How many pages is too many to add to a site at one time?

[eworld]

I have quite a bit of excellent content articles at my disposal and we would like to increase the number of pages on our site. I could, theoretically add 100's of pages at a time. Does anyone have a good sense of how much content added to a sight in mass looks bad to Google?

My plan is to add approximately 50 pages a week to our site, which already has 4000 pages of content. This is relevant content, since we are a custom writing service and all topics are covered. Our content is what gives us great organic hits and orders. However, I would like to add more than 50 a week...how many is too many?

Thanks and I appreciate thoughts and feedback!

Karen

[ArlenRitchie]

Here's an updated video (April 2011) from Matt Cutts that addresses adding a lot of pages all at once: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XpJacspWz4Y#t=130s

[EGOL]

Yes, I am jealous too.  I normally spend several days on a single page of content - so seeing someone with hundreds of pages makes me green with envy.

[DougRoberts]

Obviously much depends on the architecture of the site.

Another problem with posting lots of content is creating relevant cross-linking in the content. Unless of course you're relying on tags/related article type widgets to handle this for you and not worry about inline links.

I'm just jealous - my problem is normally struggling to get any content at all!

[EGOL]

How will visitors to your site react to such an avalanche of content.

Visitors will not see the avalanche....  Instead they will see a fantastic library of content that is wonderfully organized.

My worry would be that if you publish too much the individual articles can get lost and don't get the eye-balls they deserve.

As for "giving it the eyeballs it deserves"... you can promote it slowly... but it will immediately start pulling traffic from the organic SERPs.

Another thoughtI have is if you're publishing 1000's of articles - are you revising/pruning old articles too?

Sure, we do that all of the time... and publishing new ones tomorrow.

[DougRoberts]

How will visitors to your site react to such an avalanche of content. My worry would be that if you publish too much the individual articles can get lost and don't get the eye-balls they deserve.

If you list new content on the home and/or section pages - how much can they promote?

Another thought I have is if you're publishing 1000's of articles - are you revising/pruning old articles too?

[RobertFisher]

It was funny, Ryan. I agree Matt Cutts videos would be the last thing you need swimming in your head...

[RobertFisher]

From the point of view in the second paragraph, I agree as well. If it was all new content that could drive new customers or drive current customers to buy additionally, I would put it all up as well.

Certainly when it comes to a small component of the algorithm versus money today...show me the money.

Thx

[RyanKent]

My head is swimming with Matt Cutts videos which is not healthy. If someone asks "is it better to have keywords in the path or page name" my instant thoughts are "Alex Black"..."Green polo shirt"...not bald.

If you don't get the joke, don't worry. You are probably better off for it!

[AdamThompson]

I knew there was a Matt Cutts video on this...just couldn't find it!!!

[EGOL]

If all the content is dissimilar and each page focuses on some different writing item: sports-football, baseball, basketball, etc. and medicine, etc. and you have no content showing that, I would put it all up as well.

yes, I agree completely... this is the best situation possible.

I challenge anyone to prove putting up 1000 pages of content overnight, with no further description of it, will increase site performance appreciably.

When I put up new content it starts making money the next day.  It makes money from pulling visitors from search, makes money from visitors from other destination, and makes money from people who landed on my site from other pages.  That is guaranteed money.   Holding the content back because dripping it out over time might produce a freshness boost is a gamble.

[RobertFisher]

I think the issue is what is the site about and knowing how the content helps. Not just putting quality content up in a vacuum. So, if the site is about custom writing, and there are 4000 pages of examples, I don't think adding an additional 1000 today will help in any appreciable way. If all the content is dissimilar and each page focuses on some different writing item: sports-football, baseball, basketball, etc. and medicine, etc. and you have no content showing that, I would put it all up as well.

I believe if the content is similar to what is on the site, adding it over time (not five years, but one) could have an interesting impact. Not sure if there is a measure currently.

So, issuing the same type challenge, I challenge anyone to prove putting up 1000 pages of content overnight, with no further description of it, will increase site performance appreciably.

Is an interesting question though.

[RyanKent]

Adding hundreds of pages at a time is not a concern. There is not any reason to throttle the release of the pages.

The bigger concern is the quality of the content. The highest quality content often takes multiple days of a full-time person performing research, locating images, etc.

A helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JByPymBtXFY

[EGOL]

Wow!  In my opinion, not publishing valuable content immediately is like owning a machine that vacuums up money and refusing to use it.

If somebody gave me 1000 articles written by the Pope I would be breaking a leg to get them on my site.  I would actually pay my webmaster overtime to get them on the site as fast as possible... I would be working with him to get it done fast.

I am salivating just thinking about all of that content!  OMG!

I challenge anybody to present proof that holding back content is a better strategy that blasting it out right away!

[RobertFisher]

eworld,

You state that you have "quite a bit of excellent content articles at my disposal," which does beg a question regarding duplicate content. Are these articles anywhere else on the web? If not, and you are asking from the point of view of is there a penalty for adding lots of content, I am not aware of any.

At the same time if it is content that can be added over time and will help with QDF (query deserves freshness), Cyrus Shepard has an excellent post on SEOmoz blog. To quote a portion of it,** Websites that add new pages at a higher rate may earn a higher freshness score** than sites that add content less frequently.

Cyrus further adds that one needs to be careful not to ignore content on older pages.

I do not think by this he means that putting up 1000 new pages in a week will rocket you to stardom on the Internet, but I do think if your content is fresh and not currently on the web, you could have a real opportunity with this portion of the algorithm.

Best

[AdamThompson]

There is probably no magic number of how much content you can add or how fast. Quality is key - if you're adding high quality, unique content, I would not expect you to see any problems, no matter how much or how fast you added content.

Without having further details, your plan to add 50 pages/week to a 4,000 page site seems reasonable to me.