How Often Should Content Be Updated?

How Often Should Content Be Updated?

Deciding how often to update website content is an important consideration for any business looking to improve search engine optimisation (SEO) and keep customers engaged. While there are no definitive rules on ideal content update frequency, keeping content fresh and relevant should be a priority.

Why Content Updates Matter

Updating content serves multiple purposes. Outdated information erodes trust and fails to provide value to visitors. Search engines also favour websites with regular new content over stagnant sites.

Additionally, updating old posts can give them new life. Even if the core information remains the same, rewriting and restructuring content periodically can improve its ability to rank in search engines.

So while completely overhauling content isn’t always feasible, making incremental improvements helps preserve its longevity and search visibility.

Factors That Determine Update Frequency

There’s no universal standard for how often website content requires updating. Update schedules vary widely based on factors like

• Industry – News sites must update extremely frequently, while lawyer and doctor websites may go months without changes.
• Keywords and topics – Content centred around trending topics or keywords requires more frequent updates than evergreen content.
• Business model – E-commerce sites need fresh product listings and the latest offers, while service companies can go longer between content refreshes.
• Resources – Larger organisations with dedicated content teams can handle more frequent updates than resource-constrained small businesses.

Typical Content Update Frequencies

As a general guideline, most websites should aim to refresh content at least 2-4 times per year. However, certain content types often require more frequent updates:

• Blog posts – New blog content 1-2 times per week is typical for most companies. However, daily or multiple posts per week work better for content-focused sites.
• Homepages – Homepage content like featured products or services should be updated every 1-2 months to showcase what’s new.
• Product listings – E-commerce sites should add new products as soon as they become available and update pricing, stock levels and product images regularly.
• News/announcements – These may need daily or weekly updates on news-oriented sites, while other sites can get by with monthly updates.
• Seasonal/promotional content – Any pages or sections tied to seasons, holidays or promotions need updates to match those cycles.

Content that sees high traffic and engagement typically needs to be refreshed more frequently to continue satisfying visitors. Monitoring analytics can help determine which pages fit this criteria.

Updating Evergreen Content

While some content requires frequent overhauls to stay relevant, “evergreen” content maintains its value over longer periods. This includes about pages, explanations of services offered, process descriptions, location/contact info and other content not tied to specific date ranges or events.

But even evergreen content benefits from occasional updates in the form of:

• Grammatical fixes and wording improvements
• Additional details that increase usefulness
• New supporting visuals like images, charts or videos
• Reorganising information for clarity
• Trimming outdated or trivial content
• Expanding shallow content

Aim for minor evergreen content updates at least every six months. Major overhauls that add significant new information or visuals make sense every two years or so.

Updating your evergreen content gives it renewed potential to capture visitor interest and improve organic search visibility.

Best Practices For Content Updates

• Follow these best practices when tackling content updates:
• Prioritise pages with high search visibility and traffic as identified in analytics. Improvements will have a greater impact.
• Rewrite stale wording rather than just making minor text tweaks so the content feels fresh.
• Add new visual content elements like pictures, videos and charts both to break up text and provide value for visual learners.
• Link to other internal content when relevant so updates extend value beyond just one page.
• Expand short, superficial content to provide greater depth and value for visitors.
• Remove or update details that are outdated, irrelevant or trivial so content stays tightly focused.
• Review pages for technical issues like broken links or visuals that need to be updated to avoid turning visitors off.
• Promote updated content across social media channels and internally across the website through links so it gets maximum visibility with site visitors after relaunch.
• Monitoring Results
• Implementing a defined content update schedule alone does not guarantee success. You must monitor key metrics before and after updates to assess effectiveness.

Watch for trends like:

• Increased organic traffic and search rankings
• Higher content engagement (time on page, lower bounce rates etc.)
• More backlinks and social shares
• More overall website visits and conversions
• Comparing performance pre- and post-update indicates if refreshed content is creating the desired impact and reaching target audiences.

Consistency Is Critical

While optimising content update frequency takes experimentation and close analytics monitoring, consistency in maintaining a regular update schedule is critically important. Content that only receives sporadic makeovers risks declining quality and relevance over long inactive periods.

By continually keeping content up to date – whether implementing minor tweaks or major additions – you can achieve much greater value in terms of visitor satisfaction, search visibility and ultimately, revenue impact from your website content investments.