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.
How many pages for a new site for Google to sink it's teeth into
-
Hello,
I've got a high traffic site I'm building. Is 20 articles enough to start or should I start with 40 or 60 to not flop? I've got good internal linking. I've got:
3 10X articles
17 cornerstonesso far.
Worked hard so far. Do I launch? or wait for 40? 60? I know thousands is best. Competitors have much more.
Thank you,
Bob
-
@BobGW said in How many pages for a new site for Google to sink it's teeth into:
Hello,
I've got a high traffic site I'm building. Is 20 articles enough to start or should I start with 40 or 60 to not flop? I've got good internal linking. I've got:
3 10X articles
17 cornerstones
so far.
Worked hard so far. Do I launch? or wait for 40? 60? I know thousands is best. Competitors have much more.
Thank you,You’re in a great position to launch with the 20 articles you have, especially with 3 10X articles and 17 cornerstone pieces. Quality matters more than quantity, and your focus on strong internal linking and content depth is key. While competitors may have thousands of articles, your strategy should be to launch now and continue adding high-quality content consistently. Don’t wait for 40 or 60 articles—start now, monitor performance, and grow from there. Quality content combined with a consistent content plan will help you succeed over time. I fyou still confuse learn more
-
Thank you for your replies. Is there anything else besides internal linking, 50 first links, and on-site SEO that I need to keep in mind that's out of the normal ballpark?
Thank you.
-
"I’d recommend focusing on building quality content first. For example, my soccer online games website, which started with just a few detailed articles on online soccer games, soon grew to include game reviews, player stats, and strategy guides. This variety attracted more traffic and helped us rank higher. It's not just about quantity, but relevance and regular updates. Once you have a solid base, gradually increase your content, just like we did, and consider adding backlinks to boost authority over time."
-
@BobGW said in How many pages for a new site for Google to sink it's teeth into:
Hello,
I've got a high traffic site I'm building. Is 20 articles enough to start or should I start with 40 or 60 to not flop? I've got good internal linking. I've got:
3 10X articles
17 cornerstones
so far.
Worked hard so far. Do I launch? or wait for 40? 60? I know thousands is best. Competitors have much more."I’d recommend focusing on building quality content first. For example, my soccer online games website, which started with just a few detailed articles on online soccer games, soon grew to include game reviews, player stats, and strategy guides. This variety attracted more traffic and helped us rank higher. It's not just about quantity, but relevance and regular updates. Once you have a solid base, gradually increase your content, just like we did, and consider adding backlinks to boost authority over time."
-
For a new website, it's ideal to have at least 10-20 well-optimized pages to help Google crawl and index effectively. Consistent content updates and quality pages improve visibility in search results over time.
-
20 well-optimised articles with good internal linking and a mix of 10X and cornerstone content is a solid start! Quality trumps quantity, especially for a new site. If your articles are highly valuable and target relevant keywords, Google can begin indexing and ranking your site effectively.
I think you don’t need to wait for 40 or 60 articles. Focus on publishing consistently post-launch while promoting your existing content to build authority. Competitors may have more, but even a smaller site can compete with exceptional content and strong SEO practices.
-
@BobGW said in How many pages for a new site for Google to sink it's teeth into:
Hello,
I've got a high traffic site I'm building. Is 20 articles enough to start or should I start with 40 or 60 to not flop? I've got good internal linking. I've got:
3 10X articles
17 cornerstones
so far.
Worked hard so far. Do I launch? or wait for 40? 60? I know thousands is best. Competitors have much more.
Thank you,
BobHi Bob,
20 articles with good internal linking is a solid start, especially with 10X and cornerstone content. You can launch now and continue adding more articles over time. Focus on quality and consistency, and you’ll build up traffic as you grow. Good luck!
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
-
Unsolved Huge Increase In Internal Links + Domain Authority Tanked
Hey, I am very concerned about the link metrics I am seeing, really hoping someone can help. In October last year there were a total of 34.7K 'total links' attributed to my E-commerce website . This compared to 41.2k and 213k links attributed to my two main competitors. In November, my website had a forced update due to incompatibility issues my shopping cart version was having with the server on which it is hosted. (I was told by my web developers / hosting company that their server was upgraded.) This update created many problems such as checkout issues, page layout issues, sitemaps not automatically regenerating and the big one - it reverted back to http instead of https. Along with my developers, I spent 2 weeks fixing all of the issues until everything worked correctly and https was reinstated. After initial warnings from Moz, I have not received any critical crawler issues or warnings, big ranking drops etc since November. I was satisfied that all was ok. However, in November my 'total links' jumped to 81.5k and have since continued to balloon. December - 309.1k, January -335k, February - 665k, March - 716k, April - 719k, May - 742k, June - 751k. In the same period (November - June), my external links went from 5.3k - 8.7k. So it appears the huge increase in links are internal. In my latest report it states that 'internal follow links' are up by 8k and 'internal no follow links' are up by 1k. This is insane. I cannot understand why I have so many internal links and why they keep increasing. I maintain the website with updates, blog articles etc but no more than I have in the past several years. Worryingly, once this increase in links started being reported, my Domain Authority has also tanked. In October my DA was 37 (higher than my competitors) and has since dropped as low as 19. It has gone up to 21 this month (still significantly lower than my competitors). I have spent hours researching why this huge increase in internal links could be happening but have got nowhere. If anyone could advise what the issue could be and how I can fix it, I would be eternally grateful. Issues I have discovered along the way that may help with analysis:
Link Explorer | | g3mmab
My site has many 404s (hundreds) - all relate to urls of old images that have been removed from the website. The 'Top Hits' on my website are from blogs (some spammy) to these deleted image urls that return a 404. I don't use any plugins. I do get 'duplicate content' notices as my blog posts archive themselves and generate new urls - as an example - 'blog post name' archived December 2023. It may be the case that the old http urls have been redirected to https but I have no warnings for 'redirect issues' in Moz. Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any help.0 -
Are These Urls for Targeted Cities OK?
I am working for a waterproofing company out of long beach that wants to rank for other neighborhoods around the area. But I just noticed that their URLs are targeting two locations. They have the cities built on the URLs after the long beach part. Will that affect rankings? Not be as potent as a truly SEO friendly url like example.com/services/mold-remediation/mold-remediation-brooklyn-ny? Here is an example: https://zavzaseal.com/mold-remediation-service-provider-long-island-ny/mold-removal-pro-in-copiague-ny-11726/ Another thing is the URLs say "mold removal pro" if I am targeting "mold removal copiague, NY" will that matter to rankings that the URL has pro in it?
Local SEO | | ThisTimeWereOn0 -
Should I split long form content?
I have quite a long content on my site. By length I mean around 8000-9000 words. I optimized it to cover almost all searches related to a topic. But this length makes me uneasy for some reason. I do not think that users will find what they are looking for in such a long content. However, I don't want to neglect the SEO aspect of the content. I can talk about something like this without sharing the keywords completely: Title + for girls Title + for boys Title + for kids Title + for girlfriend Title + for boyfriend Title + for students As I said, in the current situation, these are all sub-headings (H2) of 8000-9000-word content. When I make a separate content for each of them, I can bring them all closer to 1500-2000 words. However, I am undecided whether this is the right step in terms of SEO and content optimization. What are your views?
SEO Tactics | | mozasea0 -
Page Authority
I feel like I'm wasting time by going out and creating backlinks for a new page to increase page authority, especially when I've already got the domain link for domain authority. In your opinion, how important is it to go out and create back links for a page? - am I wasting time I could be using towards creating more great content? Shannon Peel
Content Development | | MarketAPeel
Telling Stories about Women
MarketAPeel1 -
When to re-write and redirect a blog url?
What are best practices for rewriting (and then redirecting) blog URLs? I refresh old blog posts on our blog every month and many of them have URLs that are too long or could be improved. However, many of them also already get decent organic traffic and I don't want to lose traffic due to a URL redirect. Are there any best practices or "rules" I can follow when deciding whether to re-write and redirect blog URLs?
Content Development | | Emily.R.Monrovia
Thanks!0 -
Should you 'noindex' Checkout Pages?
Today I was reviewing my Moz analytics and suddenly noticed 1,000 issues with pages without a meta description. I reviewed the list and learned it is 1,000 checkout pages. That's because my website has thousands of agency pages from which you can buy a product, and it reflects that difference on each version of the checkout. So, I was thinking about no-indexing (but continuing to 'follow') these checkout pages, but wondering if it has any knock-on effects I may be unaware of? Any assistance is much appreciated. Luke
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Luke_Proctor0 -
After reading of Google's so called "over-optimization" penalty, is there a penalty for changing title tags too frequently?
In other words, does title tag change frequency hurt SEO ? After changing my title tags, I have noticed a steep decline in impressions, but an increase in CTR and rankings. I'd like to once again change the title tags to try and regain impressions. Is there any penalty for changing title tags too often? From SEO forums online, there seems to be a bit of confusion on this subject...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Felix_LLC0 -
Is there any negative SEO effect of having comma's in URL's?
Hello, I have a client who has a large ecommerce website. Some category names have been created with comma's in - which has meant that their software has automatically generated URL's with comma's in for every page that comes beneath the category in the site hierarchy. eg. 1 : http://shop.deliaonline.com/store/music,-dvd-and-games/dvds-and-blu_rays/ eg. 2 : http://shop.deliaonline.com/store/music,-dvd-and-games/dvds-and-blu_rays/action-and-adventure/ etc... I know that URL's with comma's in look a bit ugly! But is there 'any' SEO reason why URL's with comma's in are any less effective? Kind Regs, RB
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RichBestSEO0