Why It’s Important to Keep Your Small Business Website Content Up to Date

It’s not enough to just have a website. This may be hard to digest if you just paid a lot of money for a new website design. However, creating an elegantly designed website is just the beginning of your digital marketing journey. To really see results online, you need to have a concrete content strategy that includes keeping your online presence up to date.

Just getting a website for your small business is not as simple as it seems, so this can be overwhelming. However, if you want to really succeed with marketing on the Internet, you need to make sure your website has the latest information about your business.

As we previously mentioned, over 40% of customers say that a website is the largest factor in determining whether to trust a company. Part of building that trust is having a website that looks professional in terms of both an aesthetically appealing design and up-to-date relevant content.

Keeping your website up to date doesn’t have to be that complicated. In certain instances, it can be as simple as updating pertinent information like your phone number and physical address. But it also can mean continually adding information relevant to your target market with a blog or something similar.

The amount of effort you need to spend on updating your website is largely influenced by what your competition is doing. Your small business needs to be doing at least as much as your competition, but hopefully you’re actually doing significantly more. The further ahead your competitors are with their digital marketing efforts the more complicated it is for you to catch up.

Make Sure the Basics are Up-to-date on Your Website

The easiest things to keep up to date are the most simple pieces of information. This includes your company’s name, telephone number, email address, and physical address. If these types of basic details are incorrect, you’ll run into significant problems.

Potential customers expect to be able to contact you using the information on your website. If this information is wrong, it drastically compromises the credibility of your small business. If your email address causes bounces or your phone number results in a “this number is no longer in service” recording, that is a serious problem.

When a small business fails at the basics, potential customers lose confidence in the business’s ability to execute on more complicated endeavors. They won’t trust that company to deliver products or fulfill services. Keep the basics up to date to maintain trust with your existing and potential customers.

Beyond the Basics of Websites for Small Businesses

The reality is that staying up to date on the basics is probably not enough for most small businesses. That is because this is the absolute minimum in terms of digital marketing, and most companies are already doing this.

The big gains in digital marketing start when you become an expert in your industry and you make your website a destination for up-to-date information in your niche. This is called content marketing and often begins with starting a blog for your website. When you have a blog, people expect your small business to regularly release new information.

You want to post as often as possible, but also keep in mind how much time or money you realistically have to allocate to writing blog posts or articles on your website. Consistency is key, so don’t do so much in the beginning that you get overwhelmed in the long run.

Adding more comprehensive content like blog posts helps twofold with your website. First, customers will perceive your business and website as an authority figure in your industry. And you want to be the authority figure. Customers want to buy from a person or business whom they think is an expert.

Second, content is one of the main ranking factors in terms of search engine optimization (SEO). This means if you have lots of high-quality relevant content on your website over time, Google will move your website into a higher position on the search engine results page. This means your website will see more organic traffic from people searching for relevant keywords.

It’s Critical to Keep Your Website Content Up-to-date

To maximize the number of visitors who convert into customers you need to follow as many local business website best practices as possible. Keeping your website as to up-to-date as possible is one of the most important steps you can take. Given how much good websites can cost, it’s worth it to spend a little more time or money and maximize your return on investment.

Visitors to a website expect a comprehensive experience that includes up-to-date and relevant information. If a potential customer visits website that doesn’t have the information they want, they leave. Likewise, if they perceive the information as old or incomplete, they leave.

In both of those cases, that potential customer is likely to seek a better source. And they will find an up-to-date answer somewhere. The worst case scenario is that they find the information from your competitor. And if they like their answer, they may not even give your business a chance. That’s why it’s critical to have the information on your website.

Did we miss any important reasons why keeping your content up to date is important for a small business? Or maybe you have a story about a website or business that proves or disproves our reasons. Either way, let us know in the comments section. We’d love to discuss the topic further.