What does it actually look like to build a “quality” site?
There are a ton of “quality sites” that you can find in most niches. Just look on the front page for any term and you’ll find one or two examples. Really, you won’t see anyone ranking a shallow website for any decent terms these days. If there is one ranking, it won’t last long, that’s for sure. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised I have to explain the concept of “quality” to people these days!
Most quality sites have:
- Fully fleshed out TOP menu (NOT just HOME, PRIVACY, CONTACT/ABOUT)
- Longish articles with pictures, diagrams bullet points, and link outs (some bigger sites have 400 word articles, but for me it’s a mark of quality if a site has 700+ word articles)
- Lots and lots of content 30+ articles, often hundreds of articles, sometimes thousands
- An actual header — especially if it’s a custom one
- A packed out sidebar (usually on the LEFT if it’s a static site), NOT just a site with no other than ads
- Homepage might have additional in page categories + other information
- Ads carefully integrated to look like part of the site design and not placed ultra aggressively.
- Forums
- Inclusion of social media (facebook page, twitter page, newsletter)
Everyone has a different “style”, but what I’m saying here is that sites like these are on a whole nother level to that 1-5 pager mini site with practically no top menu, bare bones design, aggressive above the fold ads and shallow content. Presentation DOES matter these days. Think about this, if you have a real world business that’s a complete dump, do you think people are going to take you and your brand seriously? It’s the same with your website these days. I’m not saying bare bone shitty looking sites can’t make money (they can for adsense), but as far as keeping that type of site indexed and free from google problems, no.
Good looking, authority styles sites have a way higher chance, as Anthony stated, of actually getting a link if you hustle for them. That’s not saying you WILL get a link if you ask for an exchange, etc, but it makes it a hell of a lot easier if your site looks like it has some actual substance.
For product sites, the typical “authority style” is to just go with an outright ecommerce/dropship store rather than a bunch of affiliate links — it seems like google prefers this site of an affiliate store site, which they consider just another level the user has to click through. I’ve still seen well done product authority sites that pump affiliate sales though. They are much more than just a couple pages with some BS shallow reviews though. They often have well researched article, huge ass and useful buyer guides, comparisons between different product models — that sort of thing. If your “product site” is simply a rehashed shallow review loaded with a bunch of amazon links, that type of site offers nothing of value to the user that they can’t just get by going to Amazon. The trick with having an affiliate product site that won’t have problems in the future is to actually add some real value to the reader experience — whatever that “value” may be.
