How often do you update your website? Once it is uploaded and live, it can be easy to forget about your site; you may give the address out often, but do you look at it yourself?
Ranking in Google
Google has a system of over 200 factors which it uses to analyse and rank websites. One of these is to look at how often a site is accessed and updated by its owner, as this is a good measure of whether its content is still relevant – there are estimated to be over a trillion web pages in existence, and up to one third of these are thought to be forgotten or abandoned by their hosts. By excluding these unused sites or lowering their ranking, Google and other search engines can make sure that their results deliver relevant, up to date content.
Many SEO experts will advise that you update your site’s content often: at the very least, once every six months. From a practical point of view, this is good practice anyway, as you may find that you now offer new services, or no longer provide something you used to. By updating your website content often, your customers always have up to date information regarding your business. In keeping the information up to date, you will also be helping your site’s optimisation for search engines.
Striking the balance
As you may expect, striking a balance is important – time is another factor in successful search engine optimisation, and if you update your site very often or change the content entirely, you may find that the search engines have to re-find and re-analyse your content. But by making regular updates, or choosing a web host who allows you to make amendments to your site, you should find your site to be more successful and easier for your customers to find.
