For business owners, improving website engagement is the perfect solution when looking to increase sales and achieve brand recognition. For this reason, most regularly find themselves asking “how often should I be updating the content on my website?”.
As an initial step, a free way to gain more exposure on Google is to optimise what you do within your Google My Business profile. We have put together a free guide, which includes eight steps on how to receive more exposure and free leads on Google.
Business marketing has undoubtedly transformed given the rise in technology in the twenty-first century and increased social media presence in our everyday lives. Where businesses were previously limited to business cards and brochures, transforming these into multifaceted websites was particularly beneficial to businesses looking to increase their sales and brand recognition.
A website is designed to help you generate more leads and attract new customers to your business. Because of this, it’s really important that you have thoroughly developed a website to reflect your marketing strategy so that you have a higher chance of achieving your business goals.
What Is Involved in Updating My Website?
- Use Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a very useful tool if you are interested in monitoring your own website. We highly recommend using Google Analytics or other tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush as they collect data from your website to create reports that provide insights into your business, such as page views, average session duration and percentage of new sessions. These statistics are really important, especially when considering whether to update your website if your website is lacking engagement with the community. It will also be helpful when analysing which page viewers spend the most or least time, as this will provide an indication as to which sections of your website are performing well or poorly and what can be done to rectify the lack of organic traffic. The page may not be performing well for a number of reasons. It could be because the page doesn’t have very good information on it, it might not be easy to read, or perhaps it’s not built to show well on a mobile device.
From a technical aspect, you might have to enquire about the services of a web developer or an SEO company to assist you. If your website does not work well on mobile devices like mobile phones or tablets, then that is another reason to completely update your website, so it can be built into something that’s called responsive. If your website is difficult for you to update and add content to, that’s another warning sign that you need to do something.
Whilst there can be technical issues, there may also be content issues – so this is portably the easiest and best area to initially address.
- Post New Content
When it comes to updating your content, we recommend that you try and post something new on your website as least once a month. This may include:
- A client case study (a testimonial)
- A blog
- A frequently asked question
- Updating content
- Posting new images
We recommend reviewing your website at least once a quarter and then determining the next 90-day plan so that you have something to work towards for the next review.
There are a lot of benefits to keeping the content fresh on your website, such as:
- SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is essentially ‘being found on search engines’. When an individual does a search on Google or any other search engine, the content on your website will be evaluated by Google when providing results to the individual. If your website’s content is irrelevant to the search, then it will either appear on lower pages of the search result or may not appear at all. Therefore, it is very important to have relevant information that answers potential clients’ questions to improve your website’s SEO.
- Proves that your website is active
Updating your website proves to Google that your website is active and that the content is fresh and relevant. It is very hard to uncover Google’s algorithms, but the businesses that are constantly refreshing their content are benefitted far more than others. For example, if you are in Winter and are posting blogs relevant to the current season, you may find that you receive a better ranking because the search engine knows that your website has been updated and is relevant to what people are looking for at that time.
- Provides you with content to share on your social media channel
Your business’ social media may also strengthen as a result of your updating your website, as it provides you with something relevant to share with your social media channel. If you have created a blog, for example, you can share snippets of this on your social media to attract potential customers on other social media platforms. Not only is it beneficial to update content on your website for relevancy, but it’s going to provide you with fresh and exciting content for your social media.
- It is looked at favourably by potential customers
If potential customers click onto your website having viewed it a few months earlier, if there is nothing new or exciting, they will most likely click straight out of it. Although, if that customer stumbles across a new article or is reminded of a sale, they will most likely investigate further, which will increase their session time. Once again, this works favourably with your website’s SEO, because if the search engines see that consumers or users are returning to your website and enjoying the content, then they are going to promote your website in search engines more readily because they know that the content is helpful and exciting.
- Quality Over Quantity
Although, be wary of quality over quantity. For example, in efforts to update your website – if you only have the time to create one good article a month, then it’s best to only publish that one article. If you have the time to create a good one every week, then you should do that. If you are going to meet a deadline of doing one per week, then you’re creating substandard content, and there is no point in doing that. Consider looking into our Blogs and Digital Marketing Trends, Tips and Strategies to see how DigiTLC update our website.
- Consider Working on Updating Your Website as Part of Your Content Strategy
As we discussed, there are some real benefits to why you should be constantly updating your websites. In planning how to address your business strategy during our Discovery Call, dedicating time to updating your website has the ability to transform your business, so we highly recommend considering this option.
- Use Programs That Will Assist You With Website Updating
The majority of customers whom we discuss website updating with have limited knowledge of how to change pages on their website, let alone update it on a weekly basis with content. If this is you, then you should investigate programs that will assist you with this process. They are called content management systems and very popular examples include WordPress, Wix and Squarespace. These programs have made the process of logging in and updating your website much easier, including adding a blog post, changing the wording of content or uploading an image.
So, how often should you be updating your website? At least once a month.
We highly recommend analysing your website’s data, engagement and activity so that you know which areas to address to improve your website’s SEO. For more information, don’t forget to download our free guide, which includes eight steps on how to receive more exposure and free leads on Google. We can guarantee it is one of the most powerful strategies right now and has the capacity to transform your business.
If you feel that your website requires an update or you wish to increase the engagement of your website or of your business’s social media, book a discovery call today. By doing so, you will be meeting with a Digital Marketing Specialist to explore your digital marketing footprint and develop a 3-step Action Plan to start getting you results ASAP.
