Traffic or Content?

[rbmm]

Which do you feel is more important, driving traffic, or
creating and posting content?

I know that both are important, but I have been hearing
varying views on this and was wondering what you folks
here at the forum thought.

Content is vital to SEO and the search engines.

Anyone with a web site (monetized or not) wants it to
be seen and wants traffic. Soooo, do you spend most of
your time on driving traffic through methods like
social media, or do you concentrate on traffic through SEO?

Just wondering what might take up more of your time.

 

[Ron Killian]

Well, without content there is no traffic. In most cases. But you could buy content or pay others to write it for you.

One stat that gets used alot is 20% content creation, 80% promotion. I think that is a great goal.

I know from experience (learned the hard way), you have to spend a good amount of time promoting.

Course, what your promotional tactics are will dictate how much time you spend. So varies greatly. If your doing forum marketing, or blog commenting, it's going to require alot more time. But if you automate and say build lists(s) could be less time and you have a asset that you can leverage.

So I guess it starts with the content, then you spend most of your time promoting.

Obviously content is only one factor with SEO.

 

[Shimei]

Shimei

Couldn't agree more. The days of build it and they will come are over. One must create interesting content and rely on organic traffic which will come if the content is interesting and in demand.

Enjoy,
Shim

 

[vishwa]

I think both is very important. Content attracts visitors to your blog. However if you have content and there is no traffic than it will not worth so much. So, You have to do the both at the same. You have to create quality content and have to drive traffic to your site in order to utilize your content.

 

[imnathanjames]

Content is more important in my opinion.

if you send traffic you need to send it somewhere of relevance.If you have no content or relevant content then no traffic will come.

 

[ulterios]

These are both important but I would say that content is slightly more important in most cases. You have to have content for the traffic to see/go to so without content then the traffic would just leave. If you create lots of good content then eventually the traffic would come to see that content.

These are both needed to have a successful website or blog but if you were to start somewhere with one or the other then content should be your first option.

 

[elcidofaguy]

My vote goes for driving traffic without it your website is worth nothing. The fact is you can have really lousy content or even zero content and with driving traffic to it or to sites as an affiliate you can make a good sum of cash. Content for sure matters, especially with regards to conversions but the reality is if no one sees it then why bother? Ron's 20% content to 80% traffic is a good starting point when trying to figure out the level of effort to invest.

 

[Muzzamil]

Which do you feel is more important, driving traffic, or
creating and posting content?

I know that both are important, but I have been hearing
varying views on this and was wondering what you folks
here at the forum thought.

Content is vital to SEO and the search engines.

Anyone with a web site (monetized or not) wants it to
be seen and wants traffic. Soooo, do you spend most of
your time on driving traffic through methods like
social media, or do you concentrate on traffic through SEO?

Just wondering what might take up more of your time.

Content because it doesn't matter how much the traffic. If the content is bad the traffic wont convert.

 

[TrafficDues]

content of course is more important, If your content not good, Traffic wont convert and it is just like a waste of time
So focus on your content quality

 

[rbmm]

Thank you for all of the great replies.

I am aware of the 80/20 concept which tends to lean (4/5 worth)
toward driving traffic. That said, the content had better be
really good (which it should be anyway), so that the traffic
driven will want to return.

 

[FreebieBoy34]

Hi there! My take on this is simple: See to it that you create quality and valuable contents to your readers as this will help you drive more traffic into your website... After all, on of the main reasons why people check your site is because they want to tapped into contents which can provide them more information about your business as well as the product/service or even blogsite that you are promoting...

 

[Rob Whisonant]

You could have a ton of traffic but if your content is total junk (spun content, giberish, filler etc) you are going to make very little money or none at all. So content is still way more important than lots of traffic.

With content people are looking for and just a little traffic, you can make a lot more money.

 

[Bat2100]

I think traffic is far better than content. Because you can easily re write a good piece of content because the content is limited. The traffic is the one you should worry about.

 

[RenderedElite]

Content is how I drive traffic to my websites.. to me, content IS traffic. I don't write notes on how I will increase traffic to a site without mentioning content and topics. Not sure what you guys are doing. What do you do? share the same page over and over on social media? how do you get natural backlinks? people share your content if its helpful or something they like. You must not think of traffic and content as an either/or thing, it just doesn't make sense IMO.

I do like the reply that mentions 80% promoting and 20% creating content - also I don't think it would hurt to make it 60/40, especially if your website doesn't have much content yet. If you can hire someone to create the content or do the promoting then you can focus on one thing and you'll be more productive.

 

[Claire_Anderson]

Without any good contents, you cannot get any traffic. Because users use the internet to look for information. If you do not offer good contents the users would not use your website. And without traffic, no matter how much good quality contents you offer, the contents would just go to waste.

All the marketing websites spending most of their time in promoting the website. You need to spread the awareness of your brand in the market. If a company does not promote their brand through the social media, then the users won't even know if the company exists. The traffic and the contents are both important, if you want to increase your website traffic.

 

[Elegant_Designs]

Content is more important as it is what makes a reader coming back for more, is what makes a conversion, is what makes them buy depended if you are selling stuffs; if your content is really that good, heck your readers/visitors may even share it to their friends and/or shoutout from their blog, giving you more traffic without you doing so.
Retention is important, finding new customers/traffic always cost more in the long run.

 

[kb24]

I would say content is more important. If its good quality then it will get shared through social sites giving you traffic to your site. The more content you add google will start to notice your site.. it takes a while be patient.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Both are important as content with traffic won't lead to conversions and traffic without content same same. You absolutely have to market, and I agree the 80/20 rule is a good number.

 

[crazycoder]

If you create quality and unique content, people will notice it even little to low promotion/efforts. It will take time but you will have regular visitors if the content is great. If you focus only on promotion without content, you can bring traffic but cant make them stay on your website.

Remember : "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"

 

[mackrodd]

You need to spend 3 Days crating Great content and spend much time promoting that content. in several social networks online. facebook, twitter, instagram, google+ and pinterest. if you spend 2 days Creating Great content expect that articles t reach hundreds of people. people will tweet and share it.

Don't care about whether you articles are short or long. just focus on solving a specific problem

 

[TheHost]

Both.

Most important IMO is content, good content will bring visitors and eventually conversions.
Traffic on a crappy website is worth nothing.
"Just wondering what might take up more of your time." definitely SEO