What is a “Content Refresh?”
You’ve probably noticed that the internet is constantly changing and so are your customers. So it stands to reason that the content on your website should be ever-evolving as well. This isn’t to say that you should be completely flipping your content all the time (that could actually do more harm than good when it comes to your search ranking). It just means that an update here and there, as needed, can help keep content fresh, accurate, and as helpful as possible for customers. Think of your website as a house. You aren’t going to take a sledgehammer to it and rearrange all the rooms constantly, but you do want to keep it organized and fresh!
Recognizing When a Content Makeover is Needed
Sometimes the hardest part of a content refresh is figuring out when and where the changes should take place. The following are some of the biggest indicators that your site is in need of a shakeup.
Pay Attention to Analytics
You (hopefully) have been tracking your website performance with Google Analytics. If not, it’s never too late to start. You can use that data to decide which content would benefit from some revamping. Some things to look at include:
Evidence of Content Decay
This is exactly what it sounds like: a decline in content potency. If you’ve noticed a clear drop in traffic to a page or pages, it could be happening for any number of reasons. One could be that your competition has increased and it’s time to take a look at your competitors and what they’re doing differently. Another could be that your content has gone a bit stale. Google loves fresh content (I’ll get into that later in the blog) and if yours hasn’t been updated and/or hasn’t garnered much engagement, that could be the culprit. Lastly, the topic you’ve written about just may not be garnering as much interest as it did initially. This may not be a bad thing. Instead, it could signal an opportunity for your marketing to step it up more in promoting whatever service or products you’re talking about.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of site visitors that view just one page and leave without interacting with the site any further. While there’s no hard or fast rule for what makes a “good” bounce rate and this will vary by industry, the general consensus is that you want this percentage to be low, but not too low. Generally speaking, a bounce rate in the 50s is fine, but could be better, A bounce rate in the 40s is great. When that percentage starts dipping into the 30s, I like to start digging deeper to make sure there isn’t an issue with bots on your website. When your bounce rate is on the high end—especially if it’s on your homepage or any top-level page—it’s indicative of a potential problem worth investigating.
Low Time on Page
If visitors are spending a few seconds on each page before exiting, it could be a sign that the content isn’t grabbing their attention. It may also be indicative that they’re having trouble finding what they’re searching for and are becoming frustrated. Both of these things are bummers and definitely not what you want your visitors to experience. Take a look at your site with fresh eyes or, better yet, have a content and SEO pro take a look at it. You may know how to get where you need to go on your site, but is that because your site is laid out strategically or just because you’re used to it?
The Last Update Was a Year Ago
There’s no hard and fast rule about how often content should be refreshed, but a good rule of thumb is to do a content audit every year. A solid content audit should look into accessibility, include an SEO structural investigation (including page titles, meta descriptions, and heading structure), and tackle mobile usability testing.
Content is Outdated
You may not offer the same services that you did when your content was first published. Perhaps you’ve removed or added products as well. Members of your team could have changed. Your business could have won awards in the past year you’d like to feature. The physical location of your business might have moved or maybe you added another location. So many things can change for a business, so don’t be afraid to make edits as needed. Also, remember to look at any images or videos currently on the site and make sure they’re still in line with your brand. If not, again, go ahead and make a change.
Customers Are Confused
The customer is always right. Okay, not always, but it’s a nice thought. Regardless, if you’re getting a lot of the same questions about your business, it’s time to update your content to answer those questions before they get to you. For example, let’s say you own a restaurant and are open for lunch and dinner, but offer delivery services for dinner only. If your site tells visitors that delivery is available, but doesn’t clarify that it’s available for dinner only, you’re setting yourself up for failure. When in doubt, make yourself as clear as possible as often as possible. If you notice customers repeating the same questions, it’s time to take a look at that content and edit.
Content is Self-Focused
Self-promotional, self-focused content is glaring to any SEO expert and consumers are catching onto it, as well. For instance, when I see a sentence that starts with, “At [insert company name], we believe that [insert self-self-aggrandizing nonsense that most people won’t believe or even care about],” I cringe immediately. That way of attempting to optimize for search engines is antiquated. It’s a crutch and an easy way of cramming the company name and some keywords into the content. It’s fine. It happens. It’s just lazy. I’m over it and so are tons of customers.
A website’s content should keep the end customer in mind at all times. Show your customers that you understand who they are and what they want, then tell them how you can help. Long gone are the days of patting oneself on the back in an effort to include a few more keywords on a page.
Google Loves Fresh Content
If nothing else, remember that Google digs fresh content. In 2010, Google’s Caffeine Update rolled out. This was a brand new take on their web indexing system and it meant that Google could more effectively and efficiently crawl and store data found on websites. Caffeine got right to work by using multiple crawlers to look for different factors, then categorizing them for indexing. One of those factors was new content, thus setting the stage for the Google Freshness Update in 2011. Its importance was explained succinctly in its tagline: “Giving you fresher, more recent search results.” In short, Google loves fresh content because people using search engines love fresh content. Therefore, you should love fresh content.
💡 Quick Tip: Keeping content fresh on a more consistent, manageable basis is always positive. A great way to do this is to add a blog or news section to your site. This can give you the chance to give updates, showcase your expertise, and organically introduce keywords.
Content Audits and Content Refreshes
Analyzing a website and finding ways to make it work better for you is one of our favorite things. Feel free to reach out to us about getting a comprehensive content audit that’s easy to understand (we’ll go through it point-by-point with you to answer any questions you may have) and to talk about a content refresh today.