When it comes to content marketing, most guides focus on the part where your content needs to be relevant, well-written and well-formatted, all of which are true. However, while all of them speak about quality, most of them forget to mention just how important it is to satisfy the quantity criteria, as well. In other words, they forget just how important it is to keep your content fresh. This is relevant from both branding and SEO standpoints and here are six reasons why.

Regular updates are rewarded by search engines

The first thing you need to understand about search engines is the fact that they hate inactive domains, while they reward websites that are regularly updated. A lot of people believe that this is something that’s strictly related to a change in algorithm, so if your blog can’t keep up with all the latest trends, this will lead to a natural decline in rank. While there is some truth to this, the inactivity itself is often seen as a ranking factor.

Accuracy of information

A lot of people are using blog content in order to get informed or updated on a certain topic. Now, imagine looking for a certain statistic and landing on a blog post from 2014. Even if the information displayed here is accurate, it is most likely no longer relevant. The numbers have changed and the information is now completely useless (unless used for comparison). A review of a trend or a product is also useless, seeing as how the product is most likely updated, fixed, patched or even pulled from the market. Overall, you need to constantly update and revamp your content in order not to become a source of false information.

There’s really no excuse

Writing an average blog post takes about 3 hours and 28 minutes (according to 2018 blogging statistics). Even if you have the busiest of schedules, it’s pivotal that you find the time to do so. Even if you’re away on a business trip or enjoying yourself on a vacation, in a cloud-based digital world, this is not a viable excuse. High-end laptops like Asus ZenBook are optimized for portability, which means that, even if you’re away, you still have all the means to work on your online presence. This is not just a hard cold fact but it’s something that even your audience will be aware of.

Traffic

Previously, we’ve discussed a scenario where people land on a post that’s no longer relevant to them and, in this scenario, leaving the domain right away is the most likely outcome. Needless to say, this leads to a high bounce rate, which is a factor that affects your search engine rank in a negative way. Also, if people know that you’re posting regularly, they might visit your blog just to check if there’s any new content. This makes your number of return visitors skyrocket, which also benefits your rank. From the branding standpoint, it strengthens the bond between you and your audience.

A breeding ground of dead links

Chances are that in your previous posts, you linked to external sources. Even if these sources had great domain authority and credibility at the moment, nowadays, a lot of these links may be dead. Dead links are one of the most common reasons for a drop in search engine rank, which is why your domain needs to receive SEO audits on a regular basis. Fortunately, a lot can be achieved with a tool as simple as broken link checker, which should help keep you out.

An indicator of your professionalism

So far, we mostly focused on the SEO aspect of having fresh content, however, from the branding standpoint, the frequency of your posts and their freshness affects the way in which you’re perceived by your audience. Namely, if your business posts regularly on its official blog, it’s a sign that your staff is taking their role quite seriously and that you’re putting a lot of effort into nurturing your relationship with your audience. By using the same analogy, it would be clear that a failure to do so results in a scenario where you’re seen as either neglectful or uninterested but definitely unprofessional.

There are no excuses and if you have a hard time managing all of this on your own, it might be the right time to bring some help in. With well-composed guest posting guidelines, a guest posting system can be quite effective. If not, you can always bring in another content creator on your staff.