Once a website has been uploaded it can be easy to forget about it, however refreshing online content on a regular basis is vital in maintaining a competitive edge.
ReachLocal manager, Steven Prestidge believes it is crucial for SMBs to recognise the power and influence of fresh content.
“Websites need to be updated to stay relevant and prominent on search engines. An outdated website means that it will be difficult for consumers to find your business,” he said.
“If an organisation doesn’t have the expertise or resources, they should consider bringing an external company on board, as it will be well worth the investment in the long term,” he added.
ReachLocal has provided three important reasons why updating online content is crucial for businesses:
1. Content freshness is emphasised in search engines’ rankings – the most active websites tend to be found at the top of search engine listings so if businesses want to attract more traffic to their website they need to keep their content fresh. Most search engines factor freshness of content into their search algorithms making this an important component of search engine optimisation (SEO).
2. Link-building now favours fresh, quality content. As well as emphasising content, search engines also look at the quality of links coming to a page to help determine its search rank. One of the best ways to build these kinds of high-value links is to create quality content that other website, blogs and readers will want to link to.
3. Fresh and interesting content helps businesses acquire and retain customers. The voice of the customer is key to delivering strong customer experiences that enable businesses to grow profitably, increase customer loyalty and enhance reputation. Producing useful articles for those interested in specific topics and industries is a great way to get attention for a brand and also create a discussion point for customers.
St George Motor Boat Club, a small business and a local social venue has been working with ReachLocal to build their online presence.
The Club’s CEO Adrian Vermeulen said they only recently created a website and domain name, meaning they virtually started from zero, but their aim was to increase the number of people finding them online.
“By constantly updating our news stream with event listings and latest news we’ve seen our online traffic increase dramatically and after a short two month period we had received 6,000 page views,” he said.
