Rich's Web Design -September 2014 Newsletter
Google's Latest update - Pigeon
Why Do I Need Fresh Content?
3 Important Reasons Why ...
How Do You Keep Your Web Site Fresh? 

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Google Latest Update - Pigeon!

In late July Google rolled out a major Local update, which most have dubbed Pigeon.  As usual, there was immediate speculation on what happened and plenty of buzz about who gained and who lost rankings and why.  So what is going on? It's an ugly scene in the Local search results.

Spam is Back - In a Big Way!  Many of the businesses in obvious violation of Google's local listing quality guidelines that had been previously cleaned out of the Local search results are now back. They're not just appearing in the Local results, but in more than a few cases, they're dominating them. Businesses with manipulated back link profiles are also being rewarded with great rankings again. This is a widespread complaint and not isolated to particular industries or locations.

Here's an example of a completely unworthy listing ranking at the top of a Local Pack for a search with significant volume, auto insurance new york - No phone number, no reviews, no Web site. In fact, no indications that business really exists at all.

Google's latest update is to quickly remove these SPAMING results.

Why Do I Need Fresh Content?

Google is always trying to show the very best, most authoritative, most accurate and yes, MOST CURRENT information possible for their searchers. If you are searching for information on NC Festivals, do you want a site that last updated their festival calendar in 2011? 2013? No! You want something that was updated THIS month! ... Google knows when you make an update.

Keep things CURRENT, ACCURATE, TIMELY and AUTHORITATIVE! You will be rewarded!
According to Google (http://www.richswebdesign.com/news34.shtml#10g ), keeping your site's content fresh is one of the top ways to improve your rankings! According to www/SearchEngineNews.com (http://www.richswebdesign.com/news16.shtml#10a) - Sites that frequently update their page content seem to appear more often in the top 10 of popular search phrases. This has been true for 10 years+ and will remain true for a very long time!

Many sites are still suffering from loss of ranking or intermittent disappearance. ...The most likely cause, especially if your site is somewhat new, is that it has been dropped from the "fresh sites" part of the index. What does this mean to you? Simply, keep your content FRESH and UP-TO-DATE! ... Not just once a month, but constantly!! But if you do NOT want high rankings and you do NOT want visitors to visit your site on a regular basis, keep the information that represents your business stale and stagnant.   

 

3 important reasons why you need to change your web content regularly

1. To help search engines know your value
To put it simply - search engines like websites that change regularly and regard those with the most frequently updated content, to be the most interesting and relevant to web surfers. A lot of value therefore is placed on fresh content so if you want your business to perform well in search engines, then it is vital you appear to be actively updating and adding new content to your website.
2. To show your visitors you're active and positively involved in your business
Is your most recent news item from 2012? Have you neglected to remove an out-of-date offer from the site? If so, the message you are sending out to your visitors is a negative one. They might be forgiven for thinking your company hasn't done much recently or doesn't take itself or you their prospective customer, very seriously.
3. To attract inbound link to your website
The more share-worthy, current and interesting your website content is, the more potential you have for generating inbound links.

Inbound links affect your websites page rank which is Google's way of determining a page's popularity and relevancy by examining the number of outside links that point to that page. Pages with a higher page rank are deemed more important than those with a lower page rank. For example; when you post something interesting or of value, the more likely your visitors are going to discuss it and share it - perhaps on social media, on their own blogs, or they might even link to it from their own company website.

Therefore, keeping your website content fresh and up-to-date helps your company attract, and keep more customers. 

 

How do you keep your website fresh? Here are some of my suggestions.

Remember your website is your online portfolio to the world. Be proud of your online presence. You work hard, so have your website also work hard for you.
 

 

New, fresh and interesting content encourages visitors to keep returning to your site.
If people find appealing content on your site, they are more likely to link to it. This means that your site is likely to place higher in search results which is likely to help attract more visitors to your site.

Regularly updating content requires commitment. Simply building a website then forgetting about it might not be making the most of your investment. To maintain content, it is often a good idea to have multiple people involved. Another way to generate continually updated content is to offer your visitors the ability to contribute to your site through social media.

Repeat visitors will be even more critical if they keep seeing the same material each time they visit your site. The reason they're checking back is to see... what's new?! What if the radio station you listen to never played new songs. How long would you keep listening to it? Not very long. True, we do like some degree of familiarity and to be able to see/hear our favorites, but if there's never anything new, we lose interest quickly.

As for search engines, they look at your site in a similar manner. If there's nothing new in a while, they'll start dropping your rankings, as your site is considered not that important. Makes sense?