The internet is a fast-moving place, and it’s getting faster. There was once a time when online newspapers could update a few times a day, but no more. Internet users expect information that is correct to the minute, if not faster.

This presents complications for search engine optimisation. As the search engines try to cope with the pressure for real-time search, they’re on the lookout for sites with fresh information. In order to increase their chances of ranking high, your competitors are likely to update their information more frequently. As your competitors move faster, you have to move with them.

It’s impossible to update every page on your site all the time, and this would actually damage your SEO. You can discuss this with us at SEO Consult Australia. What is needed is a source of fresh content that will reassure your site’s users that the site is active, and provide the search engines with new information to feed on.

Old info is easy to spot

Information ages. A lot of the time, this isn’t obvious, but little things give the game away to site users. One of the major indications a site user has that your information is old comes from Google itself. Another indication often comes from your own page, if you’ve dated your posting or placed other time indicators on the page.

Having old information on important pages is much like a bakery featuring stale cakes in its window. Sites cease operation all the time, and many of them don’t bother to close down properly. Internet users have to look at certain factors of a site to judge whether it’s still operational, and new information is one of those things. In feeding your site with fresh content and keeping the peripherals of your pages up to date, you’re essentially reassuring your site users that your business is still there, still functional, and still reliable.

Don’t throw your old pages away

Just because new content is important, it doesn’t mean you should throw old content away. Although SEO experts tend to get very excited about the need for fresh content in SEO, old content isn’t completely worthless. It has emerged that Google isn’t all about fresh content. The search engine giant has released information indicating that for certain pages, having established content can be a good thing.

It makes sense. There are certain subjects for which being a new kid on the block is definitely a bad thing. Some information doesn’t change. Internet users are going to be just as interested in an article on chocolate cakes today as they will be in three months’ time. In fact, if the article is a good one, internet users may be more interested. The search engine optimisation techniques you performed on that page should have edged it up in the SERPs, meaning that it will get more attention as time goes by.

This means that although most of your content efforts should go toward keeping your content fresh, there is some worth in preserving old pages. Unless the information changes, they could also count toward your SEO.