When was the last time you read your website’s home page? Or took a fresh look at your ‘About Us’ or ‘Meet the Team’ sections? If it’s more than a month ago, you might want to take a few minutes to go and check it out. When you have had a chance to read through it, does is still seem relevant or is it sounding a little tired? Was that funny intro you loved a month ago still so funny or entertaining now?

Taking a virtual trip down memory lane and revisiting your copy is something that many website owners forget to do. They often think that once the copy is up there, that’s it – it’s cast in stone and cannot be changed. In the old days of printed advertising that was certainly the case. But the beauty of a website is that you can go in at any time and change the copy instantly.

Freshening up your content

We all know that fresh, unique copy gets the search engines excited. But going back and changing your copy shouldn’t just be an SEO exercise. Think about it this way – do people buy a magazine and then read it over and over again? Of course not – they go out and they buy the latest issue for new articles, fresh content and interesting stories. Your website content creation should have the same approach. If you want to build up your return visitor numbers, then update your copy regularly. Play around with it; don’t be afraid to ditch copy that isn’t working either on an SEO platform or in engaging with your human readers. A website is always a ‘work in progress’. It is never ‘finished’ or ‘complete’.

Change the message

Got a special offer coming up? Want to try and boost your seasonal sales? Then change your message. The advantage of getting your copywriter to update your web content on a regular basis is that you can change the message you want to convey instantly.

Seeing the same copy on a website that’s been there for several months or even years can also make your visitors start to wonder if you’re still in business. Tired copy is like a tired and crumbling façade. It sends out the wrong message. It says ‘this website isn’t seeing much traffic, so we haven’t bothered to update it’. That attitude is an instant turnoff for visitors and a catch-22 situation that can only be rectified by keeping the content fresh and updated.

A great chance to catch those typos

Revisiting your web content also gives you a chance to look at it with a fresh eye. We all make mistakes, but if a glaring typo or error is left in place for months at a time, it gives your visitors the impression that frankly, you don’t really care too much about your business’s image online. So a weekly read-through not only gives you the chance to freshen up your content, but it also lets you catch those errors or mistakes, rectify them and show your readers that actually, you do care.

No time to do it yourself? Talk to your copywriter

If you haven’t got the time to continually write new and interesting content for your website, talk to a good UK copywriter. These people do it for a living all day, every day. They’re up to date with the latest optimisation techniques, they know how to create great content and they know how to talk to your audience. Tell them the message you want to get across and they’ll create great copy that keeps the search engine ‘bots and your human visitors coming back for more.

Never think that your website is ‘done’ just because you’ve written the first draft. Remember the rule that a website is a continual work in progress and schedule in a few moments every week to sit down and read what you’re saying to your audience. If it doesn’t grab you, it won’t grab them. So don’t be afraid to revisit your content and bring it bang up to date.