Is This Something That’s Unique?
I’m going to share with you something I do when working on my websites that I hope you can apply to your own website development and growth.
This isn’t some special website design or a neat coding trick, but rather it’s a way of looking at the hard work you’re doing and making sure it’s going to prove worthwhile over the long haul.
All you have to do is ask yourself this simple question when building new content for your website: Is this something that’s unique?
If you answer yes to this question then your organic growth will be much better than if you answer no.
If you’ve ever tried to build a website in a highly competitive market then you know it’s very hard to do without spending a lot of money to drive traffic to your website. These are the types of websites that typically answer no to this question, and they’re hard to organically build a sound user base.
You can use this question to help you focus on the pieces of your website in which you answer yes to. There will be times in which you need to incorporate some necessary pieces that aren’t unique, but by focusing on the unique pieces you can expect your website to grow much faster than it would otherwise.
A majority of people on the web visit your website for the information it provides, and if you don’t have something unique then they’ll find their way to someone else’s website.
This is something that shows itself in two websites I’m currently developing:
The first website, Which Team Wins?, does not get much organic traffic at the moment because a majority of the content I have on the website isn’t all that unique. This will change as I build something worth visiting, but if you’ve got a website that requires you to lay a foundation without unique content then to get traffic in the early stages you’ll need to advertise because not much organic traffic will be sent your way.
The second website, Probability Calculators, isn’t as old, and it doesn’t have any working probability calculators at the moment. It does, however, get three times the organic traffic that Which Team Wins? does. Why? Because the content is unique.
The same holds true for other websites I work on, and I’m sure it does for your websites, too.
If you’re stuck in a rut and are running out of ideas as to how you can generate traffic to your website then try coming up with some content and see if they pass the Is this something that’s unique? test. If they do then build them in and patiently wait as the organic traffic slowly starts to build!
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8 Comments so far »
Everyday Weekender said
on March 16 2007 @ 8:16 pm
Its very hard (for me anyways) to know if what I’m doing is unique. It seems like everything that I’ve done to my site in the last little while has been because of all the help I’ve received in the blogging community.
As for the content.. of course it’s unique as (hopefully) we are the people writing out our thoughts and ideas.. but to know if someone else has already beat you to it, well that’s tricky
Ryan J. Parker said
on March 17 2007 @ 11:08 am
It can be hard, true, and sometimes you have to do a little “can be found somewhere else”, but obviously the most traffic comes for the unique stuff.
Robert Irizarry said
on March 22 2007 @ 7:52 pm
Focusing on unique content makes a lot of sense since the expectation is that this is what will drive readers back. If all you do is rehash old content or content that can be easily obtained elsewhere then why should the reader bother coming to you. Of course, presentation and personality are also factors. If you can make a topic more entertaining than a competitor that could give you the edge you need even with not so unique content.
Houston SEO said
on June 24 2009 @ 11:31 am
Unique content wins out every time, it is always a better use of your time to spend the extra effort to write and produce high quality, unique content.
silicone breast implants said
on November 27 2009 @ 11:43 am
Software developement is a GREAT avenue to pursue. There are few other jobs in America where you can work 9 to 5 and potentially earn $100K+ with just a bachelors degree. It is interesting and challenging. Yes, there are definitely $100k+ jobs if you are talented, keep learning and bring a lot of experience to the table.
used tires said
on December 3 2009 @ 11:51 pm
Ooops the first link says “NOTICE: This domain name expired on 11/10/2009 and is pending renewal or deletion”
Till then,
Jean
used tires said
on December 3 2009 @ 11:51 pm
And the second link says “Server not found”
Guildford said
on December 21 2009 @ 2:43 am
I like the thoughts you have put in this article.
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