I’m going to confirm what you’ve already been suspecting: websites are never done.
This might be kind of discouraging if you’ve just finished a big project like rewriting your website copy or optimizing your funnels for conversions, but it’s the truth. Your website is basically a living entity- like a houseplant. It should change and evolve over time.
The good news is, your website won’t require quite the same supervision your houseplants do in order to thrive and bring you clients.
Understanding why, how, and how often your website should be updated is going to help keep it running smoothly for your business.
Plus, there are several easy ways to reap the benefits of an updated website that don’t come with a four figure price tag of custom copywriting or web design.
3 easy, low-cost ways to update your website
Here’s the bottom line about updating your website: Google likes it.
As in, Google likes to see that you are an active, engaged, and helpful resource for your readers. She’s not going to send traffic to a website that is outdated. Regularly updating your website is one way to signal to Google that you’re helping people.
Read up a bit on Google’s EEAT factor. That’s the only criteria she cares about when deciding how to rank your website.
In short, Google ranks websites that have:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
Literally, that’s it. There’s no sneaky AI workaround that will magically catapult you to the top of the search results. So as long as you have the EEAT factor, Google will see you as a place worthy of her traffic.
So here are some easy, fast ways you can update your website to reflect more of the EEAT factor.
Blogging
Without a doubt, blogging is the number one thing you should be doing to get SEO points to your site.
Even if SEO isn’t a main priority for you right now, blogging is a great way to provide value to your audience and manage your content schedules. (I highly recommend repurposing blog content into social content, since it’s so easy to break up long form content into bite-sized pieces for socials.)
Posting blogs regularly will tell Google that you’re a trusted source who’s providing value to your audience. The shelf life of blogging is also amazing, since a blog post that ranks can bring you traffic for years to come, unlike social media.
If you can start off by writing one blog post a week, that’s ideal for building the authority of your site. However, if you can only manage 1-2 blog posts per month, that’s better than nothing.
Backlinks & Internal links
Your website should not be an island. As in, there needs to be links to, from, and in between the pages of your website.
Backlinks are links that send people back to your website. Backlinks tell Google that your site is so good, that other people want to send their traffic to your website.
So the next time you do a guest podcast appearance or collaborate on a project with a friend, make sure you ask for that link back to your site.
Internal links are links that go between the pages on your website. You’re probably noticing some in this blog post, like here where I link to a post about how to work well with a copywriter, or this one about why your website isn’t converting.
Internal links are important because they allow Google’s spiders to crawl your website faster. Think of your website as one big spider web. When you have more internal links, or bridges between pages, it helps the little spiders get around faster to get the big picture of your site.
(If you don’t like spiders, sorry. I think they’re kind of cute. Send them my way, Google!)
Social media
Keeping updated social media isn’t going to be the end all be all of your website’s authority with Google, but it can help raise brand awareness and get more eyes on your site.
When you’re active on social media, it can help more people become aware of your site and your expertise. There is more of a chance that you’ll get organic backlinks when you make yourself visible on social media.
Google will also see active social media accounts as a trust building tool for your audience. If you can build authority on one platform, it helps increase it across others.
So these are the smaller, lower effort ways of updating your website. You should aim to update your website at least once a month in some small capacity, if only to share with Google that you’re still a reliable source to send traffic to.
When it comes to your actual website copy on the main pages of your website (the ones that do the bulk of your brand building and make your sales for you) how often should you be updating that copy?
How often should you update your website copy?
Long story short: it depends.
Ugh, such a lackluster answer, I know, but there’s a lot of nuance here.
It depends on what stage of business you’re in.
It depends on what your goals are.
It depends on your brand strategy and audience needs.
It depends on what your current copy and messaging is like.
Your website copy should be updated when you need it to strategically support your goals.
In case you’re not sure whether it’s time to update your website copy, either by doing it yourself or hiring a professional, here are some guidelines that mean it’s time to update your copy.
How to know it’s time to update your website copy
Getting professional help to update your website copy isn’t a small decision by any means. It can be hard to determine the best path for you and your business. Based on the work I’ve done with my clients, here are the main reasons they come to me and why they’ve decided to get help with their copy in the first place.
When you rebrand
First and foremost, a big sexy rebrand will call for new website copy. Pretty obvious, but rebranding your website will involve changing and updating lots of different areas of your copy and website.
Getting some professional help to write your copy for you will seriously help streamline everything. Even if you choose to go the DIY route, adopting a structure or getting some guidance will help make sure everything about your copy will properly reflect your new brand.
Oftentimes, I find that having a fresh perspective on your brand is one of the biggest benefits my clients get from working with me. I can look at everything they’re bringing to the table and tell them what makes sense and what doesn’t. Sometimes you need that outside perspective to take the hundreds of different pieces of your rebrand and craft it into a story that makes sense to fresh eyes.
When you change your offers
My clients will often find me when they are adding new offers or restructuring their business. They need their website to reflect the sophistication and expertise they are now bringing to their audience.
Sometimes this could look like adding a new membership to your brand. Other times, this will look like expanding into an agency model or selling more passive offers rather than services.
Regardless of the reason why your offer suite is changing, it helps to get some strategy behind how you’re presenting this to your audience. The last thing you want to do is confuse your audience on what the best way to work with you is.
When you’re not getting quality leads
If you’re getting traffic to your website, but your leads aren’t soulmate-client-level, it’s time to look at why that is.
Leads are the lifeblood of any business, but if you’re attracting people who are confused about what you offer, haggle over your prices, or put expectations on you that you can’t meet, your copy is likely the problem and the solution.
One of the core pillars of my work is helping you build an authentic online presence. When you do the work, don’t skip corners, and create copy that authentically reflects who you are and how you help people, those less-than-dreamy leads will sort themselves out without any extra work for you.
When you outgrow your current message
Brand messaging is the way your brand communicates your value and personality.
It’s how you crawl inside people’s heads and tell them exactly what they want to hear (if they are the right clients for your services, that is.)
So when you’ve outgrown your current message, or it just doesn’t accurately reflect your industry landscape anymore, it’s time to change it.
The thing is, changing your brand messaging is really a “from the ground up” kind of practice. It’s easiest to get a fresh perspective, and not limit your copywriting work to the existing material you have on hand.
When it’s time to rebuild the foundation of your brand (your message) all your copy should follow suit, thus making it necessary to rewrite your website copy.
When you want to leverage SEO
Listen, not all of us know how the heck to leverage SEO on the first website we create. This was certainly the case for me, as I’m sure it is for many entrepreneurs.
But if you’ve confidently carved out your niche, you know what your offers are, and have plenty of testimonials to back up how awesome you are, now could be the perfect time to update your website copy in a way that snags those enviable SEO slots.
SEO is rarely the first point I focus on when writing website copy, but if it makes sense for your brand and your website, let’s freaking write for SEO.
When you rank on Google, that’s free traffic and leads that grow your business. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that when it makes sense for you to?
When you’re redesigning your website
If you’ve found a website designer or template that you’re absolutely drooling over, call me up, and I will drool over it with you. I’ll hype you up as you adopt a new design that accurately reflects your authentic online presence.
However, a lot of web designers will not take on clients if they haven’t worked with a copywriter to create their website copy.
The reason being is that your designer wants you to get sales from your savvy new site! They know that pretty fonts and colors alone aren’t going to cut it. You have to have the right words to sell.
So, if you’re ready for a redesign of your website, be sure you’ve found a copywriter to write your website copy before you start working on the design.
You don’t have to update your website alone
Check out my copywriting services: I know how you’re feeling: once you decide to update your website, you start realizing the hundreds of little details you have to decide on. View my copywriting services to see how I can help you make those decisions.
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