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I'm just about to launch a website and I'm concerned about ranking well on Google's SERPs. I've done a lot of searching for information regarding this new change to their algorithm and all I keep turning up is basically "write good content to rank well". The way I understand it Google is now ranking sites with useful and unique content better than other types of sites and my question is this: what about business related sites that are not content based and whose content will rarely change over time?

The site I'm about to launch is concerned only with offering a video creation service, it's purpose to provide an online portal to customers so that they can order a video from our company. We're not in the business of writing content and the content on our site will be updated only in line with how our business model changes.

In short, the site is NOT there to entertain people - it's there to serve a practical, business related purpose. My question is twofold: First of all, are we doomed to suffer poor rankings because we refuse to change our site into something that google thinks is better than or more useful than other sites? And secondly, if not then what might be the best approach to ranking well with such a site?

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What you describing is just about every SME/B2C type "brochure" services site.

As long as you articulate your services well, with lots of examples, testimonials and contact information etc in an easy to navigate/find manner - then you are creating content.

In short - if it is useful to your intended audience, then you are on the right track.

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  • Thanks - I see what you mean but you're wrong about this site. It's not an SME/B2C style site. The design of this site cost over $1,500. It's not large - only 6 pages - but a LOT of attention has gone into it's design - specifically so that it doesn't come across cheap and acts to inspire confidence rather than distaste. Our target market is mainly corporate business and we've spent a lot of money on the image we wish to present to our leads. Now all we need to do is be sure to get those leads in our door so to speak. This algorithm change has throw us a little bit.
    – Alan
    Apr 7, 2011 at 3:45
  • My apologies Mike. I don't know what I was thinking there - of course it's a b2c site :) Whatever way I misread that that I took it to mean something like those cheap single page 'sales copy' sites that scroll on forever and sell via ejunkie.
    – Alan
    Apr 7, 2011 at 4:00
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Google updates/tweaks its algorithm on a regular basis. I think the change you are referring to is the one aimed at content farms. Personally I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about this, unless you have employed the services of a content farm in the past of course.

For as long as I can remember Google's general principle has always been to promote sites with useful/unique content, you don't have to write 1,000 word blog posts everyday or constantly update your site to be appealing to google.

In terms of practical advice, look at your competition, especially those occupying the top 5 positions in google. What sort of websites do they have? Do they have kick ass, constantly updated content?

Paying someone in a third world country to write content for you is a terrible idea, I hope @Joe's comment was sarcasm.

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"The content on our site will be updated only in line with how our business model changes." That's fine. But Google makes the rules for how Google ranks the SERPS. So if you want to rank well, you are going to have to play by their rules. It's that simple.

Now you have a site with videos. So how does that stop you from writing content?

Google is a text based search engine. The more text you have the better it understands your business and the more it will reward you with rankings. No new content, no text content or and other areas that you disagree with them on, you will lose ranking.

If you want good rankings, give them what they want.

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  • Thank you for your reply. The site does have plenty of original content. The thing is that it's not going to change very often. It will be static content with testimonials being added every now and then. If we change our business model, offer new packages or things like that - then there will be more changes but I'm sure you can see that it's not going to be anything like a blog or news site and this is the worry. You say give them what they want ..... we have neither the time to write or anything to write about.
    – Alan
    Apr 7, 2011 at 3:51
  • Jerry, I am sorry, I don't make the rules. Google makes the rules. You could always pay someone in a third world country to write. seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-query-deserves-freshness
    – Joe
    Apr 7, 2011 at 5:06
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    QDF mainly applies to news/social sites and related queries. There are millions of examples of content that is years old - but is still authoritative and relevant (which always wins)
    – Mike Hudson
    Apr 7, 2011 at 6:44
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Build links to it yourself. That's all it comes down to with Google, links links links. As for how to build links? Read a couple of article on linkbuilding. Suggest you start at SEOMoz.

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