Updating Web Content: an SEO Must

Kris Spisak

Yes, at its simplest, a business website can be like a marketing brochure for your company, but at its best, it can be a powerful tool, establishing your place as an industry thought leader and enabling visitors to know and trust your brand. Remember that updating content not only prevents a website from becoming stale, but it is a valuable SEO strategy that cannot be forgotten.

Updating your web content regularly is a SEO strategy you cannot ignore.

93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, so making sure your business website is as optimized as possible is a necessity in this competitive landscape. Search engine algorithms are being updated all the time—even bringing artificial intelligence into the mix now—but achieving placement on the front page of the search engine results pages (SERPs) has less to do with backend finesse and more to do with the true human value of your website.

• Do you shape your articles around a single repetitive keyword or a thoughtful portfolio of keywords and key phrases?
  
• Is your content brief or in-depth?
  
• Do you write for web crawling bots or for people?
  
• Do you let old articles disappear into your website’s history or do you use internal hyperlinks to show the continuing value of your carefully crafted content?

According to Moz’s 2015 Search Engine Ranking Factors Survey, “freshness of content on the page” is a major influence on search ranking. Search engines use web crawlers to review websites. Websites with static (unchanging) content are crawled less frequently; however, websites with dynamic (changing) content are crawled more often. In other words, if you want to show the search engines that you are relevant, in-touch, and at the top of your game, continually updating your website’s content can do that. But more pages alone won’t help your SEO efforts. Quality writing is essential.

Where Can You Update Your Web Content?

• Blogs & Articles – You are an expert in your industry, so why not share your knowledge with your visitors? Whether it is a series of how-to articles, product reviews, or a regularly scheduled blog, becoming a resource is a simple way to prove your value, gain trust, and build an ever-expanding web content library.
  
• Frequently Asked Questions – People ask you questions all the time, don’t they? Perhaps you have your quick answers over the phone or even over email, but why not save everyone some effort while enhancing your SEO efforts at the same time? A FAQ section is a great place to be fluid with your content, adding new questions and answers as they arise.
  
• Company News – Whether it’s new developments, new employees, recent events, or up-coming sales or shows, there’s a lot happening in your business every day. Why not share this news with the world?
  
• Portfolio – Don’t let the portfolio on your website remain the same one you showcased at the time of your website’s launch years ago. When you’re doing wonderful work, don’t forget to show it off.
  
• Testimonials – If your customers love you, let the energy of their words invigorate your web presence. Again, don’t just create an initial list of quotations and forget about it. Updated reviews add to your value on multiple fronts.
  
• Basic Content – Sure, your “About,” “Services,” “History,” and similar pages aren’t places that you need to regularly update, but remember to give them at least an annual check-in. Add internal hyperlinks to recent blogs, and update or expand the language where it’s needed.

Even if you don’t think you can compete with the big names in your field, remember that 59% of consumers use Google every month to find reputable, local businesses. Optimizing your website for search engines can put you at the top of that list, and fresh web content is one way you can make your business stand out from your competitors.

Building a powerful website and being thorough in every detail of its search engine optimization is important. But if that awesome website just sits there, it becomes a bit stale. A powerful web content strategy isn’t easy, but it is essential if you want to stand above the rest of the crowd. And standing out above the rest is the end goal, isn’t it?

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