Search engines love fresh content. The more you have, the higher your site will rank on search engine return pages, or SERPs. And the higher your SERP position, the more traffic — and business– you stand to attract.
Blogs are perhaps the most effective way to build fresh content. But you can do a number of things with your regular Web site content that enhance search engine optimization (SEO). Here are some possibilities to get your wheels turning …
1. Add a “Press Release” section to your Web site. Periodically add stories about important corporate developments, milestones and events.
2. Keep your “Company History” section current. These pages tend to get horribly out of date. Add material whenever something significant occurs. (If possible, link your entries to one of your press releases–the links boost organic search performance as well.)
3. Put effort into your “About Us” section. Include short bios of employees. The business advantage here is to personalize your company, something that strengthens customer relationships enormously. And, if you update bios regularly, you gain the SEO advantage of fresh content.
4. Introduce a “Customer Profile” page. Showcase a different customer every month–what they do, how they are unique, what makes them successful. Customers will appreciate the attention and the free advertising. You gain 12 solid installments of fresh content every year. SEO-wise, 250-500 words per article is best.
5. Promote a “Customer Feedback” page. Customers love to see themselves in print. Encourage them to submit comments on your products, services, and people. Besides being a fountain of fresh content, a customer feedback page adds authenticity and credibility to your business. All good.
Note that all these ideas utilize solid SEO techniques to achieve solid business objectives.
Content without context looks like spam, probably is spam, and turns off customers.
Need help developing fresh ideas and the content to go along? Let’s talk!
Another good idea might be to have an “about the industry” page, or something similar. Just talk about the state-of-the-art, latest developments, or breaking news in your industry (or niche) without making it “all about you”. You can become known as a source for helpful information and perhaps attract more traffic.
Bob, excellent idea! That’s a great strategy for a corporate blog as well.
Brad, I had not thought about linking the press releases to the company history section, what a great idea! I also love the customer profile idea. Showcasing customers gives a face to your expertise and gives you an opportunity to show your customers some love too.
Brad,
While these are all great ways to add new content to a website, they’re also important ways to make sure that potential customers know that your website is still active. It’s incredible how many old, unused websites are still on the internet.
In my research for the business guides I write for Work.com, you’d be amazed at how many absolutely ancient websites I come across. But I also come across many that I suspect are still active, but I can’t be sure because they either have no copyright notice or haven’t updated their notice lately and they have nothing else on the site that gives the visitor any indication of a time frame for anything mentioned there. Consequently, I can’t link to their sites as potential resources for the businesspeople who read my guides.
On the other hand, I’ve found that in many instances the items you’ve suggested above have saved the day for sites whose copyright notices were outdated. While these companies hadn’t updated their copyright notices, they had updated their content by posting press releases, news items, etc., that included dates, which made it clear that the content was recent. In those cases, I’ve been able to link to their sites, giving my readers a more reliable guide and the companies potential business.
Keeping a website up to date–and letting visitors know it by providing dates–is more important than many businesspeople realize. It can keep potential customers from clicking away from a website to seek other sites that clearly indicate they’re still active.
And you never know who might be thinking of linking to your site. Never give them a reason not to.
Great post! Glad you’ve resurrected it. Hope the business people who read it will take note this time around!
Jeanne
Karen, glad you found some good ideas here. Visitors tend to be attracted to these features very much. Jeanne, great point about copyright lapses — never thought about that issue at all! Very important.