Google Speaks Out About Frequency vs. Value

In blogging and Web site publishing, what do you think is most important, freshness or quality? Chris Crum raised the intriguing question in his post at WebProNews.

His post is entitled: What’s More Important in Search? Freshness or Quality?

Mr. Crum thoughtfully spotted a Google Q&A webmaster video featuring Google’s Matt Cutts. In the video, Mr. Cutts explains the difference between what is important to users of your site vis-à-vis what’s important in SEO for search engine prominence.

Repeat visitors to your site probably appreciate being able to return to your site and enjoying new content. That gives them a reason to keep checking out your site and is, of course, the advantage that mega sites have over small blogs because they have more resources. They can insert new content every few hours.

However, the situation is different for search engines. If a blogger has to make a choice between frequency and quality, Google’s Mr. Cutts advocates quality over frequency. He states your site will fare better with quality on Google. He also asserts your site will attract more links in the long run.

That’s not to say you should necessarily forego focusing on frequency. When asked about real-time indexing of sites, Mr. Cutts comments in another video.

Mr. Crum also presents some interesting thoughts about freshness and the new Google SERP redesign (search engine results page).

“…the smaller brand sites have a better shot at showing up the more frequently they are updated, wrote Mr. Crum in another post. The bigger brands tend to rank higher, the wider the range of time selected.”

He also wrote about how smaller sites succeed: “Brian Klais, General Manager and VP of Product Mangagement at Covario had a very interesting post at Search Engine Land looking at how the time filter may even help smaller brands get some visibility.”

So, it’s a thought-provoking blog by Mr. Crum. My sense is value is important. But do what you can to accomplish both – delivering value as frequently as you can.

From the Coach’s Corner, some publishers have experienced a sudden decline in their search engine rankings. The solution is to focus on value and frequency, attracting links from highly ranked sites, and promotion success via social media. This column, “Surprise? Facebook and Twitter Increase Odds for Sales,” explains why.