It took so much time and effort to develop and launch your website, you were probably elated when the job was “over.” Little did you realize the process had just begun.
Yes, regular technology upgrades are vital to keeping your site secure, compliant and cross-browser compatible. But frequent updates with relevant, high quality content, are the lifeblood of your site’s overall performance, and indispensable to your company’s integrated marketing success.
The First Step to Better Performance
The more up-to-date your site’s content, the more likely it is to attract visitors and keep them coming back, according to development expert Michael Hodge, who notes that fresh, current content:
- Is more functional. The user experience makes sense. The buttons and scripts work like they should. Links are well managed and all check out perfectly.
- Performs better with search engines. This is especially true since the release of Google Hummingbird. Google ranks and returns webpages on many factors, including authority, intent and relevance. Now, more than ever, search engines deem new, quality content more relevant.
- Inspires customer loyalty. Customers reward sites that feature newer, richer content by coming back and/or spending more time browsing and exploring your pages. Information that addresses their needs and expectations are also more likely to be shared and linked to.
Some Simple, Stay Fresh Guidelines
Truth be told, it takes discipline to keep site content current. Still, it’s an essential integrated marketing best practice that offers the potential for real, measurable returns. Following a few rules of thumb can help you achieve success:
- Create a systematic site content review process and appoint someone to take charge.
- Develop criteria for evaluating and updating functionality, quality and usefulness.
- Review aging, static content carefully. Products and services evolve. Prices change. Executives come and go.
- Explore new or better ways to improve and update content. For instance:
- Add a blog to your site and post regularly
- Frequently upload company news releases
- Repurpose whitepapers, articles, presentations, videos and other materials and add them to your site. Do the same with FAQ’s, glossaries and checklists. As we’ve previously suggested, think like a publisher.
- Consider content expert Hooriah’s advice to hire a professional website writer or creative services provider. Creating good content is a specialized undertaking that requires writing skills and search engine marketing expertise.
Remember to follow up with your integrated marketing and/or web services team after each cycle. Thank them for a job well done. But gently remind them keeping a website fresh, flavorful and functional is really never really over.
