More pages is good for SEO? Is this true?
-
Hi Guys
I have a question, I was told the more pages I have the better for SEO, Is this true?
-
All in all, more pages would definitely increase your website's authority and provide strong signal about it's topic. So yea, it would better for seo, but only if those pages are valuable to the users - coz creating pages just for the sakes of it, would mean spamming.
-
Hi Justin
I have only found more content to help SEO when that content was of high quality and was what the user needed.
In cases where lots of content has been used without thought of the user, but just going after keywords or locations, then in the long run it has had a negative SEO affect.
-
Good Morning Justin,
The question is rather subjective. In which there is not a clear answer I can give. Carlos is spot on when he says that simply having more pages but without relevant content is a waste.
However, having more quality pages is in fact good.
Let us try to look at 3 cases. Read each one and put in order which sites you would prefer to visit.
Rachel just moved to Worthington which has a very nice well maintained bike path. She is looking for information about the latest bicycles and is considering buying one, but wants to do some research to see if she can bike to work which is 5 miles away from her new home.
- Case 1: A Local bike shop website, worthingtonbycycles.com
This site has about 10 pages, it shows the biking paths, some hot spots, where drinking fountains are and list some of the models and brands they carry in store. - Case 2: A national ecommerce site, everthingbikesonline.com
This site has thousands of pages of products from bicycle tires to customized bicycle seat covers. It talks about different brands and does pricing comparisons. Promises fast shipping and customer service. - Case 3. A bicycle enthusiast site, welovebiking.com
This site also has thousands of pages and has real people talking about a specific brand durability, what modifications can be done, how often they ride and how far they go. If further details up coming trends and show cases break through technologies. It does bike comparisons not only for price but also for value.
Now pretend you're Google, you have only these 3 sites to show the Rachel. Based on what you know about Rachel which site would you return in the number 1, 2 and 3 position?
The answer depends on what exactly Rachel types into the search box. For most all searches I can imagine Rachel typing my answer would be 1, 3, 2. Or 3, 1, 2.
So in this study we find that the small local shop is probably going to out rank the national e commerce site for pretty much anything Rachel may search for. it has less pages but has enough quality to warrant showing it to Rachel. We also see the site by enthusiast is ranking very well it has lots of pages but it also has lots of quality content. The national site didn't rank as well because Rachel isn't concerned about seat covers and tire treed she wants to know about her local commute and what bicycles are best for the distance she has to travel.
If we were to take Rachel out of the picture and just compare the big ecommerce site vs the enthusiast site on a national scale then the enthusiast site wins in most cases where people are looking for information. The caveat is if somebody searches for something very specific like velvet bicycle seat covers model X320. In which case the e commerce site would be the top choice.
I hope that helps and makes sense,
Don
- Case 1: A Local bike shop website, worthingtonbycycles.com
-
Hi Justin,
If the pages are duplicated ones or don't have relevant content is a waste of google crawl budget.
One of the things I do always when I start an audit is check a crawl of the site with the access in analytics and the logs (access of the bots) to see the useful and useless pages for SEO.
With this data you can take better decisions.
Hope it helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Doing URL change losses SEO ranking or not?
Hi Webmasters, I would like to move shipwaves.me to shipwaves.aeHowever, our website is concentrated on middle east countries and moreover, we have though .me is middle east [United Arab Emirates} and later with SEO advice, we have taken .ae.Besides, our confusion is if the website move from Shipwaves.me to the new domain shipwaves.ae this makes our SEO ranking loss or not?some of our keywords has been started showing on various search pages. So, anyone knows about this concern, please let me know.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | LayaPaul0 -
Is toggle Good For seo
Hi there, I have Client Who dont want to show his content to publicly, So team decided to use toggle, So Google can also See Content, But i want bu sure. Does Google will really cache that Content?? Does it down my website Ranking?? Please any one can Help, I need urgent basis Thnx in advance Falguni
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | iepl20010 -
Schema Markup for regular web pages?
I'm a bit confused about what Schema markup should be applied to such regular, informative web pages.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | gray_jedi
We have a few pages describing our technology and solutions. These pages are not products or news articles. And they are not something that should be reviewed/rated. What Schema markup should be used for a standard run-of-the mill web page?
Is there a good reference / tutorial for optimizing the schema markup of an informational website? Any advice is much appreciated, thank you!0 -
Why Link Spamming Website Coming on First Page Google?
As we all already know about link spamming. As per Google Guidelines Link building, Exact Keywords Anchor Link Building is dead now but i am looking most of the website coming on first page in Google doing same exact keywords linking. I think directory, article, social bookmarking, press release and other link building activity is also dead now. Matt always saying content is more important but if we will not put any keywords link in content part then how website rank in first page in Google. Can anybody explain why is website coming on first page because when i am doing same activity for quality links with higher domain authority website then we are affected in Google update.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | dotlineseo0 -
Can a hidden menu damage a website page?
Website (A) - has a landing page offering courses Website (B) - ( A different organisation) has a link to Website A. The goal landing page when you click on he link takes you to Website A's Courses page which is already a popular page with visitors who search for or come directly into Website A. Owners of Website A want to ADD an Extra Menu Item to the MENU BAR on their Courses page to offer some specific courses to visitors who come from Website (B) to Website (A) - BUT the additional MENU ITEM is ONLY TO BE DISPLAYED if you come from having clicked on the link at Website (B). This link both parties are intending to track However, if you come to the Courses landing page on Website (A) directly from a search engine or directly typing in the URL address of the landing page - you will not see this EXTRA Menu Item with its link to courses, it only appears should you visit Website (A) having come from Website (B). The above approach is making me twitch as to what the programmer wants to do as to me this looks like a form of 'cloaking'. What I am not understanding that Website (A) URL ADDRESS landing page is demonstrating outwardly to Google a Menu Bar that appears normal, but I come to the same URL ADDRESS from Website (B) and I end up seeing an ADDITIONAL MENU ITEM How will Google look at this LANDING PAGE? Surely it must see the CODING INSTRUCTIONS sitting there behind this page to assist it in serving up in effect TWO VERSIONS of the page when actually the URL itself does not change. What should I advise the developer as I don't want the landing page of Website (A) which is doing fine right now, end up with some sort of penalty from the search engines through this exercise. Many thanks in advance of answers from the community.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ICTADVIS0 -
Which SEO companies offer Penalty analysis?
I'm having a hard time finding a (good) SEO company which specializes itself in Penalty analysis? Any recommendations? I only found Bruce Clay, but they charge 8,000$ :)...
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | wellnesswooz0 -
If Google Authorship is used for every page of your website, will it be penalized?
Hey all, I've noticed a lot of companies will implement Google Authorship on all pages of their website, ie landing pages, home pages, sub pages. I'm wondering if this will be penalized as it isn't a typical authored piece of content, like blogs, articles, press releases etc. I'm curious as I'm going to setup Google Authorship and I don't want it to be setup incorrectly for the future. Is it okay to tie each page (home page, sub pages) and not just actual authored content (blogs, articles, press releases) or will it get penalized if that occurs? Thanks and much appreciated!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | MonsterWeb280 -
My ranking dropped 3 pages on 18 november 2012
Hi There my site ranking dropped suddenly today for my main keywords such as security companies in london and security services in london from first page to 4th-5th page. these keywords were ranked on homepage http://www.armstrongsecurity.co.uk/ other keywords from some internal pages, such as this one http://www.armstrongsecurity.co.uk/security-services/event-security-london.html theygot hit slightly and went couple of listings down the road for event security london, event security companies london as well. same slight hitting happened on this page for main keywords http://www.armstrongsecurity.co.uk/bodyguard-for-hire-london.html can anyone help me, how to get the rankings back? my site authority is around 60 which is far better than most sites ranking higher than me now. these are some problems that i understand so far. keyword rich anchor text link profile for my main keywords over optimised pages let me know if anything you might find suspicious on my site that i can fix either on site or in my link profile. looking forward to your help. thanks gill
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | spciuk0