Keeping your website relevant takes commitment. Yes, part of that commitment entails writing a new blog post every so often or updating your contact info. But that is only the half of it.
Maintaining search engine optimization (SEO), improving user experience (UX), and keeping up with current trends are all key to refreshing your site.
So why do you need to keep updating your site anyways? If you’ve already put a ton of quality work in, shouldn’t the site take care of itself?
Unfortunately, this is not so. Sites that receive frequent updates are way more likely to be favored by search engines.
A website without fresh content?
It’s going to get pushed further and further down the results list. Your site doesn’t need to take a hit, though. Read a few tips to keep your content fresh and connected.
Stay on Top of Keywords
Keywords are like the road signs guiding website visitors to your page. And if the road signs are out of date, users may not make it to your content. This is where seo comes in.
Using Google’s Search Console is a great way to understand which keywords visitors are using to find the content they want and how to spruce up the SEO of your site accordingly.
Once you have a concept of the most widely-used keywords, you can go back over your previous blog posts, articles, or page contents and insert these keywords where it makes sense.
You can also capitalize on the keywords already leading viewers to your site by providing more content related to these popular searches. Not only do you benefit from more views, but you are also responding to the needs of web users by giving them more of what they are interested in.
Is Your Site Desktop and Mobile Friendly?
Creating and updating content with a mobile interface in mind is pretty important.
A study following the behaviors of web users found that 85% of those surveyed pinpointed mobile devices as a regular part of their daily routine, with an average of 3.3 hours per day being spent on smartphones.
With the way tech and communication are evolving, we can expect mobile users to become more of a necessity than ever before. Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and operates with ease on a smartphone.
Try accessing your own site via smartphone to experience firsthand any kinks that need to be ironed out.
If the site you receive web hosting through is truly worthy of your hard-earned cash, they will have a mobile interface option. Be sure to use this to perfect a mobile-friendly version of your site.
Post New Content, But Not Too Much New Content
There are tons of blogs online. Tons. It can be overwhelming. And your subscribers can easily get burnt out by constant email updates of daily blog posts.
Please keep it simple and try for one new blog post per week instead. This keeps your site relevant and interesting, but it’s not overkill either.
Research suggests that the quality and length of a blog post should be a priority for bloggers looking to get noticed. Taking the time to write a high-quality blog post of 1,000-2,500 words may be time better spent than pumping out several short blog posts.
If you are struggling to keep on track with your content creation, most web hosting platforms have scheduling plugins that allow you to fill in a template with your goals for the week.
This method is a great way to hold yourself accountable for creating new content.
Update Old Content
Part of keeping your site fresh is updating the work you’ve already posted. This may entail changing keywords or phrasing in your blog posts. It may entail adding new information that has recently come out about the blog post’s subject matter.
Perhaps the links within your content need to be tested, and those that have expired, be replaced.
If the platform you use does not automatically change the date on a recently edited blog or article, be sure to add a note clarifying when the content was last updated. readers appreciate relevant content, and seeing a recent date signals that the content is worth their time.
Add Internal Links
Another critical aspect of updating old content is linking it to your new content. This is called internal linking. Internal linking is important because it allows search engines to understand the layout of your site better and take note of pages with the most valuable information.
Thoughtfully adding internal links throughout your content will improve your SEO. The more links to a specific page, the more valuable that page will be perceived by the search engine. The chart below shows a common design for the internal linking of website content.
Add Visuals
Yet another way to refresh content you’ve previously posted is to pair it with new and complementary visuals. Photos, video clips, infographics, or charts can be added to both give your content new life and enhance its quality.
Did you write a great blog post about DIY birdhouses? Create a youtube video detailing the step-by-step process. Did you finally find a photo to use for that article on rock climbing?
Add it to the article to make your post more engaging. In general, visuals are great for sharing on social media. And the more shares you get on social media, the more exposure your website will receive.
Keep Your Website Speedy
There is nothing worse than a slow-loading website. It will drive traffic away from your site. A recent poll showed that mobile websites that were taking longer than 3 seconds to load resulted in 53% of internet users abandoning the site.
Tweaking your content can help. The issue is sometimes as simple as using a plugin to convert images to different file types, or reducing the number of full blog posts per page.
You can use the ‘Google Pagespeed Insights‘ and the ‘Test My Site‘ applications to see if your website is up to par when it comes to loading and what you may need to change.
- To test your site with the Google Pagespeed Insight tool, type your website address into the top search box, and select Analyze.
- After your page has been analyzed, a color-coded breakdown and percentage will appear showing just how slow (red), average (orange), or fast (green) loading time is.
- In Field Data, Origins Summary, and Lab Data, you will see loading time listed as percentages and in seconds.
- Scroll down below Lab Data to see the Opportunities and Diagnostics suggested by Google. These are a great place to start if you are hoping to facilitate faster loading.
Do a Full Website Overhaul
If your site looks like something out of the early MySpace era, that is going to be a red flag for visitors. If you want web users to take you seriously, keep your site in trend.
This is why it is a good idea to redesign your site every few years. That can mean choosing a different aesthetic, altering the layout to reflect your business’s new priorities, or switching your website hosting platform altogether.
These sorts of changes are significant. They can be time-consuming and require planning, but they only need to be done occasionally. The impact a modern, up-to-date vibe can have is powerful.
So powerful that even MySpace gave in and shrugged off their emo past for a neutral, more current aesthetic.
Keeping your website content fresh isn’t just about writing a new blog post here and there. You can refresh the content you already have to benefit from SEO and to improve user experience.
Remember that working with what you have is just as important as adding something entirely new and fresh to your site.
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