At TMR Direct we talk a lot about making sure that you continually add fresh content to your website. We encourage clients to continually update their blogs with new information that will help their customers make good buying decisions and will stimulate their thinking. We also encourage clients to update the content on their websites and to add fresh calls to action and offers.
There are a couple of reasons we encourage businesses and organizations to do this. One reason, of course, is that people are continually looking for new information. That’s why they are on your site in the first place. They want information that will help them accomplish their goals. If they keep finding the same old stuff on your site they’ll eventually think that’s all you have to say—and if it’s not helping them, they’ll look elsewhere.
There’s another reason that you should be keeping things fresh. Google recently announced they are rolling out a new search algorithm change that helps make the search results “fresher.” The big news here is that besides for the results being fresher, the results will change for about 35% of all searches.
You can read the article here, but the big idea is that Google’s new algorithm will rank material based on freshness—in order to give searchers more relevant information. What that means is that part of the reason you will show up ahead of your competition when people search for your company or organization is that you have fresh (and therefore more relevant) information.
The converse is also true. If your content is old and stale, not only will it be boring, but it will very likely cause you to show up lower on the page when people search for whatever it is you have to offer.
Companies and organizations that continually add to their content through blogs and new offers, and calls to action can benefit two-fold. First, you are more likely to be found in a search if you have more content out there. There are simply more reasons for you to show up in a search. But soon, your ability to show up higher on the list will be enhanced by how current (fresh) your content is.
Good content is still king. But now it’s not just the quality of your content that’s important. Keeping your content fresh is increasingly important.
What do you think of Google’s plans to rate by “freshness?”
Blog Post Written by Wes Powell
Wes Powell is the President of TMR Direct. TMR Direct’s desire is to provide you with the practical advice you need to be successful using direct mail and inbound marketing to generate traffic, leads, and ultimately customers.