Most successful, profitable, and best-practice SEO (search engine optimized) websites share a common habit:

The website content is updated on a regular basis with fresh, pertinent, relevant, or revised information.

Maintaining fresh content does not require a complete website overhaul, or even daily updates; yet the benefits are tremendous!

To be successful, it's important to provide new and revised information on a fairly regular basis; while keeping a familiar environment, and site navigation.

Benefits of Fresh Content

There are many benefits to updating website content on a regular basis, including, but not limited to:

1. Provides for the best overall customer experience & satisfaction
2. Improves search engine optimization (SEO)
3. Helps to increase a website's return on investment

Companies that maintain fresh, new, and up-to-date content will find overall:

• Better sales conversion, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
• Higher ranking in search engines; as sites with fresh content are often ranked higher than sites with old, stale information.
• More engaged engaged users that come back regularly.

Regardless of industry, there's always areas where content can use updating and improvement.

The following are just a few basic ideas of content ares that can use regular revisions:

Company & Industry Related News Updates

There are always new ideas, articles, trends or updates to report:

• Report the latest industry news, trends, legalities, or other industry changes
• Articles related to the company, employees, or industry standards
• Changes affecting the business, industry, or its consumers

Industry related updates can vary from simple, quick tips, blurbs (or blogs) about something new or different; to longer, more in-depth articles or reviews.

Daily or weekly social network updates on social medias such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Alignable, ideally should link to the relevant information, news, or article also listed on the company website.

Over time, an updated "news & resource section" of a website can become a gold-mine of information for search engines, customers, and potential clients alike.

Case Study, Testimonial, Product & Service Content Updates

• Add new case studies and testimonials regularly that show off the latest work, as well as happy clients. (Case studies and testimonials can also significantly help with local search engine ranking.)
• Keep product and service information up-to-date. If information regarding products or services change, then the website needs to be updated to reflect those changes immediately.
• Keep customers informed of specials and seasonal sales or events. Often consumers will check back just to see the latest specials or events.
• Regularly visit and review website pages to make sure the most effective content is being used.
  • Revising overtime often allows for the evolution of more effective descriptions and content.
• Revise for ease of reading:
  • split up content into easy to read paragraphs,
  • use proper paragraph headers (titles),
  • and bulleted or numbered lists of specifications;
  • these are often considered best practice as:
    • Using headers and lists helps customers decipher important information.
    • Headers and lists are often easier than reading through a large paragraph of information.
    • Remember to use proper keywords and phrases in all headings and titles.
• Revisit and make sure that website content makes proper use of headings and titles.
  • This "semantic" use of headers and titles is another method of search engine optimization (SEO):
    • Website content using proper headings and titles achieve higher ranking in website searches.
    • Often these sites have better sales conversion success due to customers being able to quickly navigate and understand the content.

Help & Service Section

• Keeping a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), and other help sections, up-to-date with the latest questions, or "how-to's" is important to providing the best customer service possible.
• Keep tutorials up-to-date; as product requirements change, so should the related help and resource sections.
• Visitors appreciate doing business with companies that provide in-depth, and up-to-date help and service sections. An informed customer is a good customer.
• Providing a detailed help and service section in a website is another way of optimizing for search engines (SEO).
  • The more information a website has related to a particular topic, the better that website will rank in searches performed for that topic and related phrases.
• Customer Forums and Ratings allow for new, user-based content, while also giving visitors access to search other customer posts, issues, and resolutions for handling questions, concerns, how-to's and so on.
• Include detailed Customer Service sections with information regarding Terms, Shipping, Return, Contact, and Privacy Policies. Providing detailed information makes customers feel more secure by knowing what to expect when purchasing from the website, or doing business with the company in general.

In addition to the above noted ideas, each industry will have unique opportunities for updating website content with fresh, new information within that particular industry. Even within the same industry, each company will have information and opportunities exclusive to itself.

Continue Updates Regularly

Keeping website content fresh, and up-to-date with the latest information helps customer awareness, customer retention, loyalty, and search engine optimization.

Updates do not need to be long and involved, just regular.

Ideally websites should be updated no less than once per month, but preferably updated daily or weekly with a blurb about the day or week's special, event, or so on.