One of the hardest parts of running your own website is consistently posting fresh content. Not to mention wondering how often you should post new content. No need to worry – this article will tell you everything you need to know about how often you should post fresh content on your site. It’s not secret that Google favors fresh content and up to date information. In fact, new content is a Google ranking factor. Content freshness is an important Google ranking factor.
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New Website Content
As we already mentioned, a difficult aspect of running and maintaining a website is not only creating new content on a regular basis but knowing when to publish new content. If you wait too long, your readers might lose interest. On the other hand, if you publish too much new content too quickly, it will be too much for them to digest. So, how often should you be posting new content on your site?
Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule for how often you should post fresh content on your website. The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to new website content is the quality of your content over quantity. You should never sacrifice the quality of your content in the pursuit of additional content.
However, as a general rule, you should be posting new, unique content on a regular basis. You should also choose a posting schedule and stick to it. For example, choose to post new content on the same day every week. Keeping a regular schedule is more valuable to your audience than posting on an irregular basis that they can’t rely on.
Another general rule of posting is that as your website grows, so should your rate of publication. That way, you are able to keep your audience entertained as it grows. You will also be able to support more writers for your site to create additional content as you grow.
Keep in mind that fresh content refers not just to brand-new blog posts, but also older web pages that you update with the latest information, hot topics, and recent events. (Just make sure to update the publish date!)
Posting new content is also great for ranking higher on Google.
Why Your Website Needs A Posting Schedule
Many people who create a new website or blog don’t realize how often they will need to create and post new content. An underrated part of running a website is maintaining a regular posting schedule. Why is this so important?
First of all, if you maintain a regular posting schedule, it lets your regular visitors know when to return to your site for new content. For example, if you publish content every Wednesday, your visitors will know to visit your site on Wednesdays. As a bonus, you will see a spike in traffic on Wednesdays as visitors return to your site to see your new pages.
Another benefit to keeping to a regular posting schedule for your website is that it lets you plan your content in advance. This strategy not only helps your readers, it also helps you! If you know you have to post new content every Wednesday, like in our previous example, you know you need to have your content done by Tuesday night and scheduled to post automatically. It also lets you plan your content ahead of time. You can plan as far ahead as necessary, and work ahead, or swap topics or posts out as needed.
If you have a team working on your website, a posting schedule is another huge benefit. You can share a planning calendar or document with your team. That way everyone stays on track and stays organized. If you’re working by yourself, this is less of an issue. However, as every website expands, it can help to have a team behind you.
Keeping to a schedule requires consistency on your part can make running a running blog feel like a full-time job, which it is! That’s where a content creation agency like SEO Design Chicago can come in and help you maintain and update your website or blog.
For additional help with keeping up with a posting schedule, you should consider using a tool like Sprout Social to help you make a calendar.
Types of Posting Schedules for Your Website
The type of posting schedule you will choose depends on what kind of website you are running. Here are two common options we suggest for posting schedules for websites.
Weekly or Biweekly Posts
The first posting schedule we recommend is weekly or biweekly posts. Most blogs post on a weekly or biweekly basis. A week between articles, especially when you are starting a new website or blog, gives you plenty of time to research, write, and edit your new posts.
Another benefit to posting on a weekly or biweekly basis is it is generally expected by website readers because it is a common strategy. Your readers won’t complain about not getting enough content, and hopefully they will eagerly await your next post.
The last benefit to weekly or biweekly posts is that it gives you, the writer, time to cool off between posts. Coming up with ideas, writing content, and producing content takes a lot of bandwidth. You can burn out if you try to do too much too fast.
Daily Posting
You probably follow some websites that post every day and have a huge audience. News sites are one example. Daily posting requires a lot of work and coordination, but it also has a lot of payoff.
One benefit of daily posting is it allows you to cover many topics. Assuming you take weekends off, you can still post five days a week and post 260 times per year. That’s a lot of content!
Another benefit of daily posting is that you can (and should) employ multiple authors. Successful websites that post daily typically have several authors who cover a wide variety of topics. You can also hire a web agency to handle writing some or all of your content for you.
The last benefit to posting daily is that it gives visitors a reason to keep coming back to your website on a daily basis. If you post new articles daily, you give your audience plenty of content and no chance to get bored.
Do I Need Fresh Content, Or Can I Update Existing Content?
Many clients often ask the experts at SEO Design Chicago if they really need fresh content, or if they can simply update their existing content on their website. A lot of people think once they have built a website and loaded it with content, they are done. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. For the benefit of search engine optimization and for your readers, you need to regularly update your content.
While updating your existing content every once in a while is never a bad idea, we recommend posting fresh content on a regular basis. Here are the reasons why you need to post fresh content on a regular basis:
Fresh Content Means Fresh Indexing
The more frequently you update your website, the more frequently a search engine will stop your website for indexing. Every time search crawlers stop by your website, you gain an opportunity to achieve higher search rankings.
Search Engines Reward Regular Updates
By far the most popular search engine on the internet, Google, loves and rewards frequent website updates. How does it reward frequent updates? With higher search rankings, of course. This doesn’t mean you should make unnecessary changes and updates. But posting new, fresh content every day is not only great for your readers, but it helps your SEO.
More Content Means More Keywords
Every time you publish more content on your website, you have the opportunity to use more search keywords that relate to your topic and your industry. Keywords are a way to help improve your search ranking. Every post and article you publish on your website should be optimized for SEO.
Fresh Content Keeps Your Readers Engaged
Regularly updating your site with fresh content doesn’t just keep search engines happy, it also keeps your readers engaged. You need to keep giving readers reasons to come back. It also gives you more opportunities to appear in the search results.
Increase Your Authority on Your Topic
Posting new pages on your particular subject will help establish you as an authority in your industry. This is true both for your audience and for search engines. The more valuable content you publish on your website, the more you increase your chances of becoming an authority site in the eyes of Google.
Opportunities to Beat Your Competition
While your focus should always be on the quality of your content over the quantity, it can’t hurt your website to update more regularly than your competitors. Each time you post original content, you have an opportunity to post something unique that no one else has before. You also have the opportunity to grab more web traffic from search queries.
Contact SEO Design Chicago Today for Fresh Content SEO
No matter how often you decide to post new content on your website, a website design agency like SEO Design Chicago that specializes in content creation can help you. Whether it’s creating new content or helping you make a posting schedule, a web agency can help you with all of your posting needs. If it’s time for a freshness update, we can help.
For help creating content, creating a content posting schedule, increasing Google rankings, or any of your other content needs, contact SEO Design Chicago today.
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