How Often Should You Update Your Website?

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For the benefit of your customers and search engines, it’s best to keep your website updated frequently. When a website is updated on a regular basis, Google notices and considers it relevant. This means that regular website updates are critical to determining Google’s search rankings. In this blog, we’ll also go over how often you should be updating your website with fresh content.

The Importance of Updating a Website

There will always be a need for a refresh as new features become available. The content you publish is the most important aspect of keeping your website up to date. Having a stream of original and relevant content on your website is important to improve your rankings through searches.

Blogs, newsletters, and website page copy are just a few examples of how to increase the number of keywords and phrases that people use to find your company. Let’s go over some questions to consider when deciding on a website refresh.

Is your website consistent with your brand?

Branding, in addition to content, plays a significant role in the relevance of your website. If you’ve made changes to your signage, displays, or storefront, it’s a good idea to update your website as well. There are now even more channels for communicating your brand and building customer relationships. Some of the most recent website trends include online stores, blogs, and video demos.

What are your competitors doing?

Monitoring your competitors is not only a good business practice; it is also critical to your company’s growth and strength. Begin by visiting their website to learn more about their branding, mission, and services. From there, you can learn more about their customer reputation and identify their marketing efforts. After you’ve become more acquainted with their strategies, ask yourself, “What improvements can I make to my website to help strengthen my online presence?”

Have you considered going mobile?  

A mobile-friendly website or responsive website is one that correctly displays on mobile & hand-held devices. Websites that cater to both desktop and mobile tend to have higher rankings on Google as well. If a site isn’t formatted for mobile, this could cause a loss in visitors and search traffic. For this reason, it may be time to consider going mobile.

Benefits of a Mobile Friendly Website

  • Streamlined experience across devices
  • Positive ranking signal
  • Improve mobile conversion rate
  • Improved user experience
  • Faster download speed
  • More flexible and cost-effective than app development

Is your content search engine optimized?

Search engines are constantly crawling sites for new information. The content on your website should then be optimized for search engines to rank. This includes headings, title tags, website copy, alternative text for images, menus, and sitemaps. If you’re able to accurately utilize keywords, then blogs are a great way to gain higher rankings. 

What Qualifies As New Content?

Fresh content is content that is unique to your website rather than the internet as a whole. Duplicate content may cause your website to lose ranking or, worse, be blacklisted by search engines. However, while optimized content is important, there’s no reason to sacrifice its quality. Proper research and a solid content strategy will lay the groundwork for building out your content.   

Website Page Copy 

All businesses and organizations must have a website. People are increasingly turning to Google for answers and that means your website’s page copy should encourage visitors to accomplish or learn something new. Compelling content that is well-researched, optimized, and purposeful distinguishes each of your pages. More traffic means more potential leads and customers for your company. Make your website copy more engaging and compelling by: 

  • Emphasize what you can do for your customers rather than writing about you.
  • Identify common pain points and write website page copy with user intent in mind.
  • Include statistics, quotes, or any other original data to increase site authority. 

Blog Content Creation

Brands use blogs to not only grow their businesses, but also incorporate more SEO keywords. Businesses that utilize blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those that do not. (DemandMetric). When it comes to blog content, quality trumps quantity. Blogs should inform your readers about a topic or support your products and services. A few things to consider when writing your blog are: 

  • Determine if you want your blogs published on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.
  • Find topics that are relevant to your niche to your business or market. 
  • Conduct SEO research on keywords and your industry to gain higher rankings.

Print Marketing Content

Print marketing will always be relevant. While it may appear dated in today’s marketing strategies, you will require content for more than just your website. Print marketing materials help to ensure that your customers have a consistent brand experience. Consistency leads to a higher return on investment and increased brand awareness. Use these print marketing materials to help with consumer engagement and brand personalization.

  • Brochures and flyers
  • Direct mail postcards
  • Magazines and catalogs
  • Print ads

Social Media Content

Social networks are now an important part of every marketing strategy. Engaging in a conversation with your customers through social media posts and ads, builds trust and loyalty. A consistent brand voice and branding on social media not only increases brand awareness, but improves the customer experience. Below are a few benefits to having a social media presence: 

  • Increase brand awareness across all platforms.
  • Organically expand your audience and gain more inbound traffic.
  • Develop a stronger and more loyal consumer base.

How To Make Updating A Priority

Keep it fresh. Make updating your website a priority by starting with a strategic plan. Make a list of the objectives you want your website to achieve for your company and its visitors. Organize your conversions and have a thorough understanding of the content available on your domain. You can also analyze your current content performance to see where gaps are and how to improve upon them. Once you’ve got a clear idea of why visitors are going to your website, then it’s time to put your plan into action. This process would then repeat itself so that your website is consistently up to date and optimized for search and the user experience.

Updating a website can be overwhelming if you’re doing it on your own. If you’re not satisfied with your current website or the content on it, partner with our team of digital marketing experts to get the website you deserve. When you work with us, we guarantee that your new website will not only reflect your brand’s vision, but will also help you rank higher in search engine results.