Updating website content is critical for website rank
It never pays to be idle. The Good Book tells us idleness is a bad thing. Never more so than on your website. An idle website sounds a death knell for business. It’s the end of potential revenue, a decrease in rank and authority and can spell even disaster the more time passes.
You can do something about it. Something the majority of my clients just don’t want to hear.
More content.
Whether it’s writing a blog post or article, updating your services, rewriting key pieces of content or taking a long hard look at your product descriptions, creating or remaking content is the number one best thing you can do to improve your SEO rank. The more content you have, the easier people can find you. The more they click through to your site, Google sees your site as an authority and ranks you higher.
More/better content = More clicks = Higher Rank = More Revenue
How Google Ranks a Site
Imagine a stack of 5 bills on your desk. You lay the most important one on top. The mail comes tomorrow, you lay 10 more pieces on the first 5. Every day more bills come in and by the end of the month. Where’s that important one now? On the bottom.
Website rank and on-page SEO is very much like that important bill. If you don’t do something with it every day to move it to the top of the stack, it’s going to get buried. Forgotten. It will languish among the newest, most vocal of bills.
You see how that works?
Google scans every single website on the internet. It checks words on the page, yes. But it also sees when it was last updated. Three years ago? Not very relevant, says Google, so we’re going to tuck that website over here on page 10.
Do you know how many people make it past page one of the search results? Not very many.
Because Google scans frequently, it knows (and loves) sites that post new content. Will it rank you high regardless of the content? No. The content has to be good, of course, and on topic for your site. Google is looking at top quality content about your business, services and products. Lots of good keywords mixed into that content is important also, but in today’s world “keywords” matter less than how relevant the information is to the end user.
How to Update Existing Content
Do you have a page on your site that you think is important? What does the page say to the end user? Is it full of technical jargon, or is it addressing the customers problems? Rewrite key features of your product or services into benefits. Instead of saying your water pitcher holds 5.4 gallons, describe how that larger capacity is great because you only have to fill it once a week.
If your content sounds boring to you, it’s boring to your reader. They’re going to bounce right on out of there.
Every page on your site is an opportunity to improve. Give readers information they can relate to. Start with your best service or product.
Do a little research on what words people are using to find your competition. A handy, free, browser add-on I use with Chrome and Vivaldi is Keywords Everywhere. A quick search on Google and it shows you what people are using to find that topic, related words and phrases, how often they’re used to search, and if the competition is paying for ads on that word (and how much they’re paying). Use some of those phrases, and related phrases in your text.
Does content seem overwhelming and you don’t know where to begin? Understandable. Not everyone loves writing! Don’t take on too much all at once. It will feel insurmountable.
Take it one paragraph or heading at a time. Slow and sure wins the day. Every time you update, Google pays attention. Does that mean you have to make changes every day? No, not at all. But try to get in there at least once or twice a week and do something specific and relevant.
Spend time on your product descriptions. Remove the jargon and technical specifications and explain why someone needs this gizmo. Don’t copy and paste what the manufacturer has written. Make it your own. If people ask questions about it on Amazon, use the answer to those questions as part of your description. If you’re a retailer, this is my recommendation for your first update. Get them in order. It will pay in dividends.
If you have any budget at all, a content copywriter is a great resource. For the key pages of your site, a copywriter can deliver fresh new content that resonates with your buyers for about $1500 to $2500. A small price to pay for more business.
Spread the love around. If you’re updating content, and writing blog posts, share that news on your social media channels with links back to your website. Provide information, links and descriptions that make your social media followers want to go to your website to see. If you reveal everything in your post, why do they need to go to your site?
Make sure your Google Analytics and Search Console are up and operational. Set up goals you can track in Google Analytics, and monitor your monthly progress. Compare it to this time last year or last quarter. Are the changes you’re making helping? They should be. Stay on top of it, and when you start seeing an increase for a particular page or topic, go tweak it some more or add to it with an additional blog post on a similar subject.
But I hate to blog. Yeah, I hear you. Writing isn’t the most favorite part of my job either. Blogging even less so. But I do it. You know why? Because no one wants to read this many words on my services page. I can pick a topic for my blog and add a lot more words because people are expecting to read an article. It’s different here versus the main pages of my site. And my blog is an excellent opportunity for me to rant about things in business I can’t passionately discuss on my main site.
Make the time. It’s easy to think you’re too busy to update your content or write a blog post, but I guarantee you it will help improve your site traffic. I’m just as busy as the next guy. On top of a full time job, I run a farm, take care of an elderly aunt, garden and can my food, and play mom to 12 large dogs. My day is full. But building my business is important. Isn’t yours? If you thought it could help, wouldn’t an hour out of your week be time well spent if it built revenue in the bank? I can tell you it will do more for you than the 12 hours you spend on Facebook each week.
Protect your website investment
If you’ve hired a professional to build your website, then you’ve already invested a good chunk of change into your business. Don’t let your website sit idle. All your hard work and money will be for naught as time passes. The good work you’ve done, the business you’re trying to build, will become irrelevant in the eyes of the search engines algorithms. And your website will be left to die a slow, agonizing death.
