When was the last time you updated content on your website?

You’ve probably heard it before, but it can’t be overstated – when it comes to the web, content is king.

No matter how beautiful your website looks, people are seeking information, so the content needs to be useful, engaging and up to date.

Why fresh and useful content is vital

1. User experience – delivering relevant information is crucial, or your users will go elsewhere.
2. Search engine optimisation (SEO) – to rank highly on search engine result pages, like Google, you need to be regularly updating the content on your website. Google measures how fresh your content is and uses this to help determine how relevant your site is and where it appears in search results.
3. Professionalism – current, topical content that applies ‘writing for the web’ principles (people read differently on the web than they do elsewhere) will reflect well on your company. Outdated content can impact your oganisation’s reputation, makes you look behind the times and delivers a poor user experience.

There are all sorts of ways to keep your website fresh, from adding case studies promoting your latest project to writing blog posts that demonstrate thought leadership. Also consider sharing company news and developments in your industry that provide your users with valuable insights.

Making sure your content is up to scratch will ensure your website’s success.

Questions to ask when looking at your website content

• What new content should go on our website?
• What content should be deleted?
• Do we need to rewrite content so it’s user friendly (follows the principles of ‘writing for the web’) and optimised to rank well in search engines?
• Who creates content and where does it live?
• Who needs to approve content before it’s published?
• What’s the policy and process for periodically reviewing content?
• How should old content be handled, archived or deleted?
• Do we have a website content style guide and who champions this?

The answers to these questions will help shape your content strategy, which will make it far easier to keep your website up to date.

Maintaining content on your website can be manageable and developing a better understanding of how to write for the web and how to distill information into easily digestible forms like video and infographics, will also reap rewards.

To find out more about how to make your website more engaging, up to date, easy to consume and easy to find contact us.