What Is Your Web Content Freshness Date?

Let’s put it this way, your “Web Content Freshness Date” timeline is in no way analogous to a spent nuclear fuel rod’s half-life. However, many companies think that their content is performing wonderfully with their “new” website having been launched in February 2007 and their last update to the site consisting of a “News Release” posted in June of 2011. One of the most effective methods to inspire Google to crawl your site frequently is to “feed” it good reasons to do so. Google loves to discover new pages, site updates and social media activities that refresh your company’s online content. Following are 5 excellent ways to create new content and renew old content for Google’s (and other search engines) consumption:

Content

Publish new web pages regularly. Update your most important information first. New pages need new urls; Google loves to index new urls. Get credit for publishing relevant, high quality content such as:

1. Blog – your blog should be a main nav button on your main domain. If it is not hosted on your site, feature the latest blog titles (with an excerpt to spark interest) of your posts as links on your Home Page or some other prominent page on your site.
2. Case Studies – Should be totally unique to your business, great “a look inside our business process” content.
3. How-to Guides – Keeps prospects and clients coming back to your site if relevant and updated with new, interesting “how-to” information.
4. Info-graphics – A picture (graphic) is worth a thousand words, right? Viewers able to “digest” information quickly.
5. Articles – Create unique information presented in a succinct manner, don’t bloviate. Bulleted (or numbered) items are very helpful for “the skimmer” to absorb quickly.
6. Client Testimonials – Unique to your company. Client “Fans” will give you great testimonials. Client testimonials can be very convincing and speak to a decision-makers positive experience with your company.
7. Product/Service Reviews – If you’re delivering on your mission statement you shouldn’t need to monitor real input from your customers. Prospects and clients are interested in how you handle a negative review (once in a great while) as well. You know your business; it is up to you to set the level of moderating that may be necessary.
8. News/Press Releases – Don’t confuse the two, most of your releases are going to fall into the category of a “News Release”. Keep it pithy and tell the reader why this news is important to them.

Unique Content

Copy/Paste has been a page-to-page “no-no” since before the first Panda search results ranking algorithm was released in February 2011. Duplicate material across a site and even duplicated off-page can harm a site’s ranking. Registering somewhere in the 60% content uniqueness range site-wide is needed to drive Panda’s “uniqueness needle” where it needs to be.

Social Media

Social media is huge in the online marketplace. Social media is an extremely powerful tool and can be a great prospect generator when managed correctly. You must make a commitment to stay on top of any social program you start or it can hurt your overall marketing effort. If you cannot commit to the time to create meaningful content or manage your social media accounts it is best to delay any such effort until you can manage the space professionally (i.e. writing, unique content, posting frequently). Half measures won’t cut it.

Update

Rewrite older pages often. Frequently updated pages tell the spiders to “check on me often” to see if I’ve changed. Pages that get new content or “facelifts” maintain a higher placement in page SERPs.

Archive

Old, less relevant page content can cause your site ranking to slide and in some cases can even result in your site being penalized. Archiving, or otherwise removing old, irrelevant pages helps to cut site “page totals”, thus increasing your ratio of fresh-to-stagnant content. Of course, the mix of Social Media you engage in will be influenced by the industry you’re in and your company’s workforce capabilities and whether you and your staff have the time and talent to keep it in-house. Ecreative stands ready to consult with you regarding any questions you may have to start a “Web Freshness” campaign. Contact Ecreative to learn more about how we can help you design and implement your “Web Content Freshness Date” program.