In early November, Google announced a ranking algorithm update, incorporating a “freshness algorithm, designed to give you the most up-to-date results…” Google goes on to explain the varying degrees of freshness that might influence both the searcher’s intent and the search results:

• Recent events or hot topics. For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately. Now when you search for current events…or for the latest news…you’ll see more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old. 
• Regularly recurring events. Some events take place on a regularly recurring basis…Without specifying with your keywords, it’s implied that you expect to see the most recent event, and not one from 50 years ago.
• Frequent updates. There are also searches for information that changes often, but isn’t really a hot topic or a recurring event. For example, if…you’re in the market for a new car…you probably want the most up to date information.

What does the new freshness update mean for you and your SEO? It’s unlikely to assume that most websites (the exception being e-commerce sites that routinely update their inventory) are going to be creating fresh content every few days in order to keep the algorithm happy. It just isn’t reasonable, cost effective or worth it. If you are constantly rewriting the content on your site, that means you are also constantly redoing your keyword research and other onsite optimization tactics. That’s where a business blog comes in to propel your online brand forward.

Here are 3 tips to keep your blog (and brand) fresh:

Schedule it out.
Let’s say your blog usually posts twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you have the time, try to write two blog posts every day for the next two weeks. That’s ten posts, which means you have 5 weeks of fresh content ready to go! You can schedule them out in advance and not have to worry about writing any new posts for a week or so. This is a great thing to do if you know your calendar is about to get full and your content marketing schedule is going to take a hit. By planning ahead, you guarantee your blog will stay fresh and you won’t miss days on your editorial calendar.

Accept guest posts.
Accepting guest posts to your business blog comes with its own set of pros and cons, but if you handle it right guest posts can be a great source of fresh content! Industry bloggers and other experts are always on the lookout for new sites to submit their content to, so why not leverage their expertise for your own blog. It gives you more fresh content to schedule into your editorial calendar, frees up some of your own time, gives your readers a new perspective and might help drive new visitors to your blog.

It doesn’t have to be a written post.
Why not switch it up and post a video or podcast to your blog every now and then? Static text can get a little boring at times, and a multimedia blog post might be just the thing to excite and inspire your readers. Keep in mind that the search spiders can’t watch a video like your readers can, so if you want to use this fresh content to your advantage make sure you post a short summary or transcript of your video/podcast so the search engines know what it’s about.