Is It Time to Freshen Up? Google loves fresh content
Having fresh content on your website is good for SEO. As the owner of a website, you’ve probably heard that quote a few times. And it’s a fact that a website that doesn’t have enough new, fresh posts may see:
Less engagement
Higher bounce rates
Lower rankings
Search traffic plateaus
But what does this actually mean?
Google launched its freshness algorithm update in 2011. One of the key takeaways of this update is Query Deserves Freshness (QDF). QDF will detect whether a search query is trying to access current information or not. In other words, if you type a question into a Google search bar, Google will find the freshest, most current answer to your question.
And, if someone is looking for this season’s trends, or technical information, the date of when your content was published will become a factor.
But not all your content has to be new. Evergreen content is information that remains relevant over time, such as recipes or how-to articles, or technical information about your products. But you can still update your ‘evergreen’ posts: perhaps add some recent information such as new colours or a new tool that can be used; go over your evergreen content and look for outdated stats, insights or broken links; you can even replace the images or other media.
The Google algorithm looks at more than just ‘freshness’ - it can also tell how many changes have been made, and the size of these changes - and it factors these into the ‘quality’ of your updates. It looks at what components you’ve changed - changing a date or adding a comment is not as valuable as updating body text for example.
And did you know, Google actually ‘rewards’ fresh content? Update your pages regularly and your Google-fresh content ranking factor will start to climb steadily.
But, Google also understands your ‘niche’ so don’t worry. Google doesn’t expect a construction company to update as often as, say, a website covering the Olympics. But, no matter what your area of service, freshening up your pages regularly is going to pay off.
What are the best ways to ‘freshen’ up your website and your SEO?
Publish new content. You don’t need to publish often. Just be sure the content you do publish is quality and has value to visitors. It can be a blog, but it can also be a new portfolio item or a new page outlining a new product or service.
Update your old content. You can repurpose old blog posts. Be sure to make them current, fix broken links, repair clunky writing, that sort of thing. A library of timeless content can be the backbone of your SEO strategy.
Be consistent. It’s best to update your website with fresh content on a regular basis.
This is a very simplistic outline of Google’s freshness requirements, but it will give you something to start with.
Use Your Analytics
Did you know there’s a way to tell if your pages are performing well? You can check Analytics in your Squarespace admin area. If a certain page is not doing as well as you’d like it to, you can freshen it up!
To check your analytics:
Log into your website at login.squarespace.com
Click on Analytics
Choose Site Traffic and Site Content
You can change the time frame as well by adjusting the calendar in the top right corner. If you see a page that’s underperforming, open it and see where you can freshen up its content.
