Keeping your website’s content up-to-date and fresh can often fall in the too-hard basket. I get it, you have more pressing issues or tasks to deal with and changing a few words or images on your website doesn’t seem worth the time. Well, simply put… it is.
But why?
Why update your website’s content?
A website littered with old or poor content reeks of unprofessionalism.
Your website is often a potential customer’s first impression of your business and by showing them your not-so-best side you can turn them away before you’ve had time to state your case. You may have the best product or service but that may mean nothing if your credibility has already taken a hit via poor content.
It is also not just humans who can be so harsh when judging your website’s content. Search engines look down on poor content. Google in particular likes websites whose content is regularly updated and well-structured. Therefore, keeping your content well thought-out and fresh should help your search rankings. Do the opposite and you may take a rankings tumble.
What can you do about it?
Sure, updating content can take a while. But thankfully, it can be broken down into smaller more manageable tasks.
Below are some of the areas worth focusing on. It’s up to you which ones you tackle and how often but if there is one thing I want you take from this article it is the importance of regularly reviewing your website’s content. So please make it a habit!
Site structure
Your website should give the user an easy way to find the information they are looking for. That is why they are visiting your website after all. It doesn’t matter if they are searching for information about what you offer, or purchasing one of your products. Either one of these actions needs to be easy to find.
This means that, first of all, the site’s navigation needs to be up to date and relevant to what the user wants to find. This is the clearest way a user can search your website but as a general rule, information – especially important information – should be accessible within a few clicks. If it’s not, chances are a user will either not be able to find what they are looking for or decide against continuing their search after becoming frustrated. That’s a customer who will go elsewhere.
Content structure
We have already talked about putting the important information in easy-to-reach places but another part of structuring your content is physically how it looks on the screen. The big no-no here is just throwing walls of text onto the website. This is very hard to read and will almost guarantee no-one will read it.
Instead, split up the text into more manageable pieces of information whilst adding some related images to visually provide something different. It may be easier to just copy and paste paragraphs upon paragraphs of text on the website but have some empathy for your reader and mix it up a bit.
Wording
Diving deeper into content, you will need to ensure your wording is consistent and on-brand across the website. Ideally, your brand message is reflected in what you say and scattered throughout the website but don’t overdo it.
And to state the obvious, make sure there are no spelling errors! There is nothing more off putting than visiting a website with spelling errors so spellcheck, spellcheck, spellcheck!
Media
A picture says a thousand words. Ideally the images on your website are only saying positive things about your business. Old, blurry images can say the opposite so it is well worth taking the time to update your website with new professional-looking images. They are often the first thing a user registers so it’s best to make a good impression.
Videos are another useful way of adding more excitement to your website. A simple YouTube embed can help market your brand or product or a relevant banner video can entice the user in. Just note that videos are resource-heavy and therefore any use should be fully justified.
Information up to date
Lastly, and perhaps the most obvious thing to cover is asking yourself the simple question “Is my content up-to-date?”. Is there information on the website that is old and outdated? And therefore incorrect, and maybe misleading?
This could be important content like products you no longer sell still appearing on the website or old email addresses being used as contact information. But it could also be things like reviews or testimonials that despite still technically being relevant could do with some refreshing.
Updating content can help refresh an old website but sometimes a shiny new site is the way to go. If you’ve been asking the question “Is it time for a new website?” it may be time to get in touch and discuss your options with us. We would love to help you out.
