The Importance Of Regular Up-To-Date Content On Your Website

You may have heard the phrase ‘content is king’ and thought nothing of it, however, in today’s digital world this saying is more relevant and more important than ever. Learn how content can improve your SEO, build your customer base and improve brand awareness.

But What Is SEO And Why Is It So Important?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It involves a number of techniques that are used to help your website rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). When used correctly, SEO will make your website more visible to people who are searching for the specific products, services or skills that your brand provides.

Here’s How It Works:

Google, or any search engine you’re using, has crawlers that gather information about all the content they can find on the Internet. This information is used to create an index which is then fed through an algorithm that tries to match all that data with the queries people type into the search bar.

Three Things You Can Do Now To Improve Your SEO:

1. Update Your Content Regularly

Google is looking for websites that are updated regularly. However, one of the biggest pitfalls for businesses is not having the time to create content and worse still starting to create content and then stopping, we’ve all come across a business or company’s blog that hasn’t been updated since 2003. This can severely affect your SEO. Regularly updated content is one of the many factors which influence your domain authority (DA). DA is a search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). Your DA score ranges from 1 to 100, the higher your score the better. Use Moz’s link explorer tool to audit your domain authority.

2. Write For Humans But Make It Keyword Rich

SEO Keywords are words and phrases that are purposefully embedded into your website content to improve your SERP rankings and ultimately make it possible for people to find you (over your competitors) when they look to Google for answers. Some people get carried away stuffing their content full of keywords making it almost impossible to read! All content or your website should be useful. Most importantly it needs to be easy to read and written to entertain, inform or persuade your potential customers. Rule number one: write for people first, then add your keywords!

3. Build Backlinks

A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. What some people don’t know is backlinks are really important for your SEO. Google views backlinks as recommendations which give your website more authority.

Fresh and updated content + website authority = higher Google rankings

What Content Should I Be Creating, Purchasing & Using?

Content That Builds Trust

Before people buy online, they want to know ‘who are you?’ You need to answer that question and alleviate any concerns they may have or risk them choosing to go with a better-known company, an inferior product/service and even a more expensive option. To overcome this potential hurdle, you need to build trust with potential customers so they feel comfortable dealing with you.
Certain types of information give people a sense of certainty:

• Share your company’s story and put a face to the name through a well crafted ‘About Us’ page
• Include reviews, articles or an ‘as featured in’ banner on your website to build credibility
• Present test results or create case studies
• Show photographs of your products in use

Content That Proves Your Claims Or Skills

Once people have made the decision to buy your product/service, the best way to alleviate any doubt is to provide evidence that others have done business with you and have had a positive experience so much so they would recommend you to others. Testimonials provide evidence that you are worthy of the consumer’s trust. If you haven’t got testimonials yet don’t worry just email your customers and ask them to write a few sentences for you. You only need a few to demonstrate your worth and put your potential customer’s minds at ease.

Content That Adds Value

If your website is not merely a place to buy products/services but a place to read articles and find information, visitors will stay longer and come back more often. A blog can be a powerful tool for any business, it provides an avenue to update content regularly (improving your SEO) and when set up correctly will encourage your content to be shared on social media. Free content is also a great way to build your marketing database. Visitors to your site can access an ebook, article or much-needed template by entering their email and agreeing to receive your newsletter (more content!). Stuck for blog ideas? Try HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator.

Consumers are informed and empowered to seek content before making purchasing decisions. They want to read websites, reviews, testimonials and articles before committing to a product or service. Turn your brand into a content hub and industry expert through regularly updated content.