New websites always come with the best intentions.
But as a website ages from brand-spanking new to weeks, months and years old, hopeful notions of frequently adding new content may fall by the wayside. In the beginning, maybe the updates are daily. Weekly updates then stretch to monthly, and suddenly, the “latest news” is staler than the last bagel at a staff meeting.
Why does stale content happen? In many cases, organizations simply don’t have the personnel required to update a site on a regular basis. In the planning stages, it’s easy to underestimate the time and effort involved in keeping content crisp. Then reality sets in, and the task gets pushed to the bottom of the pile until it simply doesn’t happen.
For a number of reasons, keeping content updated is critical for your website.
Fresh Content Can Make or Break Your Search Strategy
In the early days of the digital era, it made no difference to search engines how often your site was updated. Many organizations created static websites and promptly forgot about them until something broke.
Nowadays, the updates you make — or the lack thereof — can play a significant role in the success of your search engine marketing. By failing to update your site, you run the risk that search engines will view it as no longer active.
Each time you add fresh content, the search engines have additional information on which to index your pages — providing additional ways for prospective visitors to find you.
Evidence points to fresh content playing a key role in rankings with the king of the search engines, Google. The search behemoth changes its algorithms about as often as Lady Gaga changes her outfits, and no one knows with certainty the role that various factors have in search rankings.
But it’s pretty clear that Google weights the freshness of content heavily in its indexing. By updating your content on a regular basis, you don’t necessarily improve your chances of higher rankings, but you encourage frequent visits by search engine spiders and frequent indexing of your content.
The more often search engines visit the pages on your site, the more chances you have to achieve higher rankings. Web pages can be indexed based on a variety of different factors, including the subject of the content, the number of links coming in, and the frequency of updates, among others.
Google’s spiders are looking for updates, but they’re also looking for quality content that is relevant to your overall site and to user search queries. One of the best ways of providing that quality while keeping your content fresh is through a blog you update regularly.
Your Visitors Like It, Too
With so much focus on placing well in search — and especially in Google — it’s easy to forget that actual humans also view and read your content. So in addition to posting updates that the Google bots will notice and index, it’s important to provide content that members of your target audience will enjoy and, ideally, share with others in their social media circles.
Posting fresh, quality content regularly is key for converting your website visitors into customers. By providing valuable, engaging information on your site — and promoting it through email blasts and your social channels — you build loyalty among your followers. Loyalty keeps visitors coming back to check out your content, giving you more opportunities to get them into your community for a visit.
In addition, fresh website content makes a strong case for your community to new site visitors. If a prospective resident finds you through a Google search, you want them to get the best possible impression of your community quickly. By having a deep catalog of regularly updated content, you establish credibility with new visitors.
Google’s latest algorithms put a strong emphasis on quality of content. By posting fresh content, you impress the king of search engines, but more importantly, you impress members of your target audience.
Reaching Your Audience with Fresh Content
The effectiveness of your content isn’t just about how many followers you have on Facebook. It’s about reaching the right people with the right information at the right time.
Frequent posting of articles, photos and videos is one of the best methods for keeping your prospective customers engaged with your community. If you don’t know what your target audience wants to view, read and share, find out — by asking them or by working with an experienced marketing agency.