surviving google’s freshness test
“Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh.”
Your website kickoff: It was an exciting moment for you after all that work.
But can the content in a website decay? Can it get stale and turn... old? Google sure seems to think so.
It’s not widely known outside the burgeoning SEO industry, but Google not only cares about the freshness of your site-it measures it. Google almost certainly uses such criteria as “freshness” to rank your site.
Intriguing users, Getting seen on Google
In today’s low attention-span world, static, unchanging content means viewers won’t return. They will look and leave, and chances are they’re not coming back.
Yes we’re talking about that great home page, text you sweated over, images, blog posts, product pages, pillar pages, landing pages, all the published materials your team has so lovingly put together. Like life itself, things get older. Some become less able to convert visitors to customers. They will, in the Google Inside Search Blog’s blunt language, decay.
And Google notices this. Indeed, it measures it.
Over time, content that is new, refreshed and unique has become increasingly powerful in giving you visibility on Google. This has been true since at least 2011, when Google released a major overhaul it called its Caffeine Update. The next year, the search engine introduced a “freshness algorithm” still in use and certainly enhanced since then.
The algorithm is merciless and holds us website owners to “‘fresher, more recent search results‘.”
Today, after numerous Core Updates like this, new fresh content will even powerfully help propel your website’s listing up or down in the rankings.
COOKING WITH THE SALES FUNNEL
Your website encourages a buyer’s journey from the just-curious to the point of serious consideration and finally to becoming a real lead.
Intriguing and valuable content will beckon visitors to return. And when they do, fresh content is needed to encourage increasingly serious consideration.
Often described as the sales funnel, the first stage in this journey is to simply create awareness. As a rule, most first-time visitors to websites are at this stage of just becoming aware of your brand. Studies show that upwards of 92% of first-time customers to ecommerce sites do not make a purchase.
That’s OK. It’s what we expect. It’s cool…as long as we are adding fresh content which speaks to users differently as they become more seriously interested.
“Study: over 92% of first-time customers to ecommerce sites do not make a purchase.
That’s OK. It’s what we expect. It’s cool…as long as we keep your content changing and keep bringing prospects back.”
So if you are about to meet with a potential customer for the first time, she will absolutely check out your website before the meeting. She’s aware of your business. But she’s not buying yet. We have to make every effort to ensure that she’s intrigued enough to return.
And when she does let’s make sure there is something fascinating or new and different, compared to her last visit.
Feed it
Add fresh new content
Now let’s return to the search engines. Google, as we have pointed out, tries every which way to discover whether your website content remains fresh and interesting in advance. It’s algorithm will rank you higher, if it knows before hand that your content is consistently renewed.
So your visibility in Google is propelled in a powerful way when you add fresh new content with regularity. We speak of articles, news, blog posts, press releases, images, videos, infographics, email, and much more—all the products of your team’s imagination.
A stream of new content is not the only thing that makes for visibility on Google, by a long shot, but it’s up there in a big way.
Keep it Fresh
Edit aging content
What’s more, and, some say, even more importantly, Google frequently favors sites which carry out systematic updates on existing content. This means updates to existing text and imaging, adding to and changing important portions of the site such as branding or product descriptions.
Not every page benefits from updating of course. Concentrate on pages with:
High traffic but low conversions
Low conversions but high traffic
Pages that are out of date (not evergreen)
Pages with inaccuracies (this can also result from outdated materials)
Pages that were popular, but have seen less traffic or conversions.
(Tip: forget about shortcuts like tweaking the navigation menu or footer or gaming a post’s date time stamp. We are talking substantive changes).
CHANGE HAS GOT TO COME...BUT HOW OFTEN?
How often older content should be enhanced depends on its nature. A news or financial site is at the extreme end of the gotta-be-new, for example. At the other extreme, we find content that may not need to change—a piece explaining an Article in the US Constitution for example.
Updates strongly impact your standing in Google search
Frequency: depends on what your do
But a great many sites will benefit from regular edits. If so, at a minimum, probably three or four quality updates each month are needed.
CONTENT CREATION: THERE'S HELP
Great content, in short, deserves homework and constant attention. Does it seem daunting, with all the other projects on your plate? We hear you.
It’s why there is a large community of individuals, agencies, content creators in all forms, such as this one, Hungry Monster. Choose with an eye for talent among these potential partners and you can keep that site fresh...and reap a huge payoff.
Freshness Algorithm FAQ
What is fresh content?
It is written, visual, or any content on your website that is new, or has been substantially updated. Impact on ranking in Google search pages: while content first of all needs to be valuable, delightful, and unique, and of course answering the intent of the searcher, its freshness is a close third.
Why is adding of new, fresh content important?
The Google algorithm uses freshness tests as part of ranking your visibility on Google search pages. Also, increasing detail, recency, and richness on a topic gives your website pages higher authority, you are in effect an authority figure, a thought leader: Again, a signal to Google that the page should rank higher.
Why is updating your website is important?
Updating includes the written content, but also design, and user experience—user-friendly—features coded into your site. Regular updating of these can powerfully propel your website listing upwards in Google search results pages (SERPS).
How often should website pages be updated?
A screen for out of date or inaccurate content on pages should be done every two or three months. (More often if your site displays news, products, or other time-sensitive data). As for more extensive design, and user experience changes, many sources advocate an update once-over every two years.
How often does Google update its alogorithm?
It is said that Google releases hundreds of minor updates each year. Major updates are far less frequent and Core Updates, most likely to affect your visibility in search, are released perhaps twice a year.