Business is fast-paced, and staying on top of your digital content helps ensure you’re not being left behind.
Regularly updating your website maintains its relevance, can boost your Google rankings, and can help you convert visitors into customers.
Industries and trends constantly evolve, so your site must reflect this. If a prospective client reads something that’s outdated, it could stop them from wanting to work with you.
But it’s not only clients who like to see fresh, up-to-date content – Google welcomes it, too. New content is one of the search engine ranking factors, so long as it’s useful, authoritative, and unique.
How to identify when content needs refreshing
The key to updating your website content is to be savvy. You don’t always need a new page or article; you can often make progress by doing small tweaks. For example, fixing broken links and updating information takes minutes but will boost your site’s overall health.
Perhaps add some FAQs to key pages, taking the opportunity to inject some keywords and answer questions that people often type into Google. Further, add internal links on each page to other relevant pages on your site.
Use the tools readily available to better understand which of your pages are performing well and which ones could use some help. If a page gets visitors but has a high bounce rate, could you inject some fresh content?
Take a look at your Google Analytics or submit your site to the Google Search Console, which will show lots of valuable data about the health of your site’s content.
It’s not all about you
A significant mistake we see repeatedly is companies writing about themselves on their website rather than directly addressing the readers and their pain points.
If your key pages are always ‘we’ or ‘our’ rather than ‘you’ or ‘your’, you might have a problem. Consider tweaking your main website messages.
Enhancing SEO
Accurate keyword research is crucial to the success of your website. Identify the keywords that reflect your brand and what potential visitors might be typing into Google. Check that your website copy, be it service pages or articles, include them.
Expand your content to include useful guides and information. For example, if you sell houseplants, you shouldn’t just have pages selling your plants – consider advice articles about plants suitable to different spaces, conditions, and the levels of care they need. This contributes to your website becoming a destination for enthusiasts about your subject.
You can use tools like SEMrush to identify high-impact keywords relevant to your content. It’s best to choose the ones with a high search volume and a lower difficulty rating, meaning you should find it easier to rank.
The next step is to work out where these new keywords will fit within your content without seeming forced. Ideally, this would be the main heading, intro, and several more times in the body text, possibly including a subheading.
Add the main keyword to your meta title and meta description and to the alt text on images. This will send a clearer signal to Google about what your page focuses on.
If this sounds like a lot to take in, don’t panic. At Magic Word Media, we can assist you in sourcing the keywords that need to be featured on your site and amending your website content to reflect them.
Improving your call to action
The importance of a strong call to action cannot be underestimated. In longer pages of content, a call to action can encourage a reader to do something before they’ve read enough and disappear.
If it’s the end of an article, a call to action is the last thing a reader is left with after consuming your content. It could determine whether they simply click off the site or do something helpful like clicking your contact button.
Here are some top tips for sharpening up your call to actions:
- Starting a call to action with direct language makes the reader feel like they must do what you say, generating urgency in the activity.
- Be sure to mention any benefits of clicking the call to action. If it will help them get a discount on a purchase or a free guide, make that clear.
- Ensure it stands out by using a slightly larger font, making it bold or changing the colour.
- Don’t just have them at the end of a piece of copy; use them where you think the reader will be most engaged.
- Keep mobile readers in mind by ensuring the call to action stands out on those devices, too.
Another avenue to explore is to try A/B testing with a call to action to see what works best. This involves using different wording and font styles to see which have the most significant impact on your reader.
Kicking off your content refresh
Feeling inspired to start your website content refresh? Below, we share a step-by-step guide on beginning the content audit process.
- Set your goals – consider what you want to achieve. Do you want to assess your whole website or target specific sections, such as your blog or landing pages?
- Make a list of the content – Use Google Analytics or Google Search Console to gather a list of all the URLs relevant to your audit, and make sure you have information about each, including publish dates, update dates, titles, traffic data, and social statistics if relevant.
- Assess content performance – Evaluate each piece based on the data you have just gathered and note high-performing content that you can build on and lower-ranking content that will need significant improvements.
- SEO analysis – Check if you’re ranking for keywords, whether they are relevant, and bringing the right type of visitor.
- Reviewing – Accept this is a marathon, not a sprint. A content audit and the implementations that follow need to take place regularly to ensure your website content doesn’t get stale and continues to serve your audience’s needs.
Ultimately, if you want your website to be seen, rank highly in search engines, and convert into sales or clients for your business, you must ensure your content is fresh and relevant to your audience.
It can be a long and laborious process, but the benefits are well worth the work. If you’d like support with the task, Magic Word Media is a wizard in this area and can help create a content strategy, improve your website’s SEO, and undertake updates where required.
Make some magic on your website and take a look at a guide to our services that will help you.
FAQs
How often should I update my website content?
This differs depending on the types of content, business goals, and audience needs. Where possible, it is generally recommended that new blogs or articles be uploaded at least monthly, while you should always look to improve or update key pages as new information becomes available. If you don’t, you might find that your competitors do.
What types of content need updating most frequently?
Blog posts and news articles will need the most attention, as these keep your audience engaged and help to establish your site as a reliable source of information about your key topics. This will also help your search performance over time.
Can I handle content updates in-house, or should I hire professionals?
This depends on the nature of your team, their expertise with website content, and the volume of the task at hand. Don’t forget that Magic Word Media can assist with your website content needs and social media management.
