Add content. Add a lot of content.

This is a red-hot, solid-gold tip. You ignore it at your peril!

Yet the owners of commercial web sites often scorn the very idea.

Recently I was consulted by a pharmacist whose web site is devoted to selling a weight-loss drug. When hundreds of others started selling this drug, his site got lost in the crowd. He'd repeatedly fine tuned his pages, and was desperate to regain the top slot in search results.

After hearing the evidence, my advice was: add content. Add lots of objective, interesting, valuable content. Publish articles about weight loss. The latest research, personal stories, calorie counters, links to health sites, plenty of facts - even articles advocating exercise and diet rather than drugs. Why? Because then people interested in weight loss are more likely to trust and bookmark the site. Yahoo! might even list it.

It was obvious that my advice was unwelcome. This gentleman's only goal was to sell sell sell.

But web culture demands a different approach to selling. You can't bully people into buying your product. If your product is widely available, then solid, objective, non-commercial content can differentiate your site from all the others.

(1999)

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