has a website and wants improved traffic to their site, the question has often arisen in my mind, which is better - building the client a website with WorsdPress on a web host (HostGator, etc...), building a website on wordpress.com (I've only seen one of these before) or building a strict HTML site?

Additional info....

• client is not web-savvy and wants to edit text content that would be usually found on About Us, Contact Us, Our Product/Menu (etc)
• client's current site has poor to nominal performance in search engines (let's say they rank on the 3rd or later pages in Google, Yahoo, Bing)
• website will be 3-5 static pages (typical pages like Home, About, Contact, Product plus Samples/Testimonials)
• client is disinterested in making blog posts

My experience with my personal blogs is that traffic drops sharply when my posting becomes less regular (say less than weekly). I've also noted on blogs as websites, where no posting has been done after the building of the website, good plugins for SEO plugin have been used (Google XML Sitemaps + All in One SEO Pack), keywords throughout the site's DocTitle, meta description, page names, etc may be good (not extensive use of keywords, and not keyword-heavy to be sure), and the domain may be over a year old, that traffic is very low.

On these low traffic blogs as websites its become my personal opinion that either more content needs to be added or a blog pages should be added and the client should begin making posts on some sort of regular basis (weekly or monthly at least). However, I have an opposing view from one of my clients that wordpress sites just don't do as well as a regular old HTML site - given that both contain the same exact content (e.g. same 5 pages, same text and images on all 5 pages, same general page layout realizing WP will have much more code to achieve the same structure).

For sake of discussion let's say the website is for the business signs & banners industry like The Sign Chef (www.signsrus.com).

[claybutler]

All things being equal, WP sites do just as good as any other type of site, be they static or CMS.

Seems like your client is hesitant to participate in the SEO success of his site. Just simple blog posts, even once per month can not only boost the relevance of other pages (using anchor text) but if the posts are useful and well written they can generate business.

I added a blog to my main business site and it was the smartest thing I've done to date. Now, most of my traffic comes through my blog and I regularly get work from my blog because I post a lot of in depth tutorials about my areas of interest. People read the tutorials and then hire me to execute what I just explained to them in the article.

I don't post very often, but everything I do is very good and helpful to many people. Google also indexes my new posts in under 5 minutes. Not just indexed but actually ranking on page one within five minutes for my keywords. It's almost magical.

Oh, and go with your own hosted WP blog. You don't want to be beholden to the whims of a third party hosted site.

Also, since ranking is so dependent on inbound links, you'll need to link build. However, good blog posts can inspire people to link.

Depending on the niche, even one decent link can move you to page one. I have one client who trims trees. A couple of years ago, I built him a one page website and designed a logo and business card in exchange for removing some trees. I made one link to him from my site. He's never posted any new info. Guess what? he's number one or two on Google for all his keywords. Go figure.

[alienpest]

Sites build on the wordpress platform often exceed those built with html, really its more about just the content and links. though. I like the ability to use the "pages" to build a seemingly static site, and the "posts" to run the blog.

[Sweet Tooth #3]

Maybe your client would be more interested in a blog format if he was aware of some of the advantages of blogs (like rss for example).

When I first started, I didn't want a blog. My sites don't look like blogs. The only reason I have "blogs" is because Wordpress (.org) is free and easy to use. But now that I have my "blogs," I wouldn't go back and change a thing. I love 'em. Many site owners have gone to a great expense to add a blog to their otherwise static site.

When you say your traffic dropped when you stopped posting regularly, is it because your rankings fell (for a blog post....homepage...whatever)? I have a couple blogs that I haven't got around to posting on in months, and I'm keeping all my rankings for those terms.

I only make a blog post when I go after a new search term. But even if you're just trying to rank a static home page, having a bunch of blog posts with relevant content helps a lot. And as Clay said, link back to your target page with the desired anchor text (in the post content). Disclaimer: Some disagree with this opinion.

I've tried to rank 3 page websites before and it doesn't work very well. Blogs offer more of a personal connection. And there's content that you can include in a blog post that wouldn't make sense on it's own page.

Maybe you could set him up with a Wordpress (.org) site with a static Home, About, and Contact pages. And then he'll have the option to do some blogging if he wants to. And I'll just end with what I mentioned earlier. I didn't even want a blog. But now I couldn't be happier with my WP blogs...seo and otherwise.

Edit: I know my sig says "Newbie," I don't think I should still be referring to myself as a newbie. But I am possibly 1 of the most technically inept people on the face of the planet.

[JohnnyO]

I think you should give the client what they're asking for. If nobody is going to be making blog posts, even if they should be, a blog may not be the best route. Long term, they require updating to remain secure, managing of comments, etc. I don't recommend WP blogs to people who aren't committed to updating them.

You can still do plenty of SEO on a static website. If the client wants more traffic but doesn't want to create much content, maybe PPC is the route for them.

[usabilityfreak]

This isn't for any particular client, I'm trying to decide all of the pros and cons between site design on these 3 different platforms, and seeing what everyone else thinks (and knows) could be helpful.

[monstercoder]

With wordpress, I highly recommend making a backup of everything, including the entire database on a regular basis. They are always a target of hackers. A word of advice... when installing a new wordpress, don't leave the table names using the default names starting out with names such as "wp_". When SQL injection exploits are made, people can send SQL commands to those tables since the hackers know the common names of them. If you change the names of the tables to something customer, they have no idea how to issue the SQL commands to enter or retrieve data. That closes one security hole right there. I've seen lots of WP blogs get hit where people put in hidden links stealthed out by <style> commands to change the display text to none. They think that Google will see the links, but the web site owner won't. Little do the hackers know that invisible links are worthless for link juice. But it's still the fact that you don't want to have 10,000 invisible outbound links going out of your web site to bring your site down or kill your PR.

[usabilityfreak]

All things being equal, WP sites do just as good as any other type of site, be they static or CMS.

Seems like your client is hesitant to participate in the SEO success of his site. Just simple blog posts, even once per month can not only boost the relevance of other pages (using anchor text) but if the posts are useful and well written they can generate business.

I added a blog to my main business site and it was the smartest thing I've done to date. Now, most of my traffic comes through my blog and I regularly get work from my blog because I post a lot of in depth tutorials about my areas of interest. People read the tutorials and then hire me to execute what I just explained to them in the article.

I don't post very often, but everything I do is very good and helpful to many people. Google also indexes my new posts in under 5 minutes. Not just indexed but actually ranking on page one within five minutes for my keywords. It's almost magical.

Oh, and go with your own hosted WP blog. You don't want to be beholden to the whims of a third party hosted site.

Also, since ranking is so dependent on inbound links, you'll need to link build. However, good blog posts can inspire people to link.

Depending on the niche, even one decent link can move you to page one. I have one client who trims trees. A couple of years ago, I built him a one page website and designed a logo and business card in exchange for removing some trees. I made one link to him from my site. He's never posted any new info. Guess what? he's number one or two on Google for all his keywords. Go figure.

I've recommended client blogging, and some don't have the desire, some have the desire but no idea what to do, others embrace the idea and make posts or have someone do posts for them. My personal blogs do great, for what they are, I enjoy a couple of thousand uniques per month on 2 blogs.

So, you're a vote for WP self-hosted then.

Sites build on the wordpress platform often exceed those built with html, really its more about just the content and links. though. I like the ability to use the "pages" to build a seemingly static site, and the "posts" to run the blog.

Again, I agree - plus, for clients who want to update their hours, about us, etc... WP can't be beat for effective CMS, both giving the client a great way to update, but also with great SEO, and for the most part if you set permissions they can't get into areas you would want to keep non-coders out of.

Maybe your client would be more interested in a blog format if he was aware of some of the advantages of blogs (like rss for example).

When I first started, I didn't want a blog. My sites don't look like blogs. The only reason I have "blogs" is because Wordpress (.org) is free and easy to use. But now that I have my "blogs," I wouldn't go back and change a thing. I love 'em. Many site owners have gone to a great expense to add a blog to their otherwise static site.

I haven't tried WordpressDOTorg for personal/business blog sites yet, but I like the way they are always the latest version. I don't like the lack of access to CSS and customizing in the free versions personally, but for most clients of mine that woudn't be an option.

When you say your traffic dropped when you stopped posting regularly, is it because your rankings fell (for a blog post....homepage...whatever)? I have a couple blogs that I haven't got around to posting on in months, and I'm keeping all my rankings for those terms.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was talking about my personal blogs when referring to the traffic ups and downs according to frequency of posting. I added that in an attempt to let readers know before replying that I was familiar with Wordpress. This question of Wordpress Self-Hosted VS WordpressDOTorg free blogs VS standard HTML was about options for client sites. I'm trying to get "the big picture" on comparing these three. For example, something I haven't seen yet is anyone posting about using WordpressDOTorg blogs for a business site, and how that worked. I'm assuming you have added WordpressDOTorg blog(s) in addition to your main HTML site.

I only make a blog post when I go after a new search term. But even if you're just trying to rank a static home page, having a bunch of blog posts with relevant content helps a lot. And as Clay said, link back to your target page with the desired anchor text (in the post content). Disclaimer: Some disagree with this opinion.

I was purposely avoiding the intricacies of internal linking, which I think you are referring to here, but good point.

[QUOTE=Sweet Tooth #3;584953]I've tried to rank 3 page websites before and it doesn't work very well. Blogs offer more of a personal connection. And there's content that you can include in a blog post that wouldn't make sense on it's own page.[/blog]

That's a good bit to hear, I've recently started adding content to a client's static blog site that is under 5 pages for that reason. Its kind of difficult to rank well in many industries with only 5 or fewer static pages.

Maybe you could set him up with a Wordpress (.org) site with a static Home, About, and Contact pages. And then he'll have the option to do some blogging if he wants to. And I'll just end with what I mentioned earlier. I didn't even want a blog. But now I couldn't be happier with my WP blogs...seo and otherwise.

Edit: I know my sig says "Newbie," I don't think I should still be referring to myself as a newbie. But I am possibly 1 of the most technically inept people on the face of the planet.

Yep, WP blogs are great for SEO, especially with good plugins, theme choice and decent writing.

I think you should give the client what they're asking for. If nobody is going to be making blog posts, even if they should be, a blog may not be the best route. Long term, they require updating to remain secure, managing of comments, etc. I don't recommend WP blogs to people who aren't committed to updating them.

You can still do plenty of SEO on a static website. If the client wants more traffic but doesn't want to create much content, maybe PPC is the route for them.

Good points, especially about maintenance!

[Sweet Tooth #3]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was talking about my personal blogs when referring to the traffic ups and downs according to frequency of posting. I added that in an attempt to let readers know before replying that I was familiar with Wordpress. This question of Wordpress Self-Hosted VS WordpressDOTorg free blogs VS standard HTML was about options for client sites. I'm trying to get "the big picture" on comparing these three. For example, something I haven't seen yet is anyone posting about using WordpressDOTorg blogs for a business site, and how that worked. I'm assuming you have added WordpressDOTorg blog(s) in addition to your main HTML site.

I should have referred to them as self hosted WP blogs instead of WP.org blogs. I work on my sites 12-16 hrs a day. So by the time I get here to WPW my brain is pretty much fried. WP.com is the free one though. And I don't have any static HTML sites, I just have self hosted WP blogs that are built for SEO and they kick ass in the SERPS.

I was purposely avoiding the intricacies of internal linking, which I think you are referring to here, but good point.

All I was talking about was putting a few links in the post content with the desired anchor text back to the target page. Very easy and it pays off huge.

Good Luck