You Probably Need to Refresh Your Website

If the big guys are doing it, why shouldn't the little guys do it, too? 

Even smaller, local websites can benefit from seasonally (or daily) refreshed content. The presumed problem for most website owners is time--the smallest companies believe they just don't have the time for a simple homepage refresh, let alone a blog post. 

However, even small content changes can reap large benefits. Brian Dean of Backlinko, for example, has detailed how he made only a few changes to a blog post to generate a 50% increase in traffic in seven days (check out strategy #2 here).

Will you generate a 50% increase in traffic in a week?

To be fair, SEO Sparta tells our own local SEO Philadelphia-area clients that a website refresh may or may not double your traffic. On the other hand, a website refresh will inevitably boost traffic to some degree, and if you have a great website conversion strategy, that boost may lead to more profits. 

So we often tell our clients to let go of the tired excuse, "I don't have the time!" 

Make the time! 

Once you do make the time to refresh your website, you might wonder: Now what? First things first: Decide how much you want to change. Do you merely need a "refresh"? Or is your website calling for a major "update"?

Website Update vs. Website Refresh: What's the Difference? 

Website Update

If you own a small website, it's important to understand the difference between a "website update" and a "website refresh." These terms are often used interchangeably, and many SEO writers take them to mean the same thing. At SEO Sparta, we think it's helpful to distinguish between the two. 

A website update is a major change. Ideally, working with an SEO-friendly website developer, you will update your website as often you update your brand and build your offering. This sort of update could happen yearly or bi-annually. You want to make sure you don't perform major changes too often. For better or worse, an update can have a major impact on your SEO.

Here's what Jayson DeMers has to say about major website updates: 

"There are many good reasons for updating a website, and because of the rapid evolution of technology, you’ll need to update multiple times over the course of your company’s development. When you update your website, you’re bound to experience some SEO shakeups — even if you’re extra careful, at least a handful of keyword ranking movements will be inevitable.

"The evolution of technology" is essentially the algorithms. So it can be a good idea to track the algorithm changes and evolve with the search engines, if necessary. 

In any case, if you're planning to perform a major update soon, we suggest contacting your SEO firm--or at the very least, reading Jayson's article.

Website Refresh

A website refresh might simply include new seasonally-appropriate graphics, new contact information, or new content. Ideally, you will refresh your website quite often--weekly or even daily.

However, make sure you save the complicated work for your website developer. To perform a simple "refresh"  on your own, you might update your blog (as outlined by Brian Dean above) with new content and tags. If you're handy with basic coding,  you might work with your website developer and/or designer to change the graphics on your home page--to, say, seasonally-appropriate imagery. 

In the next few weeks, we will explore both website updates and website refreshes in more detail. For now, if you have any immediate questions, please feel free to call SEO Sparta: 215-900-9398