How often should you review your web content?

 

Now and again, I get requests from people asking me to update their website content. When I ask when it was last updated, I’ll often get the answer, “Oh, probably a good 2 or 3 years ago, when we had the site re-designed”.

I get it – business owners are busy, and once their website is up and running, it’s simply a ‘set it and forget it’ kind of deal, right?

Ouch. If you’ve made this mistake, then you’re very much in Googles’ bad books. Google doesn’t like it when you leave your website to sit idle. And it’s not very inspiring for your human visitors, either.

Why do a website review

Think of it like a shop window – if you walked past the same shop for a year and they never changed their display, you’d soon stop noticing it, wouldn’t you? It’s the same for your website. If you don’t freshen things up once in a while, it will become outdated, stale, and pretty boring. As your business and your products evolve, and trends change, updating your website content will keep things looking good.

Aside from that, it’s better for online bots if things don’t get too old. Google is constantly searching through websites – yes, including yours – and if it stands still for too long, Google will presume that your business isn’t moving forward, and will start to ignore it. Meaning your ranking will drop pretty quickly.

What to consider when reviewing website content

While there will be times when you’ll want to give your website a facelift design-wise, if you’ve got a website that is just a few years old, it’s likely that the content will be the only thing that needs addressing.

First, search for your website as if you were a visitor. Take a note of how long it takes to load – remember, if a page is too slow to load in the first place, visitors will simply click away to something new. If you find that the page is too slow, have a look (or get your web developer to check) at what might be causing the issue. Are there too many large images? Videos? Too many complex pages? Get them sorted out, pronto!

Check the actual content – is there out of date information that needs updating? Have you got new products or services that are not highlighted properly? Now is the time to make sure that they’re front and centre.

You’ll also want to consider updates in SEO, and how people are searching for your website. Sometimes, Google changes the rules a little bit to keep us on our toes, so it’s worth looking again at the keywords you’re getting found for, and making sure they’re being used correctly. Let’s delve a bit more in how you can do that…

How to refresh content for SEO

There are tools you can use to research your keywords and SEO ranking, which you can of course look at. But for the purposes of this exercise, let’s keep things simple, for now.

What do you think that people are likely typing into Google when they look for a business like yours? Make a list of any that you think of. How would YOU search for your business? That’s your starting point.

Now, take a look at your website, as it is. How many times do those keywords and phrases appear? If not at all, then you’re not likely to be found via those searches. So make sure that they are there, particularly on your Home page, which is the first point of contact for most people who visit your website.

Something else to think about – remember at the beginning when I said that it’s really important to keep your website fresh? One of the best ways to do that is by having a blog. Because you’re regularly adding new content to your blog, the Google bots will love you for it – and it gives you the opportunity to rank more highly and to be found in more varied searches.

And if you think that blogs aren’t important, try searching for…pretty much anything. I’m willing to bet that the top results will all be blog posts. Go on, I’ll wait…

How often should you review your web content?

It’s good practice to review your website’s static pages at least once a year, simply to make sure that there’s no old information on there. The aim is to make it a nice experience for your visitors, and encourage them to browse other areas of your site.

For your blog or news pages, I’d encourage you to be adding fresh articles at least a couple of times a month. Weekly is great – but if you really don’t have the time or content, then at the very least, once a month will do.

The main thing is to try and remain consistent, if you can. Doing so will gain you more followers – and give people a reason to come back and learn more about you.

I think that it’s good practice to keep tabs on your website analytics – if you notice that there are pages that simply aren’t ranking well, that people are bouncing from quickly and frequently, or there are dead links or no links at all, then regularly updating these pages can only improve your site as a whole.

About me

Tereasa Hedges, freelance copywriter for creatives, designers and makers.

I’m a freelance copywriter who specialises in writing content for creative people, helping you to reach larger audiences through blogging, web content, email marketing, and a little bit of social media for good measure.

Want to work with me? Contact me for a chat via shirecopywriting@outlook.com