Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.When was the last time you updated your website?

For many small to medium sized businesses it’s a fair bet the answer would either be: ‘not for awhile’ or ‘never’.

So many websites are built and left ‘as is’; barely touched at all since they day they were launched.

The reason has to do with time – or lack of, which isn’t surprising when you consider that website content management is not exactly a core activity of most business people.

The other reason is due to lack of inspiration, imagination, motivation or perhaps all three.

When you’re focused on running your business it isn’t always a straightforward thing to come up with ideas on what to write about and what content to add to you website.

SEO relies on fresh web content

Updating your website is important not just in maintaining a professional image (would you hand out dog-eared and faded marketing brochures?) but also in building traffic to your site. It’s also vital for search engine optimisation.

For Google to rank you high, you need to feed its voracious crawlers with relevant fresh content, and do this regularly.

Failing to do so would give others the jump on you. One day you might be on page one of the ‘search engine ranking page’ for your chosen keyword, then before long you can easily plummet into the nether regions of page 2 and beyond – all because you’ve not added new content.

But, as I said, writing fresh content is a question of time – and of inclination.

So if you’re struggling with how to update your website, what are some of the best approaches ‘going forward’, as they like saying in the banking industry?

How to add fresh content to your website

An increasingly popular way is to add a blog to your website. This provides a convenient vehicle to write content and a forum to express your opinions on relevant topics, as well as share information with your readers. As I’ve said all along, sharing information is a powerful way to market any business.

Just about any decent content management system (CMS) offers the option of adding a blog; if not, then it’s easy to embed an external blog into your site.

You can use your blog to post articles on just about anything. And not just articles but apps, videos, photos and slideshows as well. The only questions you need to ask are: is it relevant to my site and will my readers find this content useful?

Ideas for Blog posts

Here are a few ideas for blog posts:

Express your views on a recent development in your industry

Subscribe to other blogs, follow their social media and keep an eye on the newspapers. Save articles and then express your views in your blog posts as this architect has done. Don’t be afraid to say what you think. Be as opinionated as you like, so long as it’s useful to your readers. In this blog post an architect is railing against ‘dodgy’ draughtsmen. There are a few about, I suppose, so forewarned is forearmed.

Cast an opinion on law changes impacting on your sector

Law changes happen with alarming frequency and usually they have an impact on businesses, so why not tell your reader how law changes can affect them and how to deal with the changes, as this environmental consultancy has done.

Some firms in the investment and superannuation industry do this well; mind you, they do have ample opportunity given the plethora of superannuation law changes over the past decade.

Review a product

What could be easier than to write a 200-word review of a product or service related to your line of business? Not only will you draw attention to a product offering but also at the same time you will demonstrate your knowledge.

Share information

Sharing information, as this email-branding firm has done, is a powerful ways to build customer relationships. People want info so they can make good decisions. The more you share, the more loyal your customers will become.

Make an announcement

Announcing a company development is probably the simplest way to add fresh content and the easiest to write. It also enables you to embed good keywords to strengthen the SEO of your brand – as this surf wear company demonstrates.

Educate your readers

The number one reason people surf the web is to do research so give them what they want. Educating your readers provides an invaluable service and at the same time reinforces your brand.