With SEO, more isn’t necessarily better. More pages are better for SEO if there’s a reason to have more pages on the site. More pages are also better for keyword targeting when the intent between keywords is considerably different. Building low-quality pages at a scale, on the other hand, is harmful for SEO.
Here are instances where building pages at scale is helpful for SEO:
1. The pages are structurally similar, but cover different ideas & intents
An example of this would be having service pages for each service you provide, but using the same template for each page.
2. There is enough difference in search intent between two keywords you want to target
Let’s say you’re a knife company and are writing a guide on how to sharpen knives. You also maybe want to write a guide on how to clean knives, too. Instead of cramming both topics into a single “Guide to Knife Sharpening & Cleaning” blog post, you should write two different blog posts that each target different searchers – “How to Sharpen your Knives” for those looking for a sharpening guide, and “How to Clean your Knives” for those looking for a cleaning guide.
Google will generally avoid presenting searches with unnecessary information. So, whenever it makes sense to do so, create smaller content pieces thoroughly covering single ideas rather than creating giant mish-mash pages.
3. More pages can help on-site navigation & UX
For example, eCommerce sites often have collections based on recipients, occasions, or themes to help users navigate through the site better – in addition to the diversity in keyword targeting options.
Building more pages is not better for SEO when you’re building pages just to target more keywords, without adding any value to the pages: using filler content, using the same copy with just a few exchanged words, paraphrasing content that already exists online, and similar tactics that are actually considered spam by Google.
