Google is the unquestioned authority on all things search engine, so playing by the rules is vital for the survival for even the smallest eCommerce company.

It can be hard for a small company to keep up with all the frequent changes to the Google algorithm, but if you focus on providing fresh, quality content for your site visitors, you don’t need to worry too much about the various minor tweaks to the way Google ranks websites.

Keeping Content Fresh is Challenging

In November 2011, Google announced a change to its algorithm that took into account the freshness of content, and in that same blog, tried to explain what that meant. Although what Google wrote may have been a bit confusing, what time has shown us is that freshness is a huge piece of the ranking puzzle. Google won’t abide sites that just sit there waiting for something to happen, they give the best rankings to sites that are shaking things up.

So, yes, freshness matters. It matters at least as much as the quality of the content you’re producing, and that’s one of the most important ranking factors. In other words, it’s not just vital that you produce content, it’s absolutely necessary that you produce completely original content on a frequent schedule.

This kind of content production can be challenging for an eCommerce company, but here are some areas that will help you can generate fresh content on a regular basis:

New products. If you frequently rotate stock or you feature new products often, using these items to generate extra long, well-written product descriptions can win you points with Google and your customers. Imagine their delight when a featured product has an exciting and well-written description, instead of another dry and boring functional write-up.

Expert reviews. Depending on your product offerings, expert reviews can not only help customers make better purchasing decisions, they’ll also help your rankings with Google. When experts contribute their knowledge about bikes, clothing and other items, it helps establish your credibility and increase your demands for order fulfillment.

Blogs. Blogs are the standard currency of search engine marketing, but that’s not to say that they’re tired or worn out. People continue to visit blogs and consume the knowledge you give away. In fact, when consumers were surveyed about the best ways to get their attention, 53.2 percent told Moz that free content on subjects they were interested in was the most effective. The trick to blogging is to provide something extra, something new that other blogs aren’t giving. You don’t want to merely recycle content, you want to provide your unique insight and knowledge for your readers.

Fresh content is vital to keeping your eCommerce site ranking high and sales pouring in. If you find you’re spending too much time on order fulfillment to focus on content creation, it may be time to consider outsourcing something.