How fresh is your content?

In a world where nothing stays static for long, your website copy and its messaging can be out of date in a matter of weeks or months. In this time, your business has probably evolved, your target audience has moved on, and you can be sure that your competition is trying to find new and dynamic ways of engaging with their prospective customers and ensuring that they return to their websites on a regular basis.

So why with clever and easy to use content management systems (CMS), are some businesses still failing to grasp the concept of regular website content updates?

Bring in a content specialist

As a marketer I understand the concept surrounding regular updates and making sure that your content is customer focused. Search engines typically adopt the position that new, fresh content is better for their users and this is what companies like Google are looking to offer their users – a fresh and top quality experience. By providing up to date information and relevant content, provided by authoritative websites they can ensure that users are getting the most benefit from the results pages that they display.

Keywords

The more content you add, the more keywords will be included on your website. The days of keyword stuffing pages are long gone and businesses should now be looking to add new content regularly in order to attract highly targeted visitors thanks to the large amount of long tail keywords that are introduced to your website. Remember to write natural, but by all means, look to include your most important keywords in unique phrases.

Relevancy

In a world where business owner's heads are turned by SEO, pay per click advertising, Google AdWords and a realm of other online advertising options, I think that for sheer price competitiveness and ease, that getting fresh and relevant on your website quickly and easily is the way to go. Here are a few suggestions for how to do that:

·         Start writing a blog – make sure your blog is hosted on your website

·         Use social media channels including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to point people to your blog (website)

·         Ask for comments on your blog or other articles in order to encourage online engagement

·         Add more menu pages

·         Develop a resources section and write top tips or whitepapers for your specialist area. Ensure these can be downloaded by website visitors.

·         Develop a news section and include in it press releases and details on special offers, a forthcoming event, changes in policy, employment opportunities or                  staff announcement or changes.

·         Respond to topical news items, with your views and or your company policy on it

·         Add images or video clips

·         Add testimonials and/or case studies

By regularly updating your website content, your customers always have up to date information regarding your business. In keeping the information up to date, you will also be helping your SEO. I offer a free 1 hour website content review service. At the end of this, you will have some ideas for how to improve your site to benefit your business.