[clickbumped]

I'm just wondering how large you guys make your sites? I have a theory that larger websites get authority boosts in the rankings because they are more helpful, or at least seem to be with more content. Am I on the right track here? How many pages do you have made before you launch a site out? I know small sites can rank, I've done this many times. But I'm wondering if there is some kind of advantage that I'm just not seeing to having a larger site.

I'm going to test this out by building a really large site, regardless, but it'll be nice to have some input on the matter.

[active-learner]

They do, if you interlink the pages than a few strong pages can also boost the rest of the site.  This is what wikipedia does. But quality still matters and that is even more important with large websites.  The more pages your site has the more potential you have for having a few bad pages bringing down your entire site.  This is the only downside that I can see.

[TerryKyle]

SEO-wise CB, the general direction of the Web is towards bigger authority sites now and away from small sniper-style sites.

That's definitely the way I'm taking my Web portfolio - much fewer properties, much higher quality content (with a few shameful exceptions) and strong internal contextual linking (i.e. Wikipedia-style).

[clickbumped]

TerryKyle, on 14 February 2012 - 16:57, said:

SEO-wise CB, the general direction of the Web is towards bigger authority sites now and away from small sniper-style sites.

That's definitely the way I'm taking my Web portfolio - much fewer properties, much higher quality content (with a few shameful exceptions) and strong internal contextual linking (i.e. Wikipedia-style).

This is what I was thinking. Thanks Terry!

For anyone interested. Ill be testing the theory of large authority sites with my health site. I'll be growing out to more than 2,000 pages by January of next year, using proper internal linking and categorical structuring. High quality backlinks will be built to the site on a daily basis, and social marketing will be used heavily.

Hopefully this test will prove that large, high quality websites are the way to go.

[sparkplug]

clickbumped, on 14 February 2012 - 18:19, said:

This is what I was thinking. Thanks Terry!

For anyone interested. Ill be testing the theory of large authority sites with my health site. I'll be growing out to more than 2,000 pages by January of next year, using proper internal linking and categorical structuring. High quality backlinks will be built to the site on a daily basis, and social marketing will be used heavily.

Hopefully this test will prove that large, high quality websites are the way to go.

Hey CB,
2000 pages is great. How are you acquiring that much content? Are you having it all outsourced?

[clickbumped]

sparkplug, on 14 February 2012 - 19:31, said:

Hey CB,
2000 pages is great. How are you acquiring that much content? Are you having it all outsourced?

I'm actually really interested in the health niche, so I am going to write the content myself. I have already added 8 posts of 1200 words or more to the site. It's really simple when you have an interest in the topic.

[Fixer]

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you there!!! Should be good once it really gets going and could no doubt make you some good money for you.

Agree with what terry said, authority sites with great internal linking is the way to go and the way I am turning, it is so much easier to manage and easier to rank individual pages.

[Juvv]

I must agree about choosing a niche you are interested in! I have a few clients I help with content, and it just goes nowhere. Their industry is just so boring even they don't know what to say lol.

[Greg Fowler]

If you make a large site with 2000 plus pages make sure to use Web 2.0 features and not just content after content, with the site that can have 100K pages, like many forums, is a great way to engage others, get more traffic, solve issues, etc, that is why many companies today have a forum; more pages, larger site, applications, etc,

[Fitgal]

clickbumped, on 14 February 2012 - 21:50, said:

I'm actually really interested in the health niche, so I am going to write the content myself. I have already added 8 posts of 1200 words or more to the site. It's really simple when you have an interest in the topic.

You will probably be very interested in this article then. Fraser Cain has shared a lot of great info on how he has built his website into a huge authority site;

Instead of focusing on building links, he focuses on content on his site and has thousands of pages.

http://thinktraffic.net/zero-link-building-seo-strategy-with-fraser-cain

[RobertoMejia]

clickbumped, on 14 February 2012 - 21:50, said:

I'm actually really interested in the health niche, so I am going to write the content myself. I have already added 8 posts of 1200 words or more to the site. It's really simple when you have an interest in the topic.

I agree. It is easy when you like what you are writing about, but that 6 posts per day. At an average of 1000 words per post, that is 6,000 words per day to write, proofread, and edit. That is a lot of writing! If you can do this, high-five to you. I would not be able to write that much about any topic.

[clickbumped]

Greg Fowler, on 15 February 2012 - 07:28, said:

If you make a large site with 2000 plus pages make sure to use Web 2.0 features and not just content after content, with the site that can have 100K pages, like many forums, is a great way to engage others, get more traffic, solve issues, etc, that is why many companies today have a forum; more pages, larger site, applications, etc,

Thanks Greg. I actually will be creating a forum within this site once it has become more popular. For now, though, I'm keeping it just comments based.

[clickbumped]

Fitgal, on 15 February 2012 - 09:16, said:

You will probably be very interested in this article then. Fraser Cain has shared a lot of great info on how he has built his website into a huge authority site;

Instead of focusing on building links, he focuses on content on his site and has thousands of pages.

http://thinktraffic.net/zero-link-building-seo-strategy-with-fraser-cain

Hey Fitgal, great find! I just bookmarked that link.

I like how basic his site is, and the fact that he just writes about what he is interested in, and gets praise for it. That's my kind of job. It's really hard to consider not linking to my site, though, with articles and guest blogging, comments on other websites. Yes, it has worked for him, but I think a few very clean and powerful back links will help to increase the rate at which my site blows up.

[Greg Fowler]

clickbumped, on 15 February 2012 - 14:54, said:

Thanks Greg. I actually will be creating a forum within this site once it has become more popular. For now, though, I'm keeping it just comments based.

I don't why you would do that, get the your site and forum up and running together, so then you can work out the issues, etc, that may arrive.

[clickbumped]

Greg Fowler, on 15 February 2012 - 14:59, said:

I don't why you would do that, get the your site and forum up and running together, so then you can work out the issues, etc, that may arrive.

Good point. Considered

[Ted]

clickbumped, on 14 February 2012 - 21:50, said:

I'm actually really interested in the health niche, so I am going to write the content myself. I have already added 8 posts of 1200 words or more to the site. It's really simple when you have an interest in the topic.

If I was you I would be building out my Tier 1 links as I posted those new authoritative articles to the site.  Post a new page on your site.  Then post a Tier 1 link to that new page right away.

Just a suggestion.  Otherwise, if you hit a burnout stage after writing too many posts, you will be left with a website that you don't feel like building any links for.  You are better off with doing your Tier1 as you go so that if you do need a break from writing you can just pound the tier one pages with cheap links.   I speak from experience.