A “dynamic” website consists of regularly updated content. This is usually done by adding a blog to your website, or moving your site to a dynamic platform like WordPress. Google values dynamic websites more highly than static (rarely changing) websites.
A website with fresh content is naturally more relevant and up to date, so Google rewards these sites with higher rankings. This is why even the biggest names in the business world are adding company blogs to their websites.
The easiest way to add a dynamic element to your website is to build it with WordPress in the first place. If you already have a website you can look into how much it would cost to recreate it in WordPress. Conversely, you can also add a WordPress blog to your current website. Our Minneapolis SEO website is built entirely on WordPress so it gives us the flexibility to treat it like a static site AND post regular content like you’re reading here on our blog.
Regardless of what your website is built on, the key is to update it as often as possible. A solution like WordPress makes this as easy as using a word processing program. You can use your blog to announce industry news, sales, events and any other information potential customers might find useful. If you want to get even more interactive, you can write how-to and tutorial articles related to your business. This will benefit you in two ways: you will get more Google love from the fresh content, and you will also brand yourself as an expert in your field.
Final Note on the Importance of Fresh Content
In November of 2011, Google rolled out yet another algorithm update dubbed the “Google Fresh update.” You can read more about it on the official Google blog. In a nutshell, Google’s “freshness algorithm” will return fresher results if the topic being searched on requires it. This update will affect 35% of the searches being conducted on Google.
To see this in action, I did a search for “Jerry Sandusky,” a former Penn State football coach charged with sexually assaulting boys. I did this search back at the height of the scandal. It was a top news story at the time. Take a look at the search results and notice the freshness of the content being returned (highlighted in yellow):
The obvious question is, what topics does Google think deserves fresher results? Well the truth is, nobody knows. However, a little common sense can help you decide which topics would require frequent, fresh content.
If you are a landscaping company, for example, you probably don’t need to generate new content as often as say a camera retailer. The camera niche is a rapidly changing niche with new camera models being released all the time. People in this niche want the latest and greatest information so it stands to reason Google would conclude the same and as a result provide fresher results for this niche than the landscaping niche.
Another quick thing you can do is conduct searches in your niche and see if Google is returning fresh results or not. If it is, then you’ll know you’ll have to generate frequent content to stay competitive!
