Often in marketing, it’s the mundane tasks that are the most important – like keeping on top of your content to update and refresh your messages!
Yes, it can be tedious, time-consuming, maybe even overwhelming if you’re an avid poster of content and have lots of digital matter to get your teeth around, but… it’s worth it, and should not be avoided.
You may have published a really great blog post a year ago with some brilliant information that perhaps heavily relied on data that’s no longer accurate or relevant.
Who wants to read out-of-date content?
It may have brought lots of traffic when it was first published, which will have acquired search-engine-optimisation value to help you rank higher on places like Google, but if it’s now getting low traffic or a high bounce rate as viewers quickly move off, it's now hurting all that hard work you put in, in the first place.
The good news is, search engines like websites that make regular updates and additions.
By giving old content a refresh to bring it up-to-date again, not only will you have more chance of engaging visitors, you’ll also have a great reason to share it again on social media and email newsletters, and Google will be more likely to crawl your website to assess this updated work and give it an authority score, hopefully giving your ranking a boost. Triple win!
What Content Needs Updating?
It's not just blog posts that need a regular maintenance check – any content on your website could benefit from a timely refresh.
You may have changed your products or service offering, or have expired offers that need attention.
Are your contact details still correct?
Do your social media links still work?
Does your ‘about’ page make reference to a certain number of years in business that now needs updating?
Or, just generally, are your images looking a little tired and can you swap them for some newer ones you’ve now taken?
If your website visitors make these discoveries before you do, it doesn’t make for a great user experience and they may not return…
Don’t Forget to Update Keywords
It’s not just your company content that may change over time – what’s relevant to your industry can be fast-changing too, which means the keywords your customers are using in searches may be different now to what they were when you first added your keyword-rich content.
To stay competitive, conduct some fresh keyword research and consider if you should be adding or updating some of the phrases on your website.
Where Do I Start?!
Not sure where to begin? If you know which pieces of content are getting lots of traffic but a high bounce rate (check out your Google Analytics data), these are the ones to prioritise first.
Alternatively, start with your oldest content and work your way through chronologically to the newest, if this works better for you.
The most important thing is to begin! And, over time, repeat…
Need some help to get on top of your content, or create some new pieces? Get in touch 😊
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