You may think that once you’ve created content for your website you don’t need to do anything else, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. It is important to regularly update your website content. This can be in the form of adding brand new content, or by editing existing content.
Why is updating content important?
If you don’t update existing content, it won’t take long for it to become outdated. Blog posts you created years ago might now be completely irrelevant or will need some refreshing to keep them up-to-date with current goings on etc. Also, if you haven’t uploaded anything new for a while, then potential customers might wonder if you’re still actually in business.
Keeping your content fresh is also a good thing for your potential ranking. The more that you update, the more frequently Google will crawl your site to check the changes. This could lead to a higher Google rank if your new/edited content is relevant.
Reasons to keep your content updated:
- SEO:
The goal of a search engine is to provide users with the best and most relevant results. Because things like popular search terms and search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and developing, it is important that your content is too. Keeping content updated and fresh is a way of showing search engines like Google that you are an authority figure in your industry. A big part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is keyword implementation. By keeping an eye on how your website content is performing, you will get an understanding of which keywords are working and which aren’t. By updating your keywords within your content, you can keep on showing up in the relevant search results.
- Brand Exposure:
You want your brand to make a good impression. Content should be engaging and informative. If you haven’t added any new content such as blogs for a while then potential customers might think you’re not trading anymore. If you have outdated content it can give the same impression, or they might think you have no clue what you’re doing and that can lead to poor impressions. The more you update and add new, relevant content in your own unique voice, the more chance you have of getting good exposure for your brand. This can be in the form of showing up more in search results, or your content being shared more on social media etc.
- Value:
Whatever industry your business is in, engaging potential customers should be your ultimate goal. One way to do this is by providing value to people who come across your website. Whilst it is important to write for search engines so you appear in search results, the most important thing is writing for the potential customers you want to engage. Writing about relevant topics, solving problems, and keeping up with trends and news allows you to do this. If your business has a blog that you want customers to come back to read quite regularly, then adding new posts will help do this.
- Authority:
Something that is important for your brand is to become recognised as an ‘authority’ within your industry. Every time you publish a new page or post it is indexed by Google, so by posting frequent updates to your site (as long as they are relevant to your business), you can start to build your authority. The more of an authority that you become within Google, the more trust you can build with potential customers, as your content will be more visible. You can also build authority on social media and forums by sharing your knowledge and answering peoples questions or giving advice. The more visible your brand is, the more trust you can build.
How to keep your content updated:
If you’re not sure whether you need to update your website content, these are some signs you might need to:
- You haven’t added anything new or made any changes in the past month.
- You haven’t updated your homepage in a year.
- Your website no longer matches your brand.
- Your website traffic is declining.
- There’s old information on the website.
When it comes to keeping existing content fresh, it may seem like a daunting task, but there are some ways to keep on top of things.
- Update the most popular content first:
If you’ve had your website for a while then you’ve probably got a lot of existing content. The pages that have the most traffic are the ones that your audience sees the most, so they have the highest priority when getting updated. You don’t have to change the content drastically but new information or links might become available that will be beneficial to add.
- Merge similar blog posts:
If you frequently add new content then chances are, some of your blog posts will have very similar topics. Having two blogs that are similar can be detrimental to the blogs ranking due to the keywords being so similar. If two blogs are similar, it might be worth merging them onto one high-quality, detailed post.
- Reformat old content:
Say you have an in-depth blog post that you’ve written for your website. It’s great, but maybe you are able to create some new content from it using the same information but in a different format. For example, you could create an infographic with the information, or create a short engaging video. This is a great way to add new site content, without having to start completely from scratch.
- Use a content calendar:
The easiest way to keep on top of updating site content is to create, and stick to, a content calendar. Content is why visitors come to your site, whether it be for products, services or blogs. By having a content calendar, you can easily plan out what you need and want to add to your site. It also allows you to keep track of what and when you’ve posted. Add reminders of when to look at, and update, older content and even analyse the performance of your site to see what needs changing.
It can seem daunting and time consuming, but updating your website content is a must. The benefits it will have for your business in both the short and long term will make all the effort worth it.