Regular content updates not only keep your audience engaged but also signal to search engines that your site is active and relevant.
In this article, we will explore the importance of regular content updates, share key findings from our own study, and provide practical tips on how often you should update different types of content.
Why Should I Update My Content?
Regular content updates can improve both user engagement and your website’s organic performance.
SEO benefits:
- Google’s preference for fresh content: Search engines prioritize fresh content, as it tends to be more relevant and up-to-date.
- Increased crawl rate: Regular updates signal an active site, prompting more frequent crawling and indexing.
- Enhanced relevance and authority: Updating content with the latest keywords and trends improves site relevance and authority.
- Reduction of content decay: Regular updates keep your content competitive by mitigating decay.
- Internal linking opportunities: Updates provide chances to add new internal links, improving navigation and SEO.
User engagement:
- Improved user experience: Fresh content keeps users engaged and encourages repeat visits.
- Increased visitor loyalty: Regular updates show your site is maintained, fostering audience loyalty.
- Trust and credibility: Up-to-date information builds trust and positions your site as a credible source.
- Enhanced social sharing: New content is more likely to be shared, increasing reach and visibility.
How Often Should You Update Different Types of Content?
The frequency of content updates varies depending on the type of content.
Here are some general guidelines:
| Content Type | Frequency | Reason |
| Evergreen blog posts | Every 6-12 months | Ensures information stays relevant and accurate. |
| Data-driven blog posts | Immediately after new data is available | For news, research, and industry reports, staying current is critical. |
| Product pages | Every 3-6 months | Keeps product details, prices, and features up-to-date. |
| Landing pages | Twice a year | Reflects new offers, services, or changes in business focus. |
| Case studies | Annual or after significant changes | Ensures data and results are current and continue to build credibility. |
| Resource pages | Monthly or quarterly | Maintains accuracy of information and adds new resources as they become available. |
Key Findings from Our Study
To understand how impactful content updates are on rankings, we conducted a study focusing on the keyword “best air fryer,” which garners an impressive 42,000 searches per month in the UK, and 186,000 searches per month globally.
Methodology
- Tracking period: We tracked the keyword ‘best air fryer’ (in UK SERPs) using Rankalyzer over a 20-week period, starting in January 2024.
- Data collection: We collected data on the top 30 ranking articles each week, focusing on changes in titles, body content, and backlinks.
- Key metrics identification: Key metrics such as frequency and type of changes were identified to analyze their impact on weekly rankings.
- Data analysis: Patterns and correlations between changes and ranking improvements were analyzed to derive key findings.
Here are our key findings:
Top-ranked articles make more frequent changes
Our analysis reveals that the top 5 articles with the highest average rankings made more frequent SEO-related changes compared to the rest of the articles.
Below is the detailed comparison:
| Group | Average Monthly Changes | Title Changes (Monthly) | Body Changes (Monthly) |
| Top 5 ranked articles | 14 | 0.6 | 3 |
| Rest of articles | 5 | 0.2 | 1 |
- Total changes: Articles that ranked in the top 5 made an average of 14 changes per month, compared to 5 changes per month for all other articles.
- Title changes: Top 5 articles made an average of 0.6 title changes per month, whereas other articles made 0.2 title changes per month.
- Body content changes: Top 5 articles made an average of 3 body content changes per month, compared to 1 body change per month for the rest.
More frequent content updates lead to improved rankings
Articles that improved rankings over the 20 weeks made more overall changes than those that declined in rankings.
| Group | Total Changes (average) | Title Changes (average) | Body Changes (average) |
| Pages went up in rankings | 54 | 2.6 | 11.5 |
| Pages went down in rankings | 41 | 1.7 | 9.4 |
- Of the consistent performers, articles which had an improvement in rankings over time made 54 overall changes on average, compared to 41 overall changes for articles with a decline in ranking.
- Articles with improved rankings also made an average of 2.6 title changes and 11.5 body changes. In contrast, articles with declining rankings made an average of 1.7 title changes, 9.4 body changes, and 2.8 backlink changes.
Factors to Consider When Updating Content
When determining how often to update your website content, several key factors should be taken into account:
1. Type of content
- Evergreen content: While they don’t need constant updating, periodic reviews (every 6-12 months) to refresh statistics and add new information can keep them relevant.
- Time-sensitive content: News articles, trend reports, and seasonal content need more frequent updates to ensure they remain accurate and timely.
2. Industry trends
- Fast-changing industries: Sectors like technology, health, and finance often see rapid changes. Content in these areas should be reviewed and updated frequently (monthly) to keep up with new developments.
- Stable industries: Fields with slower changes, such as classic literature or basic cooking techniques, may require less frequent updates (bi-annually or annually).
3. Audience behavior
- Engagement metrics: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor metrics such as time on page, bounce rate, and user comments. High engagement suggests content is still relevant, while declining metrics may indicate the need for updates.
- Feedback and queries: Regularly reviewing user queries from sales calls and support tickets can provide insights into what information might be missing or outdated in your content.
4. Competitor analysis
- Frequency of updates: Tools like Ahrefs can help track how often competitors update their content. If competitors are updating frequently and achieving higher rankings, it may be necessary to increase your update frequency.
- Content gap analysis: Identify gaps in competitors’ content that you can fill with your updates, providing added value to your audience.
5. Existing content performance
- Underperforming content: Check your Google Search Console and Google Analytics to identify content that is not performing well in terms of traffic and engagement. These pieces should be prioritized for updates.
- High-performing content: Even well-performing content can benefit from updates to maintain its position and continue driving traffic. Refreshing such content with new data, trends, and insights can extend its lifecycle.
It's Time to Refresh Your Content
Regular content updates are essential for maintaining and improving search rankings.
Follow our step-by-step content refresh guide to get started. It contains valuable tips from 20+ SEO and content marketing experts.
