How Much Content Should You Add to Your Site?

Your website is an organic creature. That means it’s a living, breathing entity that demands fuel to stay in tip-top form. Alex Chris from Digital Marketing Pro says that “Updating is the core action of content marketing.”  Without content you can’t do much online. With good content, an agency can find a way to FINALLY stand out in our overcrowded marketplace.

Content is any information that conveys a certain point to the reader. It is quite possibly the most important element of your website. Content takes various forms—not always consisting of long form blog posts. It can also be whitepapers, case studies, videos or status updates. Regardless of what kinds of content you have on your site, you always need to be continually adding more content to your site.

The tricky part is determining how much content is enough. Is there a prerequisite amount you should be creating and putting up on a daily basis? Is there an amount that is considered too much?

As a general rule, we look for our agencies to be adding around 3,500 words per month. If you run just one blog post each week of the month, that means you need to write five short blogs at 700 words a piece.

So why 3,500? A few different reasons:

1. It’s an attainable number. Most of our agencies are busy producing for their clients. Internal marketing and blogging tends to get pushed to the side. Creating one post a week, at 700 words each, is something that can be spread across a team of people, and does not overextend one person. Having multiple writers keeps ideas fresh. It lessens the burden on individuals, and gives professional development opportunities to younger employees. Not every post has to be from the President!
2. SEO Ranking. Google loves fresh content. Google indexes frequently, so a site that updates 2-3 times a week is part of the Google annexing. This is helpful if your aim is to improve your SEO rank. The addition of continuous content also means more keywords. This increases the chances for you to grow your web traffic, and most importantly leads!
3. Consistent thought leadership content in the form of whitepapers or blogs gives your New Business Director built-in marketing materials to share with prospective clients before, during, or after phone calls. These pieces, while great for SEO, are fantastic calls to action for other marketing initiatives. That will drive new conversations for your New Business team.

With 3,500 being such an attainable number (5 blog posts a month), why do most fail to hit this? Why are there empty blogs across agencies all over the U.S.? Simple:  Most agencies lack a structured process around getting this content created. Our suggestion, create a small team to lead the initiative. This team can set non-negotiable due dates for when each blog is due. If everyone is clear on their responsibilities and the team’s goals, it becomes much more difficult to miss a due date. Nobody wants to be responsible for the team missing a goal.

Last note: All these words do not have to be in the form of short blog posts. Many agencies love creating whitepapers, which can be a fantastic lead generator on any website. My only word of caution – be careful of biting off more than you can chew. Remember the old adage: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Sometimes a whitepaper can be a big bite. It might choke your other content efforts if you do not have a consistent process in place before you start that project. The extra research, time and effort that goes into one can be worth it from a lead standpoint. It just needs to be carefully planned around other short form content as well.

The last thing any of our agencies want is to have an empty website. By adding 3,500 words each month, you are taking the time each month to sit down and educate your prospects on what your team believes. This will fundamentally change your conversations with prospects. You’ll go from you telling a prospect about your services, to having a conversation about their needs. But that is another blog post in and of itself (and I’m already over my 700 words)