A colleague sent me this article about how many sites affected by the Google Panda algorithm updates are still struggling to recover, though at this point it could arguably be phrased “have failed to recover.” He advises site owners in many situations to simply scrap all their content and start over. Fortunately I had no sites significantly affected by the Google Panda algorithm update, so it would be easy to wipe my brow and feel like I dodged a bullet and call it good. But Michael Martinez brings up a great point. He said he hadn’t created new content in years. It got me thinking about how often we search engine optimizers get stuck in a rut of just making formulaic on-page SEO changes to existing stuff on the site, do the occasional linkbuilding push, and even get lazy and just start automating or syndicating content for the sake of getting content on the site – regardless of how junky it is.

So many SEOs write content only to appease the search engines. So many website managers write content only to make sales. But they’re missing the point. What’s in it for the visitor? If we all took a minute to really think about what the visitors are looking for, writing all new content isn’t as hard as we’re making it out to be in our heads. We’re just procrastinating. You know better than anyone what you’re writing about, so just sit down and do it. And make it valuable. And make it interesting. Maybe I’m oversimplifying the simplicity of writing great content (I have a journalism degree) but I feel that any great SEO should also be a great writer, or at least a great reader.

I can’t say that I’ve syndicated garbage content, but I can say that I am guilty of letting slide the creation of new, evergreen content (not just fleeting blog articles) with the intention of being useful, relevant content with serious longevity. I get used to tweaking and pushing the old stuff, which is great and all, but I get hung up on it because it’s easier to do than to plop down and start researching and writing something new. There are so many benefits to adding legitimate new content to your sites, including providing a more relevant and useful resource to your visitors and potential visitors, but also expanding into new key terms you may not have ranked for before. So my conversations this week will center not around modifying old stuff or trying to capture and comment on fleeting trends for our blogs, but instead on how we can start writing incremental new content I’ll call it. Surely there are some folks’ fresh questions we’re not answering if we haven’t added any legitimately new content in years. What areas have we not thought of that we can reach into? What are entirely new areas of coverage we’re missing?

So I will be going through each of my sites and my clients’ sites this week and looking for those areas of opportunity for incremental new content. Each of these sites can speak from a position of very niche expertise, and there are countless good, valuable, new content pages to be had. There are resources out there that we can provide that others aren’t yet, or that no one’s organized into a usable medium yet. It’ll take real thought and legwork, but new new content on our sites is worth it – and not just for SEO.

About Heather Physioc

Heather Physioc is a Kansas City search engine optimization specialist, conversion rate optimization specialist and website marketing strategist who specializes in lead generation website marketing. Connect with Heather on Google+