Content is one of the key elements that affects a website’s SEO performance as it allows for search engines to not only determine what websites are about, but how relevant and useful they are to users. Google even outlines content creation best practice through the use of E-A-T.
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority & Trustworthiness which have been found to greatly influence a website’s SEO ranking and provides a useful guideline for content creation. Expertise refers to the writer of the content; are they able to provide effective and accurate information for the reader on a certain topic. For instance, while Redline Digital can provide accurate information and content around SEO and web dev, our expertise on ice cream isn’t nearly as fine tuned. Authority on the other hand is slightly different, it explores how other people, including users and those within an industry see a website. This can be exhibited via a high number of visitors and low bounce rates or equally a high number of well known websites linking to your content. Finally, there is Trustworthiness. As the same suggests, this relates to how well the content you provide can be trusted. This is done via linking to reliable sources, stating where information is collected and being forthright about the validity of your information.
Tips For Updating Onsite Content
1. Keep content current
The content on your website should be relevant, reliable and most importantly – timely. This is especially true with the rapid changes in the external environment within the last 6-9 months, which has left many industries facing brand new challenges and warped methods of working. There are a few ways to determine effective content including searching trending keywords through databases such as Google ads’ keyword planner, exploring content of competitor sites and researching current news articles within your industry.
2. Pruning and repurposing
Old content isn’t necessarily bad, but too much outdated or low-performing content can drag your website down and cause SEO issues. This is where content pruning comes into play. Pruning isn’t just deleting old content, it can involve repurposing content. Repurposing of content can be done in one of two ways, firstly through updating old content with new information and reposting it or alternatively recycling parts of old content to create entirely new content pieces.
There are numerous benefits of pruning content with the most obvious being the consequential improvement in the overall quality of content on the website, which in turn benefits SEO performance. However, it is important to note that when looking to prune content, avoid going overboard as a large clear out of content can have the opposite effect. We recommend auditing content on a yearly basis and make changes accordingly.
3. Different types of content
Content comes in a variety of forms. The most common being the written word, but websites can look to employ a variety of different forms of content including videos, photos, even infographics. These alternative forms can be employed across different pages of your website and help to improve SEO performance. Sometimes alternative content can be more user friendly and easier to digest, attracting more users to your website. At the end of a day a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video can be even better! Secondly, certain content can also be used as an effective linking tool. For instance, infographics can be particularly useful as users and even other businesses will sometimes look to use particularly interesting or thought-provoking infographics in their own content. They will then link this back to the original content allowing for an effective and reliable link network to be created which also helps to improve your website’s SEO standing.
4. Planning consistent content
This is the final stage needed to effectively revitalise a website’s content as new content should be consistently posted keeping visitors engaged and returning to your website. Effective planning allows for timely content to be created, aids in avoiding duplicate content being created and can even allow for timelines to be drawn around updating/auditing of current content on a website.
Content is one of the most crucial parts of any website and it is therefore imperative that businesses consistently upkeep and grow their content to ensure optimal SEO performance and valuable information is available to visitors. For assistance on updating your websites content contact our friendly team at Redline Digital.