Clients describe ideal websites saying “I don’t want a lot of copy on my website.” If these clients want website traffic they need lots of content regularly post a range of copy, photos and videos.
If you want your website to stand out from the sea of clutter where everyone looks the same your copy has to be great.
You’re Writing for Search Engines
Content Drives Traffic and Informs Clients
Content drives traffic and informs clients. You have to continually add content to websites, because you’re working for the attention of search engines. Search engines Bing, Yahoo and Google work for your clients and prospects by providing them with search results that they ask for. A website with new copy, photos and video is going to come up in some search results if the copy, photos and video meet the search engine requirements.
If a someone types a question into Yahoo, Google or Bing asking for a video, or an image or a general search for “computers under $1000,” it’s Google’s, Yahoo’s and Bing’s job to provide the best search results for that. If you’re in the business of selling computers for under $1,000, it’s in your best interest to post copy, photos, videos and social media with computers under $1000.
You Are Not Your Client
Clients May Read, Listen, or Look
It doesn’t matter if YOU personally don’t want a lot of copy on your website. Websites are built for your target audience, not for you, personally. You know your business, your prospects don’t. You don’t know whether a prospect likes to read, listen, or watch or what they’ll think or want to know when they look at your website.
You have to appease everyone by including visuals, photos and videos because these elements matter very much to Google, Yahoo and Bing. The content has to be the best to be included in search engine results. Foggy unclear copy can hurt websites.
If you’re in a particularly competitive category, you have to continually add content. Your competitors do it and they’re paying someone to do it for them.
They may have been doing it longer than you, they may have owned a website longer. Those factor into when search engines include their website over your website for a top result. Your competitor may have hired an SEO company to maintain the content where you may not have touched your website in months.
Regular Website Updates Are Important
Technology Updates Aren’t Automatic on Websites
You’re going to have to catch up and add valuable content regularly to compete. Additionally, your website has to be up to date with the latest security, plugins and versions of software to show that it’s a good choice for Google. Google search engine results include websites that are old, new and in-between. If you want your website to be included in results you’ll have to try to meet the criteria that grows with the technology needed to update the website.
Websites are NOT like your devices: smart phones, laptops, tablets or iPads where technology changes and your device has an automatic update of its operating system or apps, or software. These automatic updates ensure that you’re always working with the latest version of everything.
Manual Updates on Websites
Websites have to be updated manually, annually. It’s a process that should only be completed by a webmaster because while the dashboard of a website may be saying “Update to the latest version … please update now” if you click it, you may mess up your website. Most likely you will because there are plugins that you can no longer be able to use with the updated version. Hire a skilled webmaster who knows how to test plugins and versions and has backed up your entire website so that if your website does crash, you have the ability to pull it back up.
How Much Content Should Be Added and How Often?
When and What to Add to Websites
Your ability to write, take pictures, record/edit and post video will determine how much content you’ll add to your website.
Your budget will decide this if you don’t have the ability or the time to generate website content. The goal is to present your story, make your unique selling point come out with the information you decide to share. Adding quality content helps your website you come up in the search engine results.
So when you ask how much website management costs, you’ll have to budget and tell the webmaster what you can do and back into the hourly or monthly rate that they offer. Just like your real estate advice, your law firm services, your cosmetic surgery: You’ll get what you pay for.
Don’t worry about length because you are not your target. You don’t know who likes to read, who likes to look at pictures or who likes to watch video, so you have to include all three on your website.
If you want more traffic, you have to add more copy, more pictures, more video. Copy is like fuel for the website. That’s what Google looks for because it says you’re actively writing and posting video and pictures which means you’re providing information.
Google’s Goal: Provide the Best Search Results
Google bots crawl your website pages looking for new information posted to it. Google decides whether it’s good, bad or ugly. If you wrote the right stuff, you’re included in some search results. Which search results? Search engines work by providing the best answers. When you search for “bankruptcy lawyer” Google wants to provide the best results. Google chooses based on who is local and nearby. Google chooses based on new content so that old dated information doesn’t come up. Would you click on a website with no new content? No you wouldn’t and Google wants new content for that reason.
Contact From the Website
You will know that your SEO/SEM is working if you’re getting calls and e-mails and paying, hiring, buying clients. If you’re not getting e-mails or calls, you need new content. It’s that simple.
