The conundrum of SEO for content sites

Lately we've given more attention to search engine optimization with our content sites. SEO for content sites involves, in my view, using an SEO-friendly CMS that is tuned to comply with SEO best practices, such as keyword-rich titles, headlines, and urls. Those are systemic things that can be set and forget.

After that, you're talking SEO at the article level, which is a whole different conversation -- one that involves a) the editorial organization being smart about what the correct keywords are for each topic they write about and b) using those keywords in their articles. It's definitely something editors should strive for.

But today I want to focus on an area of content Web sites that doesn't get a lot of attention -- category pages. Category pages -- e.g., a mini home page for everything on a given site in a particular topic area -- are arguably among the most important pages on a site. They offer very narrow, niched content.

In theory, search engines should love these pages. But they don't. And the nature of the constantly changing content on these pages prevent them from every gaining traction with search engines. By definition, a search-engine-optimized page is one where the copy on the page was specifically written--optimized--for a given keyword group. But if your category page has constantly changing headlines, that prevents you from having permanent copy welded into that page.  And if your pages are constructed for lead generation, you'll have sponsored links at the top of that page. So it would seem that category pages can be optimized for lead generation or search--but not both.

Here's another thing. Google is said to use over 200 data points in its ranking algorithm. One big one is links. For publishers with Web sites organized by product category that corresponds to the product categories of its advertising base, good luck getting suppliers in that market to link to your category page -- which will feature links to their competitors.

So it would seem that the traditional category page is good for humans, but not so attractive to search engines.

I think, therefore, we need to come up with a new model that's appealing to both. And we need look no further than our friend Wikipedia. At first glance, these seem to be no different than articles on any given content site. But look more closely. The content is evergreen. It's just as valuable today as it is a year from now. (Even better, each entry is updated as events change--up-to-the-minute evergreen content.)

Consider why evergreen content is so effective. Unlike traditional editorial content, which by definition follows the events of the day, evergreen content is, well, good forever. It's content designed with a much longer shelf life. A completely different way of thinking compared to the traditional editorial mindset.

Also look at how the neutrality of Wikipedia content attracts links.

As content site operators, we should rethink the content strategy and invest in original, evergreen content that should not only drive traffic from search engines, but should also provide a valuable service to site visitors who are looking for deep information on a given topic.