Welcome back!

In case you missed our previous post (which, if you have, you really should just subscribe to make sure you’re not missing out!), we talked about why a company website is never truly done.

Well, it leaves the question, what parts of your website are never truly done?

So, we’re going to answer those questions over the next 3 blog posts, starting with this one.

Wasting no time, let’s go into an essential part of every website.

Content

Yes we love content here at BNG Design.

If you want some deeper reading on how to create some awe-inspiring content, you can read more here.

It’s an aspect no website is complete without. Every page on your site has some kind of content on it. Maybe it’s a few sentences describing your products if you’re an E-Commerce store, or your “About Us” page, but it’s all content that will need to be kept fresh over the passage of time.

The question is, how frequent should you update your website’s content?

No matter how awesome your site is, you cannot avoid updating the copy on your pages occasionally.

Which begs the question; what copy on the pages needs to be updated, and how frequently does it need to be updated?

Let’s dive in.

Blog/Knowledge center

If you really want to keep fresh in eyes of your reader or prospect, you’ll need to be blogging at least, as a good rule of thumb, more frequently if you can spare the time.

The more frequently you blog, your site will stay more relevant for the search engines, but also keep your clients current on your industry. You will gain credibility by assuring you are actively keeping up in your industry, making you an expert in the eyes of your readers.

Write about current news in your industry, and write engaging content.

But how often should you replace content on your site?

Make sure to delete or replace pages of services you no longer provide. Check the text on your informational pages as well, and make sure it’s all still current information.

This is true for any E-books you may have, or educational guides you have for your business.

For example, did you stop selling some product a while ago, or perhaps no longer work with another business? Review your site every time you introduce a new product, or discontinue a service. You want your blog, E-books, and any landing pages your customers see, to have accurate information on them of what services your business provides.

Contact Us/Informational Pages

Any time there’s a shift in your company’s views and products, make sure to update your pages accordingly.

You don’t want any outdated phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, etc. As businesses grow, they transform, you need to make sure that your entire website is up to date on contact information.

Not only does it help you because you won’t get customers asking “Hey, do you offer this service?” what you discontinued months ago, but also help people searching for any new services your company is offering.

If you have employees shift positions, make sure to change their job title on your site.

For instance, did someone get promoted to be the new V.P of Sales? Or perhaps someone moved from one department to become an administrator of another? Make sure your site reflects that, otherwise customers will be contacting the wrong person.

Keep the page’s SEO in mind when making content updates

Beware of the actual content on the page you’re updating before you begin to replace it on that particular page. Every single time you’re changing content, be mindful of the SEO value that’s built into that page.

What do we mean by that? Well, make sure that you’re always aware of what your keywords are, because they help rank your page in the search engines. Incorporate keywords relevant to your topic on every page, and more importantly use key phrases that your audience is using when searching for a company like yours.

Also, if you do not have a service page where your website designer makes updates for you (like our company provides our clients), you’re going to have to make these kinds of updates yourself.

Here’s an important part of updating content, especially when updating content inside your the backend of WordPress.

Whenever you are copy and pasting any text into your website, make sure you copy and paste as plain text (ctrl+shift+v).

This may seem trivial, but it directly affects your page’s SEO and content optimization efforts.

You see, when you’re just copy and pasting, it copies the text and formatting exactly from whatever document it was on before (Google Drive, OneNote, Microsoft Word), creating a bunch of unwanted coding on your text. This damages the search engines ability to find you.

Don’t believe us? Here’s an example:

If you look closely between the two versions, you’ll see that the first example has extra tags and weird add-ons. Where the second example is cleaner, and has less additional coding involved.

You may not be able to see the difference, but the search engines who read your site sure can.

Fulfilling these sorts of updates

A lot of these updates you can do yourself. A best practice for updating is to check over your website every 1-3 months, just to check and make sure your content is current and up-to-date.

If you have the mindset of always updating your content right away whenever there’s something you know is going to have to be changed, your site will consistently stay fresh.

Make it a habit.

If you’re unsure how handling this yourself, talk to your web designer and see if they offer a service plan that will help you make sure your content is staying fresh.

Be sure to subscribe to assure you don’t miss part 3! We will talk about what tools to update, and how to update them.

Not sure if you site is fresh and up-to-date?

Give us a call, or shoot us an email, we’ll give you a free consultation and answer whatever questions you have.