Want more Google traffic? This (surprisingly) won’t help

I was talking to a freelance writer the other day…

She was debating a freelance opportunity where she’d have a stable amount of ongoing work.

But, she’d need to research topic ideas, conduct the keyphrase research, and create at least two well-researched 2,500-word guides—every week. Plus, ideally, one or two shorter blog posts.

That’s a lot of content for one person to create. Every. Single. Week.

Her client-to-be tempted her by sharing how she’d “own” the process and could create what would drive the most Google traffic.

He was all about the Google traffic. In the prospect’s mind, more content (especially long-form content) published more often was the key to traffic-driving success.

Although he’s not correct, I understand why he’d feel that way.

On the surface, it makes sense that scads of content would always gain increased Google traffic.

But, there’s something the prospect didn’t factor into his foolproof “more content is automatically better” equation.

And that’s it’s not MORE content that drives traffic. It’s an increase in QUALITY content that could drive more traffic.

And that one word makes a big difference.

Let’s face it, how possible is it to crank out two pillar pages plus assorted blog posts every single week?

The first couple weeks, you’d probably do okay — you’d be running on adrenaline and the novelty of it all.

But then, think about your writing quality after the novelty and adrenaline wore off. You’d constantly be researching, writing, revising, and on an endless content creation hamster wheel.

You’d be tired. And you know what happens when you get tired.

Yup. The content quality suffers. You may still be cranking out 5,000 words a week. But you’re probably not using the best words.

And that’s a problem.

(Which is what I told the writer. You could do it. But do you want to, especially considering the long-term ramifications? She decided to turn it down. I don’t blame her.)

Content doesn’t automatically make a site better unless it’s good content that drives targeted traffic.

Plus, good content may not drive scads of traffic. Some content is so niche — especially B2B content —  that it may only attract a couple of hundred targeted visitors a year. That’s okay. Those readers are highly targeted.

Is content frequency a ranking factor?

Nope. There’s no percentage in publishing every day “for Google.” Google’s John Mueller reinforced that content frequency has nothing to do with traffic. It’s not a ranking factor.

Here’s the Search Engine Roundtable write-up if you want to learn more.

Plus, I talked about this a few years ago.

So, if you’ve stressed about needing a specific content frequency “for Google,” you can relax.

It’s better to focus on creating a sustainable content creation plan than cranking out a bunch of content “for Google.”

What do you think?

Have you learned that more content is better for Google? Would you take on a job where you had to research and write that much content every week? Head over to the SEO Writing Tips group and let me know!