The importance of updating website content for your business cannot be underestimated. Your website is a critical plank in your communications strategy and increasingly a central focus for your sales endeavours. Naturally, you need it to be at peak fitness to optimise its performance. You can build a high octane website for your business by updating website content regularly, just like doing those exercises in the gym to develop your own fitness and strength.
Importance of Updating Your Website Content
- Why is website content important?
- How often should you update your website content?
- What is a regularly updated website?
It’s important to know what is meant by a regularly updated website. Why is website content so important, and how often should you update your website? What is the best website content update process? Let’s investigate.
Why is website content important?
There are a few reasons that you should be updating website content regularly. The most obvious is that you want your website users to believe that you are contemporary and provide the most current and relevant information in the market. Return visits to the same tired old site do little to enhance your image. Fresh, compelling content can drive new traffic, but more importantly, it can increase the time that a user spends on your website pages. Staying relevant Remember, too; you don’t wear what was once the height of fashion a decade ago. Design trends change. Fonts and colours come in and out of style. Make sure that your users find a website that is keeping pace. In the same way as fashion changes, so does the technology around your website. If more of your customers are using mobile devices, upgrade your website to ensure mobile optimisation is at the forefront of your content. Increasingly, we are learning about the dangers of website hacking and we are employing better technologies to protect our data and our customers' data. Older websites rely on older technology, and security breaches are more likely. Your content and the technology that supports it need to be updated to ensure you maintain a secure environment for that data. Speed is another crucial reason for updating website content regularly. Your users want a website that is visually compelling and fast. Many factors can affect page loading speed. One of them is, of course, the way the page is coded. New web development technologies are often designed to ensure pages load faster. Outdated themes can also reduce your website speeds websites. It’s vital to constantly monitor your website content to ensure it is engaging and fast for your intended users. 
SEO-optimised content But that’s not all. Outdated content also means that you are likely using outdated keywords. Using the wrong keywords could result in your website missing out on valuable opportunities to rank higher in searches. In short, not using up to date keywords may mean that your website becomes more challenging to find. And that is not good. It is not always easy to recover a slip in ranking, and it is far better to maintain your SEO performance through the use of current keywords as part of an ongoing website content update process. Keeping up with Google’s algorithm Google also adds to the challenge and reinforces the importance of updating website content by regularly changing its algorithm. Google’s algorithm determines how your website ranks in SEO. In February 2022 Google again changed its algorithm to increase the importance of desktop optimisation, having done the same thing in August 2021 for mobile optimisation. The modified algorithms suggest that Google is placing more importance on Core Web Vitals, which measure sites' performance. Only by monitoring these changing conditions and updating your website content regularly can you ensure you will maintain your website ranking. Adding new content need not be daunting. There are some great resources available that can develop world-class content for your site, so that you can focus on your core business.
How often should you update website content?
It sounds like an easy question, but it is not straightforward. Let’s start the website content update process by considering how long it has been since you have had a close look at your website. If it has been a while since you checked that all your links are still working and that your messaging and branding are current, maybe start with a website health check. It will provide you with information on how Google rates your website, loading speeds, and user experiences, with a few handy recommendations to boost performance. Some key warning signs that you should immediately consider in your website content update process are:
- Your website is old. Its design has not changed for more than three years
- You have no mobile version of your website
- Your website features dead links
- It’s complicated to make changes or updates to your website
- Compared to your competitors, your website looks the oldest
What is a regularly updated website?
It depends on the business. Some businesses will need to be very active and update content daily because their products and offers are constantly changing. Others will perhaps only make changes to their website every month. Whatever the frequency, ensure that it becomes consistent and predictable. If your users expect two new blog posts a week, ensure that frequency is maintained. If you are posting blogs regularly, create blogs that are quality reads. Having a lower blog frequency is better if that is the only way to guarantee quality blog content. And just a final word, make sure that you always use original copy, and avoid, wherever possible, duplicate copy on your website. You should also make sure that before you delete website content, what is removed is not rich with keywords driving traffic to your site.
Updating your business website content regularly
The benefits of updating your website content regularly are significant. Regularly updated quality content can bring you to the top of organic search rankings, and a modern look shows your customers you're keeping up with the times. Using the latest technology keeps your website safe and earns trust among users and search engines alike. Checkout a few more tips here for a winning website content strategy. We know website content is important, but it’s not always easy updating your website content regularly. If you need help, maybe with a content strategy or the creating blogs, whitepapers or other website content, we have a team of seasoned experts who can work with you to reinvigorate your website.
