Search engines favor websites with newer content. Keeping your
content fresh is central to maintaining high rankings on search engines results pages (SERPs).
However, many web marketing efforts falter in this effort. Adding new content that has value for users is a time-consuming task that can get shelved by busy people.
When you are designing your website and creating an
SEO strategy, realize that a fundamental component is the ongoing work of
creating new content.
Search Engine Spiders
Search engines like Google use software robots to index new content on the Internet. This
indexing technology is referred to as
spiders, and the process is
Web crawling.
You want search engine spiders to crawl your site on a regular basis, so you need to
feed them fresh information. With current, original content you have a search results advantage over sites that remain stagnant and become ignored by search engines.
Content Development Tools
In the days static websites, it was difficult to add new content on a regular basis because it had to be put in with programming language like HTML.
Now with blog software and
content management systems, this is no longer the case. You can set-up your website to add new content with no technical skill.
Your website must have a blog (as part of the domain) or be in a CMS so you can create new pages regularly. Fresh, keyword optimized article content is the single most effective way to keep your website
on friendly terms with search engines.
Additionally, blogs and forums allow website visitors to comment on your site and do some content creation work for you.
Content Strategy
The goal of most SEO initiatives is business development through inbound marketing.
Content development requires a strategy. You must ask:
- Who is going to write and edit content on a regular basis?
- What topics will be covered? What will be the writing tone and style?
- Who is the target audience?
- How will the content tie into marketing and conversion strategies?
- How will SEO and keyword research be tied into content creation?
- Who will engage in social media and link building to promote content?
- Who will analyze traffic and determine value?
Many organizations fail to ask these questions prior to developing a online marketing plan, and the
lack of answers turns into a lack of action.
After you have set-up and optimized your website, the most important ongoing action is to continue to create new content . The
more content you have--with new material always tantalizing search engine spiders--the better your results will be.
Get a Writer
Your content strategy will require that you publish
informational articles. You need a writing and editorial process in place to make this happen.
In the online marketing era we are in,
your business needs someone researching and writing for you as part of their job.
If you have someone internally who has the skills and time to do this job, get them on it with priority.
If you do not, engage a
professional web writer who you can contract to write for your company.
Either way,
make sure you feed the spiders fresh material. If you don't, you will watch as other SEO and web marketing efforts become less and less effective at delivering results.