With the constant connection smartphones and social media offer, staying relevant with timely updates to your website content is a non-negotiable in 2023. Your website and online presence function as yet another social proof to determine the credibility and relevance of a business.
There’s nothing worse than stumbling across a great article only to find that when you excitedly check out what else is on their blog, the last post is from 6 months ago, and the one before that is from 2019. You might as well have metaphorical cobwebs in the corners of your site! If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you might as well be living in the dark ages.
We recommend that small business owners at least sit down once a month to give a website the attention it needs, even though there isn’t a one-size-fits-all all answer and it largely depends on the kind of website you have and the purpose it serves. For example, an eCommerce site warrants daily or weekly updates, as new products launch, prices change and things go on sale seasonally. A site with a blog may only need a new post every month, while other static content can go a year without being touched.
As a business owner, you may have loads of industry expertise and even win awards, but if your website doesn’t communicate that to viewers in a polished way, they may choose your competitor over you. Regardless of the type of business you have and the purpose it serves, your website should reflect your expertise, offerings, and current achievements.
A website design with careful attention paid to SEO can increase your online visibility and bring your business to the top of search results. If your business wins an award, hires new team members, or moves to a new location, update your website! Below are more ways to update your website content. Once you understand what you can be doing to stay relevant and up-to-date, we’ll explore the added benefits!
How to Keep Your Website Content Up to Date
- Write a new blog and post it
- Create a case study for a recent project highlighting client success
- Add new service locations
- Check for irrelevant and outdated content
- Archive past events
- Organize popular resources
- Check out your analytics
- Plan for next month’s content!
The Benefits of an Up-To-Date Website
Good for SEO
Building trust in Google’s eyes is a long-term battle. However, we can say with confidence that the more time you spend on your website, the more of this trust you will gain. In our Beginner’s Guide To SEO, we talk about something called E.A.T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). To summarize E.A.T., all web pages should have some beneficial purpose and should avoid spreading hate, causing harm, or misinforming users.
The best way to gain E.A.T for your website is to make sure that the content you’re putting out is correct and updated when things change. For example, if a new law has been put into place that affects your business, make it a priority to update your website with the new information. Imagine a pat on the back from Google every time you regularly update your website. Remember, a healthy website is a happy website and regardless of what the purpose of your site is, it needs attention!
If your goal is a website that looks great and performs well, make it a priority to monitor your website’s analytics. This allows you to stay on top of what specific pages of your website bring in traffic organically. From an SEO standpoint, it’s extremely beneficial to understand the keywords people are searching for in order to end up on your site. If a page that has been doing well drops down in your SEO rankings, it’s a good idea to update this content. It’s crucial that you have a way of documenting what has been working and what has not.
Good User Experience
Google loves to see a healthy “web” of internal links throughout your website that connect pages to one another. This creates an optimal user experience and verifies that much of your website is connected to a common message. If you’re adding new content often, there is bound to be content that can complement other pieces of your website.
Above, we just referenced information from our Beginner’s Guide to SEO, specifically from our Link Building chapter of the guide. This is a prime example of how to make connections between fresh content and previously established resources. When updating content, keep a lookout for connections to make with what you already have, you’ll save yourself time and effort in the long run.
