Fresh Content: Important Features for Online Stores

Online store owners may have issues with content updates. On the one hand, there is a recommendation to publish new content regularly, but on the other hand, there are many static pages in an online store with relevant information that does not require updating. Let’s take a closer look at this issue and try to identify what needs to be updated, how often, and why it’s important.

Does Google like new content?

In fact, it is not a whim of Google but a requirement of users. For example, if you’re looking for information about the UEFA European Championship, you’d probably prefer results about EURO 2016, not EURO 2012. That’s why Google Search has an updating algorithm developed to give you the most accurate results. relevant and up to date. results, so even if you just search for “Football EURO” without specifying the year 2016, you will find EURO 2016 in SERP. It could be said that it is a hot topic and a popular event, so it is understandable that the information about it is updated every day, hour and even minute. You’re right. But if you search for “iPhone reviews”, you probably won’t be satisfied with reviews that were published 4 years ago. You also prefer to receive the most up-to-date information. Therefore, the relevance and freshness of the information is a requirement of the users that Google is trying to satisfy. Next, we’ll describe how Google analyzes content for freshness.

A document creation date.

The first parameter by which Google determines currency is the date the document was created. It can also be the date when Google first finds the document, that is, when Googlebot indexes a certain document or finds a link to it. A good update indicator can boost certain content for some search requests, but this effect can be temporary, and the older a document becomes, the worse it ranks in search results. For some requests, older web pages may be more preferable than newer pages. Therefore, it may be useful to correct the refresh indicator for a certain web page based on the difference between the age of the document and the number of results available.

The number of changes determines the degree of freshness

The age of a document is not the only indicator of freshness. Search engine crawlers can index and check each document for changes. Therefore, the number of changes to a document can make certain content newer or older.

For example, if you change several words or add a small paragraph of text on the page, this content will not be considered new. Practice shows that in most cases Google ignores minor changes.

SEO tip. If you update a link on an existing web page, it’s best to change the text surrounding this link as well. In this case, Google is more likely to consider this an update and not ignore your changes.

Where or what part of a document is changed

Each web page has different areas and its own structure, and an update is more or less important depending on which part or elements of the page this update affects. The most preferred part for changes is the body of the page. Changes to comments, ad blocks, navigation, Java script, date and time are less important.

SEO tip. Don’t try to make a fake freshness. The best way is to keep the existing page content updated and useful at the same time.

Changes in frequency or how often content is changed

Updating content regularly is not enough. If you do this once a year, that’s also regular. Content that is updated more frequently is considered different than content that is updated multiple times a year. But, you should be aware that Google “understands” that there are places where information is constantly being updated (for example, a news portal like bbc.com, etc.) and there are places where frequent updates are not appropriate and may even be. . suspicious. In addition, Google treats links from such pages differently. The value of links from rapidly changing (updating) pages may not be as strong as links from static, permanent pages.

add new pages

You can update existing pages as well as create new ones. A very simple formula works here: sites that create new pages more frequently can have a higher refresh rate than sites that create new pages less frequently.

Freshness can also be identified as the ratio of new pages compared to existing pages over a certain period of time. Because of this, it is recommended that approximately 30% new pages be added to the site each year. But it is not obvious if there are other signs of freshness.

Increase in the number of new backlinks

Not only external factors can make content fresh. There are also external factors that can be even more powerful. If the number of backlinks to a certain page is increasing, it is a sign of new content.

SEO tip. Search engines may consider a false increase in backlinks as spam or black SEO. Search engines can penalize for such activity. Keep in mind that backlinks from sites that have a good refresh rate can improve the refresh rate of the pages they link to.

Recommendations for electronic commerce

Online stores have many peculiarities in their content. Some product pages do not need frequent updates and the information may be relevant for several months. You do not need to update your online store pages to receive better ranking results. The main goal here is to update the information so that the content is as useful as possible for visitors. Here are some recommendations:

• Determine an optimal updated rate for your business. Check how often your competitors update information. In accordance with this, add new content to your online store regularly.
• Use your blog to add useful content. It is the best practice for the online store to create new pages.
• When you update, involve more important parts and elements of the site. Remember that the body of the page is more preferable.
• Remember that small changes may not be considered. To update a link, you must change the text around it to increase the likelihood that the link will be considered new.
• Steady backlink growth is better than intermittent, sharp growth.
• Plan and update the content of the product page, but keep in mind that frequent updates are not needed here.

In conclusion, it should be noted that you need to think about your customers first and do your best to be useful and relevant to them. Googlebot will never buy your products, so your priorities must be clearly identified.

Have a good sale!