Benefits of updating your website with new content
The internet is a pretty busy place these days. So
getting your website noticed in all the hubbub is an important but tricky
thing. It’s no longer enough to simply have a website – you have to spend time
working on it, improving it, and sharing the heck out of it in order to get
people interested in what you do, and persuading them to visit more than once
to see what’s new. So how do you do it?
The term SEO is flung around the web like some mysterious
and scary monster, but in real terms, it’s simply a way of using words and
phrases in such a way to point potential customers to your web pages. Think of
them as signposts to your website. Why am I bringing this subject up in a blog
post about updating your website? Well, because in order to keep your website
up to date, you will need to at least have some idea of how SEO works.
And once you are over your fear of SEO, updating the
content on your website won’t seem like such a mammoth task. So how can you do
it, and what are the benefits?
The hows
Revisit it often
When did you last look at your website? I mean actually
sit down and read it through? Do it now. Ask yourself; is it up to date? Are
the words still relevant to your business? Has anything changed which your
readers need to know about? I can’t tell you the times I’ve looked at someone’s
website, and the home page still has a banner advertising Christmas stock or a
news page which hasn’t been updated since the previous year! If you don’t at
least check for these things often, people finding your website will think that
if you have neglected your website, you don’t take them, as your customers,
seriously.
Roll with the changes
I’m sure (I hope!) that your business has moved forward
and grown over the past 12 months or so. Think about what’s changed. Have you
had new staff or restructured? Have you discontinued a product, or added some
new lines? Have these changes been added to your website? No? You know what to
do…
News page or blog
A news page or a blog is a great way to keep your
customers I the loop about changes in your company, and can be a great tool for
promoting products and keeping customers coming back. Please don’t make the
mistake of creating a news page and then never bothering to update it. If that’s
you, it’s better you don’t have one. Sounds harsh? If you picked up a newspaper
which had last month’s news in it, you wouldn’t carry on reading it, would you?
I rest my case…
The whys
You will stay current
As I mentioned above, people read your website to get
information, and that information needs to be bang up to date. By keeping the
content current, you are letting your customer know that you are serious about
your product, and serious about them. They will think of you as a person of
authority in your industry, because you are letting them know about changes as
they happen, therefore becoming their go to person when they need information.
Frequent updates make your website Google friendly
Google loves fresh content. So when you update your
website content, or create frequent blog or news posts, you will rank higher on
Google for people who search for your industry. This is really the bit where
SEO is important, because you want to be as searchable as possible.
Social Media benefits
The more new stuff you put onto your site, the more new
stuff you’ll have to share on your social media platforms. And this creates a
whole new following – people will look out for your updates to find out what’s
new in your company, and get to trust your word. And in turn, they can share it
with their followers, and on, and on, and on…
Creating fresh content on your website is highly effective
in boosting SEO, and is essential in keeping customers coming back to revisit
again. If you don’t have the time or resources to write new content for your website,
why not consider outsourcing the work to Shire Copywriting? I can create a plan
specifically tailored to your needs, at a competitive price. Give me a call now
to chat.