People looking online today want fresh content, and fresh content should definitely be part of your website strategy. I mentioned on Monday that I was going to speak to a group of high school students. The group was six girls who have taken several business classes. Their project is adding information about teacher grants to the local education foundation’s website. We discussed a few ways they could go about this, and then I showed them:
- How to add a page to the website
- How to edit the page
- How to add a picture and a picture gallery
- How to manage a picture gallery
- How to add the new page to the menu
- How to add the new page as a link from another page
- How to add the new page as part of a drop down menu
We used a content management system (WordPress), so they did not have to have any kind of software installed on their computers. After demonstrating these tasks once, I let the girls have a go at it. They were amazing. They didn’t hesitate, they took to the tasks without any problems or questions. They just sat down and did it!
One thing that occurred to me is that students their age are used to publishing. They are used to having their pictures and words instantly published in real time on social media sites, and they bring that same experience to websites. Of course, you can argue whether instant publication is a good or bad thing, especially for young students, but that aside, there is another lesson here. Fresh content, that is up to date, is something that these students not only look for, it is something they expect.
As we have discussed many times on this blog, the easiest way to keep adding fresh content to your site is through a blog. That is a given. However, it is also a good idea to occasionally look at your actual website pages to make sure that the content there is fresh and up to date. You may not have to change those pages as often, but they do need to be updated occasionally. In other words, if you haven’t changed anything on your website in two to three years (you know who you are), you probably need to make some updates.
Is fresh content part of your website strategy? High school students may or may not be part of your target market, but they do indicate trends. What do you think?
