A constant flow of fresh and improved content keeps the readers engaged as well as helps the site to rank well in the Google search. In order to make people come back repeatedly to the website the content should be fresh getting updated regularly. Particularly, websites that do online business should keep their site fresh with updated content on products or services, otherwise the customer probably wouldn’t bother revisiting the site again. Similar is the case with search engines. If websites constantly ping search engines with new content, they are more likely to rank well in the search engine results. It is not the only aspect that decides the ranking but it is an important SEO metric that can have substantial influence on search engine results.

How Google checks for fresh content?

Google algorithm has a component called Query Deserved Freshness that checks the freshness of the content based on search phrases and relevancy. Some user queries all of a sudden become popular at a certain given point of time when compared to its normal activity. Google applies freshness score to these queries and tries to bring up-to-date content to the users. In such instances, websites that come up with the posts on recent topics instantly rank well in the search results. But once the authoritative sites starts publishing posts on the same topic, eventually the low quality websites would drop their rankings in search results. It is also important to note that the topics that are relevant right now may become obsolete after certain period. Hence, rather than focusing only on time sensitive fresh content, it is also essential to have frequently updated good quality of content that always remains relevant.

What is frequent content update?

For the sake of maintaining freshness, many websites and blogs update very often with low quality content hoping for better ranking. This practice will hardly impact their results because their aim is to update frequently but not to provide reliable and valuable information to the users. Just making a word or two changes or small additions to the blog or website every hour will not be counted as fresh content by Google. The updates should be sensible & effective, in a timely manner that benefits users with valuable information. Hence, writing something that gets user attention and constantly updating with fresh worthy information will not only increase user engagement with the website, but also helps in improving website ranking.

Best practices to add fresh content

There are many ways to add fresh content to the websites & blogs and make it readable by search engines. Here we have come up with some useful tips on creating fresh content to improve site’s ranking in search results.

1. Understand the target market and update the website or blog section with timely & relevant content that make sense or meaning to the users. Users will be always searching for durable content in their specific area of interest. No user will be interested to know information that is not beneficial for the current situation. Updating website or blog frequently with new developments will create an interest and make the user revisit the website again.
2. In order to create fake freshness, many websites change the topic of the web page and create an entire new content. Instead of being beneficial, this may have negative impact on the search results because the web page loses its existing credibility. Hence, while making new content updates, stick on to the topic that is relevant to the web page.
3. When accounting for freshness, Google also considers the amount of content updated and the frequency with which the updates are happening. A site should have good amount of quality changes to the core content at regular time intervals to have good website ranking in search engine results.
4. If the website is about a product or service, make sure the site gets updated with latest deals & discounts. Also, to keep the users informed, it is a wise approach to add new blog posts and articles with new developments on products & services.
5. Don’t forget your website when your business makes some positive developments. It can be either announcing a new product or service, or expansion of the business in different areas. It’s another approach to add fresh content by creating and publishing press releases on the website. Updating information through press releases will not only increase visibility to existing and potential customers but also helps in promoting brand image.