Recent changes in Google’s algorithm that has led to a surge in bigger brands appearing among the top results of Google’s SERPs. Though the changes did not result from Google’s bias towards known brands but due to their commitment to give users the best possible results, which as Google sees it are sites that score well in terms of “trust, reputation, authority, [and] PageRank.” Of course since big brands usually have all these elements going for them then it shouldn’t be surprising that they will do better as Google refines their algorithm.

Sites that cannot lay claim to an established reputation need not be alarmed about the efficacy of their current SEO efforts because according to Matt Cutts “what you should be doing doesn’t change: try to make a great site. Try to make it a site that is so fantastic that you become known as an authority in your niche, and it doesn’t have to be a big niche. It doesn’t have to be a huge, well known keyword. It can be a smaller niche, and if you’re still the expert, that’s the sort of thing that people are going to want to link to, that they’ll talk about, the sort of thing people really enjoy. Those are the sorts of sites, the experts, that we want to bring back.”

In short we can still count on Google to continue in their efforts to provide the best results for search users and so weed out sites that do not give much value to users. So continue with building your site quality (reputation, links, content, etc.) because the next algo change is coming again soon. That we can count on since Google makes hundreds of changes to their ranking algorithm each year!

However much we might emphasize the importance of SEO the truth is that people are right when they say that content is still king.

Nowadays, with the advent of blogs, website content has become easier and easier to generate resulting in more and more pages out there about every conceivable topic on earth. It is true that though emphasis is still placed in content this makes it even harder to come up with content that will stand out above (or at list distinctly) from the others. This is a problem because as we all know for a website to be truly successful in its niche it has to have content that will make visitors keep on coming back and even refer the page, whether via links or spoken word, to others. Without great content no amount of SEO will seal you and your website’s reputation.

The funny thing is that right now the general tack people take in order to get their websites to have the content they want is usually by adding a blog to their site. Now there is nothing wrong with blogs. If there were I wouldn’t be writing this blog entry. ^_^ In fact blogs are great especially if you simply want to share your hobby or passion. Blogs are also very good for generating fresh content on a more regular basis. It would be sheer folly to change your homepage’s content daily (unless your website is a news aggregator or is based on some dynamic concept) because it is important for your visitors (especially if you have an online business) to become familiarised with your website in order to help them locate the information they need fast each time they visit the site. Blogs are a good solution for giving your visitors fresher and more updated content. However, you shouldn’t rely on the blog to set your site apart from others in your field. Ok so there are some people out there who are so good that their blogs have become meccas for people in their own field. In search we have Matt Cutts, randfish, William Slawski, etc. But the point is that not everyone churn out as many excellent posts as frequently as they could.

So what’s my point?

My point is simply this if you wish for your website to be known for offering great content do not rely on your blog at once to do that. Instead it is better to consolidate your knowledge into one great resource and then put that up as your main content. It will take a whole lot more effort to come out with such content but in the end if you are able to come out with something that can be considered as one of the classic contents in your field then that will seal the fate of both you and your site. Do continue blogging but take time to publish the really useful resource. In the end your site will rise because of that one single page (or it can be pages if it’s really long…and it will be long if you take on an exhaustive approach to whatever it is you plan to write about) but your blog will not become irrelevant since it will be where people will check for updates. If you lack the time to do this you can just keep on blogging but do not be surprised if even if your blog does well enough, you don’t end up among the ranks of gurus in your field.