Beyond content creation

5 strategies to maintain website content after launch

29/03/2024

Launching a brand-new website can feel like the end of a long journey, but it’s actually just the beginning.

It’s not about keeping your website up and running; it’s about ensuring it meets your business goals, remains up-to-date, and continues to be engaging for your audience.

The key to your website’s sustained success lies in how you ‘maintain’ its content post-launch. Because, according to Adobe, 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unattractive. And you don’t want that happening to you.

So, how do you maintain website content and ensure it remains fresh and engaging for your users? Read on to find out.

4 reasons why you need to update your website content

Your website is your digital storefront, and like physical stores, your online presence also requires regular upkeep. Regular website content maintenance can determine your site’s appeal, credibility, and overall performance. But why is that so?

1. Staying relevant

When you maintain website content, you ensure your site remains relevant. Internet trends shift quickly—what appealed to your audience a year, a month, or even a week ago may not yield the same engagement today. Staying current with your content demonstrates you are in tune with your audience’s needs and expectations.

2. Building trust

Keeping your website content up-to-date builds trust with your visitors. When your site’s content is consistently fresh, visitors are reassured that your business is active and reliable. Remember, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience. So, if your content becomes stale or outdated, it can affect the user experience and lead to visitors bouncing off your site.

3. Enhancing rankings

Updated content boosts your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rankings. Search engines like Google favour websites that frequently update their content. When you maintain website content, you keep your site fresh for visitors and improve its visibility in search engine results. This increases the potential for more organic traffic.

4. Monitoring performance

Finally, a well-maintained website allows you to monitor performance more effectively. By updating and refining your content, you can use web analytics tools to identify what is working well and what needs further development. This data-driven approach will steer your website in a direction that responds to user behaviour and preferences. This way, you can ensure that your site consistently delivers value.

How often should you update your website content?

Effective website content maintenance is not a one-off task. You should consistently strive to keep your site’s content fresh and up to date. But you may ask, “How often should I update my content?”

The frequency of updating your website content largely depends on your industry, the type of content involved, and your target audience. Other factors might be your site’s goals, the nature of your content, the time available for content creation, and overall strategy.

Let’s break it down based on the type of your website:

News-based or timely content: if your site specialises in news-related content or current events, daily updates might be necessary. Updating content is crucial because your audience relies on you for current information.
Business or corporate websites: for business-oriented sites, updating key information such as company news, blogs, or product details should be regular. A weekly or bi-weekly update is generally reasonable.
E-commerce sites: these websites require frequent updates, especially if products or services change. Immediately update any changes in product availability, price, or features.
Blog or personal websites: there’s a bit more flexibility for blogs and personal websites. Some bloggers update their content weekly, while others do so monthly. Ensure your update schedule meets your audience’s expectations.

3 tools to help you monitor and improve your website content

Web analytics tools can provide valuable data about your website’s performance. Such data, including traffic sources and user behaviour, provide insight into what works and what needs improvement.

Improving the content in areas that attract more traffic and amending those that generate less can keep your website fresh and engaging.

Here are three tools that can be super useful:

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool that offers insights into your website’s performance in search engine results. It provides data on your website’s visibility, search queries that lead to your site, and the click-through rates (CTR) for each query.

Additionally, it alerts you to any technical issues that may be affecting your site’s performance in search results, such as crawl errors or mobile usability issues. By leveraging this data, you can optimise your content to better align with what users are searching for and improve your site’s overall search engine ranking.

Rank Tracker by Ahrefs is another valuable tool for monitoring and improving your website’s content. It allows you to track the performance of your website and the keywords you’re targeting on each page.

With Rank Tracker, you can monitor keyword rankings over time, identify opportunities to improve your content, and track the impact of your optimisation efforts. Moreover, it provides insights into your competitors’ keyword rankings, allowing you to identify areas where you can gain a competitive advantage.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a third tool you can use to improve your website content and its visibility. It provides insights into your website’s technical SEO issues, highlighting how it’s performing and what needs attention.

By crawling your website, it identifies issues such as broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags, helping you optimise your site for search engines.

5 strategies to maintain your website content

Maintaining your website content doesn’t have to be a chore. With careful, methodical planning and the right set of tools, you can make the process of content maintenance both efficient and enjoyable. Let’s explore five strategies to help you maintain your website content.

1. Treat your website as an ongoing project

Remember that your website is not a one-time project but an ongoing one. It needs constant attention and regular updates to stay relevant and engaging for your audience. Make sure you have a plan in place for regular content reviews and updates.

2. Stay current with trends

To maintain a fresh and engaging website, keep an eye on current trends in user interface design, search engine optimisation, and user behaviour. Implementing these trends can help maintain user interest and improve performance.

3. Regularly check for errors

Nothing devalues a website faster than broken links, slow pages, and other technical errors. Regularly checking and fixing these issues can greatly improve the user experience on your website and maintain its efficiency.

4. Use analytics to guide updates

Tools like Google Analytics can provide insights into how users interact with your website. Use this data to inform your content update decisions. If a certain piece of content performs exceptionally well, consider creating more of the same type.

5. Edit rather than delete

It might be tempting to delete old content that seems irrelevant, but think twice. If a page has accrued SEO value over time, it’s better to update rather than delete it. You can maintain SEO rankings and refresh the content to make it relevant and engaging again.

Remember, your website is a reflection of your brand, and by investing in its ongoing maintenance, you’ll ensure it continues to serve as a powerful asset in achieving your business goals.

Conclusion

Maintaining your website’s content after launch is essential for success. Regularly updating and refining your content demonstrates to your audience that you’re committed to providing valuable, up-to-date information and experiences. This builds trust, enhances your brand’s credibility, and improves your website’s performance in search engine rankings.

At ONO Comms, we understand the importance of effective content maintenance. Our team is equipped to conduct comprehensive content audits to identify improvement areas, measure content performance, and edit your content to meet SEO and UX best practices.