by Thom Hiatt

Take a deep breath. This is vital information…

Each time Faith in Marketing launches a new website, we conduct a user training session for the parish, school, or organization staff.

Most of the two-hour training session is spent talking about the value of posting news. We go over and over (and over again) the value of adding content to the site… and we show you how simple it is to do.

“If you launch an awesome new site and add nothing to it, the site is quite literally dead,” I tell the trainees, “But when you add news, you are breathing life into your site.”

News posts keep your site fresh. When people return to your site and they see NEW news, it’s refreshing. There’s nothing worse than seeing the last article was added six months ago!

“If you add one article per week,” I tell my trainees, “you get an A+. But if you don’t add news to your site, it’s an F. It’s that big of a deal.”

One massive benefit of adding news to your site is that Google prefers websites that are updated and fresh with news.

Imagine your friend asks for a restaurant suggestion. Food quality, price, and service being equal, would you refer your friend to a restaurant that has not been updated in a decade, or would you recommend a restaurant that is new and fresh?

Search engines like Google provide results that are accurate, popular, and that come from a lively source. To be lively, you need breath. And to make your site breathe, you need to add news posts. Google visits lively sites more often and indexes the site’s new content, making your articles available to people who are looking for you.

Here’s yet another benefit: Many modern smartphones include services like “Google Now” or “Google Assistant.” These services track users’ online patterns and the sites they visit. When Google finds a new article on a site you visit, Google might recommend it for you to read. The following graphic shows Google Assistant’s suggestions for two new articles I might like. Both articles are on sites I’ve visited before.

BONUS POINTS

The modern websites we build include a special feature that will automatically add your news posts to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn pages. This means you don’t have to log into your social media accounts and cross-post your articles. It’s a giant time-saver. And every social post links directly back to the specific article on your website. As a matter of fact, just this month, one of our San Diego Diocese clients experienced a 95% increase in website traffic when they started adding news to their website.

BONUS BONUS POINTS

When you regularly add news to your site, most of your “monthly newsletter” work is already finished! When it’s time to write the newsletter, just copy and paste articles from your fresh website. If you post two articles per week on average, you’ll have eight articles to choose from for your newsletter.

And because you’re such a good trainee, you’ve been looking at your Google Analytics reports to see which articles have been the most popular. Now you can pick and choose what to feature.

Adding articles to your Faith in Marketing -built website is really so simple, and the benefits are numerous. Give it a try, and don’t hesitate to call us for help at (858) 877-3733.