The more you update, the higher you go.

While most websites have their own unique design and overall purpose, there’s one thing they all try to do in common: make their way up the search engine rankings.

Which is where a website’s content content really comes in.

However, most search engines tend to play their cards fairly close to their chests when it comes to how they define what makes good content, so how can we really know what search engines are looking for?

Well, with millions and millions of websites out there, it’s not difficult to see which ones naturally float to the top of the rankings – and which ones don’t. What’s also easy to spot is what those top sites all have in common when it comes to their content: put simply, it’s unique, it’s relevant, and most importantly, it’s regularly updated.
Keeping your content unique and relevant to your niche or market means that search engines have a straightforward way to rank your site against others. That’s why plagiarised and non-relevant content is often penalised.

But what’s the benefit of regularly updated content? And how can it help your site rank higher?

Once again, the answer is actually fairly simple. To begin with, if search engines discover brand new content on your site often, they’ll visit it more often too. And the more times a search engine crawler visits your site, the more Google juice it will pick up.

Updating your site’s content regularly with new pages also has another huge benefit; by definition alone, it means your site is growing. So it naturally follows that a bigger site with more pages of content will attract more attention from the search engines.

What’s more, having new content often means having topical content. Search engines are clever these days and they know when your site has something to offer searchers who are looking for the latest, up to the minute information. In short, they’ll send more visitors your way if they think your site’s bang up to date.

And finally, new content can also mean covering new ground. By that, we mean growing your content to target keywords and keyphrases which might not be the main focus of your site, but are still relevant to your niche.

So there you have it – regular content updates do so much more than simply make your site look interesting to your visitors… they’re vital in driving natural search traffic to your site, and giving search engines the perfect reason to rate you.