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4 reasons you should regularly refresh your on-page content

For years Google has explored a variety of ways to use “freshness” as a ranking factor in terms of SEO. Back in 2003, Google engineers filed a patent which shook the SEO world.

It offered an insight into the mind of Google engineers at the time, but also seemed to provide a picture of Google’s algorithm for years to come. The reality is, Google measures all of your documents for freshness, then in return, scores each page according to the type of query that has been searched.

So, fresh content can have a direct effect on your SEO rankings. Below we discuss four reasons why you should regularly refresh your on-page content:

1. Relevancy

Refreshing your content keeps your brand and business relevant. Even if you haven’t produced new content for a while, that doesn’t mean people aren’t discovering your old blogs via old links and search engines. Good quality content will always get attention, but it’s important that it’s giving the best first impression of your business.

Relevance is also brilliant for your SEO strategy. Since we know Google rewards fresh content, it’s good to take the time to update posts. This allows you to keep “producing” content, without needing to start from scratch each time. Lots of top blogs simply update their content then change their title to reflect that to something such as, “4 reasons you should regularly update your on-page content [UPDATED FOR 2018]”. Automatically this makes you stand out, and people are more likely to click on your content!

2. Your SEO strategy

If you want to ensure that your SEO strategy is constantly improving, then updating your content is necessary. It also gives you a chance to update keywords, and review what’s working and what isn’t. Take it as an opportunity to enhance old content and make it rank better, or if it’s already ranking, then increasing your clicks. Old content tends to indulge in “keyword stuffing”, which Google does not tolerate in 2018.

Check your posts for this stuffing and format all your headings, your image titles and alt texts (avoid stuffing them with unnecessary keywords, but make full advantage of the chance to use keywords in an authentic manner). This will make Google very happy, and they’ll reward you with a lovely ranking position.

3. Keeps your website fresh

Refreshing existing content can be a great way to keep your content calendar full and gain the most potential out of existing high-quality content. Of course, it won’t turn already bad content into amazing content, but it can help produce a second wave of content engagement or extend the life of some of your best work.

4. Ensure all your information is correct

Businesses are constantly growing and evolving, but over the years, various specifics of a business can change. This includes email addresses, phone numbers, products offered, discount codes and much more. If you haven’t updated your on-page content for a while, then you could be misleading your customers. There’s nothing quite as disheartening as trying a discount code that no longer works or a phone number that has been discontinued.

These tiny mistakes have the ability to deter potential customers, so it’s important that all the information on your website is correct.

These are just four reasons why regularly refreshing your on-page content is important. The biggest impact it will have is on your SEO strategy, and if you want to continue to grow organically then this is something you can’t ignore, especially as Google’s algorithms are becoming smarter every day.

It’s no longer “easy” to rank, it requires work, and refreshing your on-page content is one of the techniques required. If you need help deciding what content on your website needs updating, then making use of someone who specialises in content analysis is a good place to start!