Content freshness is a key factor for SEO and user engagement, especially for topics that change with seasons or trends. But how do you keep your content fresh without compromising quality or relevance? Here are some effective content freshness strategies for seasonal or trending topics that you can apply to your website or blog.
One of the simplest and most effective ways to keep your content fresh is to update your existing content regularly. This means adding new information, removing outdated or inaccurate data, improving readability, and optimizing keywords and meta tags. Updating your content not only signals to search engines that your page is relevant and authoritative, but also provides value to your readers who are looking for the latest and most accurate information.
I write in a rapidly innovating market, which means I have to keep close tabs on trends. A good way for writers to update existing content is to stay up on trends. When something changes, reach out to subject matter experts and get their thoughts. You can also scour new industry reports to see what is out there. Then, take what you've learned and refresh your outdated content with fresh insights.
Evergreen content is content that stays relevant and useful for a long time, regardless of seasons or trends. Examples of evergreen content are how-to guides, FAQs, case studies, and testimonials. However, even evergreen content can benefit from some freshness strategies, such as repurposing it into different formats or channels. For instance, you can turn a blog post into a video, a podcast, an infographic, or a social media post. Repurposing your evergreen content can help you reach new audiences, increase engagement, and boost your SEO.
Stop re-inventing the wheel every week. Great content deserves to breathe - so repurpose repurpose repurpose! BUT make sure you're repurposing into a format that gives value to your audience.
Another way to keep your content fresh is to create new content that aligns with the current season or trend. For example, you can write about holiday tips, seasonal offers, industry news, or popular topics in your niche. Creating seasonal or trending content can help you attract more traffic, generate more interest, and showcase your expertise and relevance. However, you should also balance your seasonal or trending content with your evergreen content, and avoid creating too much or too little content for each category.
Is there such a thing as 'too much content'? Of course not. As long as your audience continues to consume, there's no reason to stop creating.
Planning and scheduling your content in advance can help you maintain a consistent and fresh content strategy. You can use content calendars and tools to plan your content topics, formats, keywords, and publishing dates according to seasons, trends, and your goals. Content calendars and tools can also help you track your content performance, identify gaps and opportunities, and optimize your content accordingly. Some examples of content calendars and tools are Google Calendar, Trello, CoSchedule, and HubSpot.
One of the best ways to keep your content fresh is to engage with your audience and encourage them to interact with your content. You can do this by asking questions, inviting feedback, conducting polls or surveys, hosting contests or giveaways, or featuring user-generated content. Engaging with your audience can help you build trust and loyalty, increase social shares and comments, and generate new ideas and insights for your content. It can also help you understand your audience's needs, preferences, and pain points better.
A great way to pull in your audience is by using a real-life example of a person (with their pic) in similar circumstances. And using direct quotes talking about their experience. Even if the audience doesn't interact with content, it will resonate deeper.
Finally, you should always test and measure your content freshness and its impact on your SEO and user engagement. You can use various metrics and tools to analyze your content freshness, such as crawl frequency, indexation rate, ranking changes, traffic volume, bounce rate, dwell time, and conversions. Testing and measuring your content freshness can help you identify what works and what doesn't, and adjust your content strategy accordingly. You can also use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Moz, and Ahrefs to monitor and improve your content freshness.