24 Jun Should I Update My Website?

Should I update the content on my website?

Yes, Yes, Yes.  If you have been asking, “How Often Should I Update my Website.” or Should I Change Anything on my Website.” Then you already know the answer. The bottom line, if your site doesn’t show up in searches or you avoid looking at it, then it’s time to make some changes.

The tough part may be trying to decide what needs to be updated. Many times, this decision is left up to the webmaster, or web management company, not the owner of the site. But even then, they  are not the ones to identify what needs to be updated, it is the visitors to the site, or lack of.

A key factor to updating, a constant demand by Google Search Engine, is that every URL, title, content,  and images must be relevant and be consistent in theme throughout each page. This is not a new part of the search engine algorithm, but in the first three years, the push for meeting the consumer’s request has been emphasized due to mechanical or artificial intelligence (AI) searching and voice searching “40% of adults now use voice search once per day” according to Location World.

Understanding the changes in how people search for information and products, it makes sense, that the pages the search engines pull up are going to have words and schematics that best match the words and phrases used in the request.

Test your own site. Use Google, Alexa, Cortana, Siri and ask a question. The sample to the left, the question asked was, “How to milk a cow?” Notice the results, look at how the URL, the title and description relate to the question asked. No longer is one word important but the overall information, and though the page itself is not opened, the search engines  know the popularity of your pages and add that into the decision where it should be listed in the searches.

How does the results on a search page determine if you should update your website? If one of your site’s page does not show up on the first couple of pages, then you need to take a look at the content on every page. You can’t change the URL or can you change the title of the page (there is a way, but not necessarily the best way to go).

How can I change the content on my website?  

Option 1 – What Phrase was Asked

Go back to the question you asked. What keyword or phrase did you use? What was the most important phrase? That important phrase is what you should use on the page.

Option 2 – Relating to the Title

Another way to decide what needs to be changed is to look at the content, ask, does it relate to the title. If the title is Prices and your content does not even mention the word prices, then add it, rework the content, try to incorporate the word or phrase a few times.

Option 3 – Adding a Post

By adding post, you are adding more content and it is specific. For most, deciding on what to post about is the hardest. Listen to your customers, the news and others in your industry. You will find ideas and areas of concern to address.

Option 4 – Adding pages

Over a duration of time, your business expands or changes to some degree. You will find you have pages that no longer apply or have branched into other areas, or have pages that seem to ramble on that could be divided into a couple of pages.

Use any or all of the options mentioned above keep a focus on one word or a phrase and use it in conversation flow often enough so it makes up 7% of your text.

Images

Consider the images you use when you update your website. They need to relate visually and match the content. Many visitors look at a page and do not read any words. The images are their clues to determine if the page will have the information or product they are looking for.

Every image should be renamed to relate to the page’s title or keyword/phrase. They also need to have complete alt tags. The tags are part of the coding and in most content management platform, you are able to add the alt tag these are read by the search engines so it is important to use your keyword and mention the company’s name to help with branding.

Overall layout of the site

• If you get frustrated on your own site, then your visitors probably are frustrated as well
• If you can not see your site on your smartphone, then you need to have your site redone so it is responsive.
• If you are making changes in your branding, then you need to update your site.
• If you look at your site and sigh at how old it is, then it’s time to update it to a cleaner new look.

How often should you update the content on your site?

Once a week seems to be Google’s preference. By updating the site that often, your site is always fresh. To keep to such a schedule, doing posts or blogs makes it feasible.

How often should you update the look and feel of your site?

When your visitors complain or you make feel like it’s time/