Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, answers a question about text formatting in his latest video where a user writes in to ask:
“Does a website get a better overall ranking if it has a large amount of indexed pages?”
Matt starts off by setting the record straight for everyone: having a site with a large number of indexed pages doesn’t automatically result in a higher ranking. That’s simply not the case, Matt says.
However, Matt explains, it is the case that if you have a large number of pages with various keywords on them then you have the opportunity to rank better for a user’s individual queries. Just having a lot of pages is not an indicator that your site is in good shape, therefore it doesn’t grant any kind of ranking boost.
One benefit of having a lot of pages, Matt says, is that it might mean there are more links pointing to it which we all know means it has higher Page Rank. If that’s the case then Google may crawl deeper into the website. A site with high Page Rank might mean that it’s a better match for users’ queries.
Matt stresses once more that rather than an automatic boost in search ranking, a site with a large number of pages gives you more opportunities to rank for specific search queries. The only reason you get those opportunities, Matt says, is because of the number of quality links back to your site that have helped your site achieve a higher page rank.
You can see the full video below:
What have we learned from Matt Cutts’ latest video? Well, we know that focusing on quantity for the sake of higher search rankings is going about it the wrong way. We know that two of Google’s most important ranking factors are Page Rank and good backlinks.
Having a site with high Page Rank and a large amount of good quality backlinks gives you the opportunity to rank for more queries because Google will be more inclined to crawl your site and index your pages accordingly.
The bottom line is, with all other things being equal, one site won’t rank better than another one just because it has more pages.
Will this make you change or rethink your content strategy at all? Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
