Welcome to the staging ground for new communities! Each proposal has a description in the "Descriptions" category and a body of questions and answers in "Incubator Q&A". You can ask questions (and get answers, we hope!) right away, and start new proposals.
Is fresh content always needed for SEO? Question
I've seen recommendations that search engines like "fresh" content and that I should be continually launching new content on my website for SEO.
Is that always the case? That seems to directly contradict other SEO advice I've seen that says that search engines like "evergreen" content.
Does it matter what niche my website is in? How do I know if I should be focusing on content freshness or writing content that will rank well for the long term?
1 answer
The flip side of "fresh" content is "evergreen" content which is useful for a long period of time. News sites need lots of fresh content because most users need the latest news, not news that is weeks old. Outside of news, you are likely to create content that will be useful and relevant for a long time, maybe even for years.
That isn't to say that once you have good coverage of a topic, that you never need to write more about it. Most niches have new developments that require new content. Search engines and users prefer sites that provide articles about recent developments over sites that have nothing but years-old content.
There are also niches that require content updates periodically (like yearly.) For example, users want to know that buying guides and reviews take the latest products into account. A new-car buying guide that didn't have any information on cars for this model-year wouldn't be well received.
When updating content it is important to prominently feature an update date on the page. I've even seen sites put "for <current year>" into the page title so that users can see right in the search results that the content has been freshened.
0 comment threads