Context, context, context

Maybe not the catchiest of mantras, but for web site owners and webmasters churning relevant content is an essential task to help pull in traffic.

And, if anything is crystal-clear in the rapidly evolving world of the internet, the stature of regularly refreshed, relevant and contextually precise content will do nothing but become the major preoccupation for anyone with a vested interest in their web presence.

Google, for instance, now indexes over eight billion web pages. And, to date, there appears to be no sign of a let up in the number of new sites being added each day. Because of this, the focus is shifting away from the sheer quantity of results a search engine produces and moving firmly onto the quality of results.

In order to achieve better quality results the search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms to better filter the wheat from the chaff. This continual evolution has - among other things – resulted in more complex criteria being applied and placed far greater emphasis on content, the words and pictures that go to make up our websites.

To ensure their results are as razor sharp as possible, search engines are always on the look out for new content. By being able to produce up to date and relevant results, search engines generate traffic and transform these eyeballs into revenue streams in the form of advertising.

As almost all search users enter text based queries, it’s vital not only that a site contains relevant keywords within its code but relevant text within its pages. The text, too, must be in context and meaningful. Search engines will penalise any site that sprays keywords around in a random fashion. This is known as keyword spamming and will seriously affect a site’s ranking.

Without a doubt, to remain competitive in the search engine rankings the surest way is to regularly supply fresh, relevant content.