Planning Website Content: How Often Should You Refresh Static Pages?

One aspect of your content planning you may be forgetting about is website content. While you are busy creating new blog articles, eBooks, videos, and other content, don’t forget about your static pages. They deserve a review and some sprucing up from time to time. But when it comes to planning website content, how often should you refresh static pages?

There is no set standard amount of time. There are many considerations, however, including your SEO strategy, content strategy, industry, and more. What’s critical is that you develop a content plan that also includes maintenance of your static pages. Your plan should include not only your home page—which should probably be updated more often—but also other popular static pages like services, products, industries, or other pillar content.

Let’s explore why fresh content is essential, the benefits of updating static pages, and how to plan for regular website content refreshes.

Why Is Fresh Content So Important for Your Website?

The most significant reason that fresh content on your website is critical relates to SEO. Search engines attempt to produce results for searchers that are the most relevant. That relevancy depends on the type and number of keywords, the quality of the content, and its freshness.

Performing frequent updates of static pages, however, does not always result in higher rankings. Freshness is just one of the elements used to gauge your content’s value. You’ll find that updating your content to align with your target buyer’s intent can be beneficial.

However, it shouldn’t be haphazard. It needs to align with your content plan and your overall goals. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep an eye on your competitors. If you find that they are overtaking you on rankings, it might be because they did a refresh, which means it’s time for you to do so as well.

Benefits of Refreshing Static Pages

Beyond the SEO implications of keeping content fresh, there are more benefits your brand can reap by revisiting standard pages.

Pages Could Be More Shareable

While most of the content you choose to share on social media tend to be blog posts, news articles and landing pages, there are times when it makes sense to share a static page. With the pages updated more often, they may seem more attractive to your audience. Plus, the more they are shared, the more likely they are to move up in organic search results.

One key area you could consider updating is any data points or statistics. You should refresh these so they reflect the latest information rather than information from several years ago.

More Keyword Opportunities

As your industry evolves and changes, different keywords will become more relevant. If you are constantly monitoring what your audience is searching for then you can adjust as needed.

Refreshing your static pages to reflect new keywords could help you capture your audience’s attention better and speak to them with more relevance.

For example, you may provide a solution to an industry with regulations in place. When one of those regulations changes, you can be certain your audience will be searching to learn more about solutions for compliance. Adding this information to the page focused on that service could bring more visitors to your website.

Delivering a Better User Experience

With fresh content comes the ability to provide a better UX for your visitors. They are more likely to stay on the page longer as well, improving metrics around time on the page. The longer readers stay on your page, the more favorable the UX.

Fresh Content Could Help You Gain More Backlinks

Backlinks are a vital part of ranking. If a search engine sees your page as an authority because it has multiple backlinks from other quality sites, you can move up in the rankings. If you have important data on these pages that provide a thought leadership approach to the topic, you could see an uptick in backlinks.

Planning Your Website Content Refreshes

website content refresh

Knowing the benefits you can gain from regular refreshes doesn’t always equate to execution. We’re all busy and keeping up with a high-volume content plan is hard enough as it is. There are, however, strategies you can establish to help you weave in website content refreshes seamlessly.

Use a Content Calendar for Planning the Refresh to Your Website Static Pages

One of the best tools you can use for planning the updates to your static pages is a content calendar. Create a content calendar that is specifically intended for your static website pages. Ideally, this calendar is connected and visible alongside your other calendars that track your other content initiatives.

This is important because your static page refreshes should align with your content strategy and any themes you may have planned. For example, if your editorial plan dictates an emphasis on an industry that you serve like healthcare, you may have static pages that should be refreshed during that time period, too.

In addition to creating new blog posts specifically for healthcare buyers or an industry-specific landing page, your home page or related product/service pages may require an addition of new content about healthcare. You might even decide to take this further by adding small sections about how healthcare can use a specific solution you provide on those pages.

Leverage Content Analytics to Identify Refresh Opportunities and Timeliness

Content analytics tied to your static pages can be a huge help when deciding which pages may move the needle the most, and how often to update them. The type of metrics you’d want to track include:

  • Page views
  • Time on page
  • Backlinks
  • SEO rankings
  • Social media shares

By studying these data points, you can begin to see trends and cycles. You may see an uptick in time on page and SEO rankings right after a refresh. Then you may see a decline four weeks later. This intel may provide you with benchmarks on content planning and indicate when you should refresh.

Simplify Content Collaboration

You’ll also want to use a content marketing platform that enhances content collaboration. Content collaboration can be critical to website content updates for two reasons.

First, you may need multiple parties to execute a refresh, including a writer, designer, editors, and resources to update the content. When collaboration is easy, the tasks get completed faster.

Second, different stakeholders hold different information that could be a catalyst for a refresh. Sales may have information that a competitor is raising prices. Having access to this information allows you then update certain pages to support the message that your brand is an affordable choice.

Refreshing your static website pages is something you need to integrate into your content planning. It offers multiple benefits but isn’t always easy to manage. But you can manage this content and more with DivvyHQ. Check out how it works today.