Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Creating New Pages Versus Improving Existing Pages
-
What are some things to consider or things to evaluate when deciding whether you should focus resources on creating new pages (to cover more related topics) versus improving existing pages (adding more useful information, etc.)?
-
Should I create new pages to cover related topics or improve an existing page?
My first consideration would be specificity of your topic. How many key words or phrases are you trying to focus? How much content do you have to offer?
Let's use cough syrup as an example (as I reach for my bottle). If your company name is Nature's Relief and you offer Nature's Cough Syrup as your product then one well presented page would probably be best.
If you are Robitussin and have 5 different cough syrups and brand yourself on "a different syrup for different coughs" then I would definitely recommend a separate page for each product. The first page might target keywords such as "hacking cough" which the next page might work along the lines of cough and nasal decongestant.
A final thought. If you provide Nature's Cough Syrup and are trying to compete with a competitor like Robitussin, then I would try to be creative and offer separate pages focusing on my competitor's key words. You can offer testimonials or examples where your product relieved a hacking cough, targeting the same key word.
In summary, step back and determine what your goals are for the page. First and foremost, how can you present the page to provide the best user experience. The next thought should be why are you making a change?
-
I'd like to offer a hybrid perspective. Quality doesn't actually always win in the end. If you've got a great quality filled page that brings no traffic because it can't compete in it's specific niche, it's sometimes due to the fact that competitors have much more quality content - they're established leaders in a given topic for example. And while more inbound links can sometimes help, or lately social media, sometimes it just requires more content.
Whether it's on-page or additional pages will require evaluation and Magento's suggestion is a good start. But also look at whether the competition is drowning you out for a given page's topic. And if they are doing it with just one page, you could try and go for head to head one-page battling, though you'd most likely be able to leap-frog ahead with a multiple-page approach where the sum-total is more than a competitor's single page. You'd essentially be creating a new "section" devoted to the topic.
Of course that doesn't mean you can scrap the quality issue because Chris's take does have a foundation in truth.
-
Run your webpage on the On Page Report Card. http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/on-page-keyword-optimization/new It will grade your webpage. Only do this for the web pages that are ranking in the top 50 (or whatever you determine) and decide which ones to improve. It sounds like some of the webpages you have may have some potential with just a little tweaking.
-
Quality over quantity always wins in the end. Make what you have the best you can, then add more quality content on related topics.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
301 Redirect or landing page
Hi everyone. I'm currently doing some SEO for a client, at the moment he has some landing pages which are categorised, but the category is set as a 302 redirect. I have a dilemma whether to 301 redirect to the landing page or make a page for each category. The link structure is as follows - http://examplesite.co.uk/products/fire/company-1/product/ so currently this is set as a 302 redirect - http://examplesite.co.uk/products/fire/company-1/ Do I make this page a category page and link the page to the children with some on-page optimisation or 301 redirect it?
On-Page Optimization | | Unbranded_Lee0 -
Does homepage SEO exist at all?
hi Just read a Yoast article explaining that the homepage should never be optimized for a specific keyword and should only be optimized for its business or brand name. i have a large site that I'd like to rank (or increase traffic for as I know people get irritated with that term now) for 'Campervan hire'. It has plenty of sub pages going after 'Campervan hire 'location'' for example. it makes sense to me for the homepage keyword - my core keyword - to be 'Campervan hire' and for the homepage to be optimised for this. However, the article I've just read (https://yoast.com/homepage-seo/) suggests a separate page for this keyword. What are your thoughts pls?? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | CamperConnect142 -
Home page and category page target same keyword
Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian
On-Page Optimization | | tprg0 -
How to find google indexed pages
I can't find where the # of indexed pages are on my google analytics. I tried the instructions below, but the index status was not an option on my dashboard. View the Index Status page: On the Webmaster Tools home page, click the site you want. On the Dashboard, click Google Index, and then click Index Status.
On-Page Optimization | | SoftwareMarketing0 -
Page rank check
Hello everyone, How long should I wait to see if page rank for optimized pages have improved? cheers
On-Page Optimization | | PremioOscar0 -
Creating a sitemap
what is the best place to go to create a xml sitemap? I have used xml-sitemap.com but it only does 500 pages. Any suggestions? Does a sitemap have value on the SEO front?
On-Page Optimization | | jgmayes0 -
301 redirects from several sub-pages to one sub-page
Hi! I have 14 sub-pages i deleted earlier today. But ofcourse Google can still find them, and gives everyone that gives them a go a 404 error. I have come to the understading that this wil hurt the rest of my site, at least as long as Google have them indexed. These sub-pages lies in 3 different folders, and i want to redirect them to a sub-page in a folder number 4. I have already an htaccess file, but i just simply cant get it to work! It is the same file as i use for redirecting trafic from mydomain.no to www.mydomain.no, and i have tried every kind of variation i can think of with the sub-pages. Has anyone perhaps had the same problem before, or for any other reason has the solution, and can help me with how to compose the htaccess file? 🙂 You have to excuse me if i'm using the wrong terms, missing something i should have seen under water while wearing a blindfold, or i am misspelling anything. I am neither very experienced with anything surrounding seo or anything else that has with internet to do, nor am i from an englishspeaking country. Hope someone here can light up my path 🙂 Thats at least something you can say in norwegian...
On-Page Optimization | | MarieA1 -
Landing Pages: New Domain or Sub Folder?
I use premise for landing pages. I have some extra domain names that are fantastic in my industry. I'm wondering if I should use those domains for these landing pages? The header, nav, footer, would be the same as my main site, the body and content would be totally different. will google penalize me if I have the same header and footer on a landing page?
On-Page Optimization | | homebizsmart0