Five reasons why your website needs fresh content
Why it’s important to have fresh website content all the time
Your website is the world’s window into your business. Having a great website can help increase awareness about your offering, encourage your target audience to buy your products or services, and entice potential partners or even acquirers to come on board.
Having a great website depends almost entirely on the content you publish. In fact, according to the SEO Tribunal, 72 per cent of businesses who publish regular content on their website have reported an increase in overall engagement. In addition, almost three quarters of marketers say that quality content has increased their number of leads.
If your business doesn’t have a content marketing plan in place, then you’re at risk of missing potential opportunities.
Here are five ways great content can make a difference.
1. Improve your site rankings
If your team is producing consistent content and incorporating keywords, then you may already be seeing an improvement in organic search traffic.
On the other hand, if you’re only posting new content every now and then, and not using any sort of targeted keywords, then search engines may consider your website to be dead or abandoned. That means it won’t show up in search results, so you may as well be invisible.
You should group your content into themes and align it with your keyword set, then follow SEO techniques. For example:
Ensure the keyword is in both the URL and the page title.
Mention the keyword within the first paragraph.
Use the keyword in any alt tags (images, graphics etc.).
2. Give readers what they want
Readers want valuable ideas and information that will help them. Providing your prospects and customers with content that educates, entertains, or informs is likely to keep them interested and coming back for more.
The two most important considerations when writing copy are:
Timeliness: ask yourself whether this is really the latest information available, or whether you only think it’s new because you just found out about it yourself.
Significance: how important is the information you’re sharing? Will it change the way people do things?
Readers are more likely to come back to your site if the content helps them solve a specific problem or they gain knowledge about topics that interest them.
3. Help people find you
Search engines look for new content and reward unique copy. They have complex algorithms that scan the web every minute of every day.
Once they find your site, they will start scoring it with either negative or positive results. If your content is unique, well optimised, and uses the keyword you’re trying to rank for, then Google will start pushing your website up the ladder. The higher it sits in the search results, the easier it is for your prospects to find you.
If your content is a copy-and-paste from another site, then Google won’t apply benefits. It also won’t penalise you. However, if it’s pure plagiarism, then you open yourself up to a myriad of other issues, such as reputation loss and potentially even legal action.
Stick to your own words and your own spin on content.
4. Position yourself or your company as a thought leader
By creating a niche and expressing fresh opinions, you can establish authority, and therefore attract more readers to your website. People want to learn or think about subjects in new ways. The more you can help them do that, the more they are likely to return to your website.
In addition, the more content you share about a subject, the stronger your authority on that topic becomes. People will begin to trust what you write and you can improve your reputation as a result.
5. Increase traffic to your website
Social sharing is an important way for businesses to grow their audience. To encourage people to share your content make sure it’s new, interesting, educational, entertaining, or emotional.
Beware of recycling old ideas. People who share your ideas with their social network only to be called out for sharing old news aren’t likely to trust your brand again. If you’re re-sharing content because it’s relevant again (or still), make sure you flag what you’re doing instead of presenting that content as new.
How to keep your content fresh
Keeping a solid flow of fresh content can seem overwhelming, so it’s worth partnering with an agency that can focus on creating fresh content for you while you get on with the essential task of promoting that content.
To find out how we can help you develop a strong content pipeline that keeps your website relevant and attracting new customers, contact us today.