The word stale has a lot of unpleasant connotations: it refers to things that taste bad, are uninteresting and basically past their prime. Avoiding staleness is why updating content on websites is so important. With such brutal competition for user traffic, many consumers quickly pass over anything that isn't fresh for current, engaging, relevant, and valuable sites. If you haven't done much updating lately, a website content refresh could be just the thing to inject new life into your brand.
When to Create Fresh Content
According to Blogher, you can leave any content that is ranking well on Google alone; there's no reason to change anything. Sites and posts that rank towards the bottom of the first page or top of the second page are considered high-quality and authoritative by Google and have solid foundations that you can improve. Anything that is further down the results than that might need a total revamp.
This ranking is why it makes sense to frequently perform your own searches for the information you are offering and the products and services you are selling. Many brands neglect to search and then wonder why their website traffic has dwindled so much. Even if much of the content is evergreen, meaning that it's unchanging and always relevant, there are content tips for making that more relevant as well.
Updating Evergreen Content
Wordstream explains that evergreen content has no expiration date and ideally retains its value for the long term. Anything related to current news, outdated statistics, fashion trends, and pop culture fads all have their day in the sun but quickly become outdated. Topics like how to grow sunflowers, the top 10 movie actresses of all time, and the safest way to install a washing machine are evergreen, but you will still need to refresh them. That updating of content will happen less than trending news stories.
To keep evergreen content fresh, base it around keywords for which you want your site to rank. Don't make the language too technical, or users might not understand it. Aim evergreen content for beginners since experts usually don't need the extra help. Keep the topics narrower so users won't lose interest and link the posts together. You can update them by adding new images, videos and infographics; read over the content and see if there is any outdated technical info or links.
A Website Content Refresh
Suppose you've decided to create fresh content for your website, congratulations! Where should you start? Commonplaces Interactive recommends doing an objective content audit. Ask yourself if everything on the site still reflects your brand's mission, target market, and expertise. This audit should include reviewing basic things like the company's contact information to the menu items and current product prices. If there's essential industry news that impacts your target audience or a new employee whose expertise benefits customers, did you post about these things on your blog?
Try to look at your website from a user's perspective: act as though you are trying to solve a problem, such as figuring out why a refrigerator is making a strange noise. Do your steps lead you to troubleshooting the problem and finding the right product to purchase easily, or to a dead end because of outdated information and confusing site navigation? Target that misdirection, refresh the content and provide a clear path to the end goal you want.
This analysis is an excellent time to consider what your competitors are doing, and if you haven't done this in ages, you might be up for a rude awakening. For example, they might incorporate interactive videos and chatbots that provide better user experiences than you do. This interactivity could be part of why they are ranking higher than you are on Google and taking away business that could have been yours. A content refresh should be part of your ongoing marketing strategy; after all, no one wants to read or see stale content when searching for information.
When you're ready to bring in that experienced professional, we are here to assist you. Contact Wordsmyth Creative Content Marketing today for help with your marketing needs.
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