Don’t Let Your Site Go Stale!
Your Website Needs Fresh Content
It is a simple fact that content can make or break a website, so of course better content would increase your chances of doing well! One of the ways that you can provide better content to your customers is by keeping that content current. And this does not necessarily mean you can only post current events, content for the long-term is just as valuable and can offer you benefits as well. What matters most is the frequency of your updates; you want to get into a steady rhythm that shows both customers and search engines that you are serious about serving up fresh content. Customers like to know there is someone at the controls when they visit a business’ website, and search engines like to see updated content for the same reasons; no one likes a stale website!
Getting Fresh Content
You might be asking yourself where you are going to get this content, or where you will be able to put it, and this is a good question.
Many businesses have a website with a few pages including a home page and a few internal pages that might hold information about the company’s location, a contact form, and pages for different products and services. This is wonderful as these are pages that you can fill with the important basics about your company and the products and services you offer. It can be difficult to update these pages frequently, because many times the information on them does not change very much from week to week (for example, your company’s mission will likely be the same for a long time, so no need to update the mission statement every week) or even month to month.
So how does a website get fresh content?
The easiest way to get fresh content for your website is to blog. With platforms like WordPress it is easier than ever for business owners to have a blog set up and designed for them that they can then take over and manage afterwards. With a blog, your company has a voice that goes beyond your website. Your business now has the opportunity to weigh in on current events in your industry or events that will affect your target market! You can also post content that is going to be relevant for the long-term like reviews of products and services (yours and those of other companies) in your industry, how-to and instructional materials, free advice, and much more. It is very easy to perform a little market research and start building a list of things your customers are looking for and interested in reading about.
Need fresh content ideas? Check these out:
- Keeping your website content current – by Kristeen Bullwinkle
- Keeping Your Website Content Current – by Amanda Kopp
Benefits of Fresh Content
One of the main benefits of fresh content is increased traffic to your website. By keeping your basic web pages up to date (updating them if anything changes with your company) and making regular posts to a blog, your company is staying fresh in the minds of search engines and potential customers. If you’re writing unique, useful content about things that are relevant to your business you will start to see more traffic coming your way. Part of this will come from search engines when people search for terms that are related to your business; optimizing your content to increase your ranking in search results is part of something known as SEO, or search engine optimization. In short, when fresh content is part of an overall SEO strategy for your company it can result in many benefits for your website.
If you are maintaining a blog you are also providing people with something to share with others via social media, and this can bring more traffic to your website as well. The goal of keeping up a flow of fresh content is to establish a reputation for delivering quality information that is reliable and accurate for readers and search engines. If you are not delivering quality content, it will not matter how often or regularly you update, you will not see the same benefits as you would if you were only serving up high-quality content on your website or blog.
Here is what top bloggers are saying about the benefits of fresh content:
- The Importance of Fresh Unique Content for Your Website – by Reston Tech Wiz
- SEO Benefits of Regular Fresh Content – by Matt
Wrapping Up
In summary, your business can definitely benefit from posting fresh content on a regular basis. Many businesses reach this goal by adding a blog to their website and using it to provide fresh content to people who visit their website. If you are interested in adding a blog to your website, consider where your content is going to come from. A lot of business owners like the sound of a blog and the potential benefits having one can bring their company, but do not have the time to maintain one on their own. Luckily there are entire companies and freelance individuals out there who would be happy to help maintain a blog for you. These companies and individuals do charge for their services, but the benefits of having regular updates of fresh content are well worth the investment.
If you are a bit short on funds or want to introduce some variety into your updates, who not consider a guest blogger? Some business owners, bloggers, etc are happy to write occasional pieces for other blogs in exchange for a link back to their own website or blog in the post they make. You can also consider interviews with important people in your industry as these are a great way to make a quality post in a short amount of time.
Want to know more? Check out this post:
- Should Your Business Blog Publish Evergreen or Current Content? – by Dana Prince
Do you know of other ways to provide fresh content on your website or blog?
Are there any benefits of fresh content that we missed? If so, please share your stories with us in the comments.
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