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How much content should you have on a site when you first launch it?

by seosammy
12 replies
Hi all, long time lurker but rarely ever participate in the fun (will try and change that).

I tried IM several years ago but didn't get very far as I spent more time on the forums and tools than I did with my fingers on the keyboard. At one point I probably owned about 10 sites but none of them were ever 100% complete, they were half-ass SEO'd and quite honestly, only one made money ($80-200 a month in Adsense) but that was the one I started first and spent the least amount of time on - weird, huh?

I'm in the process of helping my wife launch a new site and found some niche-specific PLR that I've rewritten but the question that I have is how much content should you have prior to launching a website? Is 5 enough, 10??? Is there a magic number or do you guys just write, publish, write, publish and let it go at that?

I've got more questions but I'll try and find a more appropriate thread for them.
#content #launch #site
  • Profile picture of the author NatesMarketing
    I don't believe you need to "launch" a site. In my opinion a site is more or less fluid.

    You "launch" services, products, courses, etc.

    My opinion.
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    • Profile picture of the author kilgore
      Originally Posted by NatesMarketing View Post

      I don't believe you need to "launch" a site. In my opinion a site is more or less fluid.

      You "launch" services, products, courses, etc.
      Actually, I think this largely depends on the type of site you're talking about. In my case, we did a "launch" of our website and it was definitely helpful. (Note that I said website, as we have only one -- and this might be a factor in deciding whether a "launch" is necessary.

      Our launch strategy was to build enough content that people would not only find the site useful but would also (a) recommend it and (b) go back. We actually "launched" silently at first, just sharing the site with a few friends in order to test the live site before rolling it out the the larger world (though we had already done extensive internal testing).

      After that, we did our official launch, in which we promoted the hell out of the site to various related organizations, social media pages, bloggers and traditional media. We got some decently-sized Facebook pages to post about us and a few media hits and so while our first month's traffic was still pretty paltry (somewhere around 50K visits), it felt like we were at least making progress even though our advertising budget was essentially zero. Most importantly, we were already starting to get the customer feedback that I feel is so important to running a successful business.

      I don't think this model will work for everyone, but I did want to point out that there are use cases in which a website "launch" might be very effective.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by NatesMarketing View Post

    I don't believe you need to "launch" a site.
    I agree completely. (I never quite know what people are talking about, when they refer to "launching" a website. I suspect perhaps they're people with existing, responsive, targeted lists of subscribers who are putting up an additional, relevant site and want their existing subscribers to visit it?)

    Originally Posted by seosammy View Post

    How much content should you have on a site when you first launch it?
    There isn't one, objective, "right answer" to this question, Sammy.

    It depends on what type of site it is, what its purpose is, and what its traffic-demographics are going to be.

    I'm an affiliate marketer: I start off my own niche sites with 3 articles, a prominently incentivized opt-in, a brief introduction and explanation of "what the site is and who it's for", and the legal requirements, only. 2-3 short-ish pages, typically. That's plenty for me. I wouldn't want to attract targeted traffic to a site with much less than that, but once I have that, I'm good to go. After that, my sites do gradually grow.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author seosammy
      Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I posted another question in the SEO forum . This might give you guys a better idea of what I'm trying to do.

      Nate, thanks for the description. "Fluid" is the perfect illustration. So, another question for you... if you're creating an authority site in a niche, what's the frequency in which you add new posts? Is it a lot up front and less once the site is indexed and up and running, is it a certain # per week??? Again, I know there's not a magic number but I'm just trying to make sure I'm not wasting my time.

      BTW, if I could thank you guys on here I would but apparently I'm not allowed yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nithya Menon
    It depends on the type of website.For ecommerce websites content doesn't play important role..But for service based website we need user friendly content to get good rank..
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  • Profile picture of the author Anne Laidlaw
    The five articles should be fine to start as long as they are relevent to the sites niche.
    It i not the frequency that matters so much its more you way quality posts and articles on the site. Better to post once a eek with a great article that post daily with stuff that does not really matter.

    Anne L
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Hi Sam, get it up and running, and add content as you develop your site Hit the ground running to get your street smarts!
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    Ryan Biddulph helps you to be a successful blogger with his courses, manuals and blog at Blogging From Paradise
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Depends on the site. I launched my royalty free music site with 100 musical tracks to start and that's a drop in the bucket for that kind of site. I am now up to over 5,000 tracks but even that doesn't come close to the top sites.

      Don't concern yourself with how much content you need to start. Just get the site up there and add content to it over time each day if you can. Eventually, you will have an authority site. It will just take time. There is no "push a button make it happen overnight" solution to this.

      Just do it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve B
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        There is no "push a button make it happen overnight" solution

        Steven,

        You shouldn't say things like that in public . . . half the forum is now going to have to rethink their business strategy.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Corey Geer
    People focus too much on the number of articles or how much of content they believe should be on a website. You green light the project when it's complete.

    Google doesn't care if you have 5 articles or 100 articles. As long as you're focusing on populating your website with quality content that actually provides a reason for the readers to stay, then you'll be fine. If you're one of these (I call them DPers) populating your website with hundreds of "budget" articles just to fit some quota, you're probably going to have a high bounce rate and low rankings.

    As far as development production goes.

    Here's how I do it:
    - Get the domain
    - Create a quick coming soon background
    - Create a dev folder
    - Set up the database/etc
    - Develop the site until it's ready
    - Launch it

    I keep the /dev/ extension up just so I can make changes should any need to be made. Yes, you can do this with content as well. Any posts/pages you make will be put into your database and it's pretty easy to move over a database to another domain.
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  • Profile picture of the author squidface
    Banned
    Who says there has to be any? i am sick of al lthis "must have tone of information to give the "go to guy" look"

    Why? So some blackhatter, scumbag can copy your materials? So people can complain about this and that? So you can have a BUNCH OF TYRE KICKING, FREEBIE SEEKERS OPTIN TO YOUR LIST?

    WHY? WHY?
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  • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
    Originally Posted by seosammy View Post

    I'm in the process of helping my wife launch a new site and found some niche-specific PLR that I've rewritten but the question that I have is how much content should you have prior to launching a website? Is 5 enough, 10??? Is there a magic number or do you guys just write, publish, write, publish and let it go at that?
    Enough to make it useful Even one blog post can be enough if you're explaining what kind of great stuff your future posts will cover and how frequently people can expect to see something new.

    Just remember -- every single web searcher in the world is looking for answers and solutions. If your site provides them right out of the box, you'll be able to work your way up to being a true authority.
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