In their never-ending quest to give us better search results, Google has released an update to their ranking algorithm that now includes a ‘freshness’ factor.  This means that content marketing is more important than ever, and if you aren’t blogging on a regular basis for your business, you’d better get started.

Google’s freshness update impacts around 35% of all searches and prioritizes results into those that are recent and, well, fresh.  For example, if you search for the phrase ‘business’, you’re going to see very recent articles and blog posts from sites like Business Week; whereas before you may have just seen links to the various important portions of Business Week’s website.

This freshness update just bolsters the fact that content marketing is becoming more and more relevant and important to any business strategy.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the idea of creating great content, usually for your website, and then dispersing that content through various channels.  These channels include video sites like YouTube and Vimeo, social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and your newsletter or meetup group. 

This type of marketing isn’t new, it’s just changed.  Before the Internet, businesses had to spread news through press releases, TV and radio.  It wasn’t cheap and didn’t always have the audience impact they had hoped. 

Nowadays, this type of marketing is much more targeted, as people request the information from you – whether it’s because they follow you on twitter, sign up for your newsletter, or Like you on Facebook.  They want your info; and if you deliver good, relevant stuff, they’ll keep liking (and maybe hire) you.

Keeping Your Information Fresh

In most cases, business owners put up a website and there it sits unattended.  The need to update has never been stronger.  The easiest way to keep a website ‘fresh’, is to start blogging.  Adding a blog through a CMS like WordPress is not that difficult.  There are some tricks, but for the most part getting this going isn’t a huge deal. 

Me, Blog? What Would I Blog About?

Business blogging isn’t about what you had for lunch or what your cat did on Thursday.  It’s about things going on in your business or industry.  It’s about tips that help your customers.  It’s about how-to write-ups that explain why your part is so essential.

Writing articles isn’t easy, but the credibility that you get online from doing so is huge.  If a potential customer is looking for ways to fix their blue widget, and you have a post about how to do it, you’re immediately the expert in their eyes.  And if you happen to sell the replacement part, guess where they are very likely to purchase it from? You – the expert.

It’s Too Much for Me

I hear this all the time.  Writing an article every week just isn’t possible.  You’re busy ordering parts, putting out fires and just running your business.  But it’s important to understand that there are business owners out there that are making the time to write each week.  They are the ones that are keeping it fresh, and they’re the ones reaping the benefits – increased revenue.