#118 How To Keep Your Website Fresh, Build Trust & Optimise for 2025 SEO Success

Jonny Ross

-: 00:35

Hi, and welcome. This is episode 38 of the 90 Day Website Mastery Podcast. We welcome you to the Mastery Podcast, the perfect companion to our 90 Day Website Mastery Program, and of course, our recently published book, Web Proud. It's the 38th episode.

Jonny Ross

-: 00:50

We're excited to bring you even more valuable insights and practical advice to help you enhance your website's performance. Join us as we explore strategies to make your website work harder for you, reigniting your pride in your online presence. Pascal, welcome to episode 38.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 01:22

Yes, and as you mentioned on the LinkedIn alert that you posted a few days ago, this is the first episode of 2025. And thank you everyone for your support last year, but also for the amazing praises and comments we received on the publication of Web Proud. Literally to the day a month ago, we released and published officially the book And we're still getting messages. I want to give a quick shout out to Paul and Ian, and Ian number two as well, who have been very, very good to leave comments on LinkedIn.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 01:23

Yeah,

Jonny Ross

-: 01:47

I mean, what a launch month that was. And I think, well, it was that moment of when we first received the book in our hands, the printed copy, you couldn't beat that moment. That was quite a special moment indeed. But it was great to have taken so much of our content and put it into that book and to help people feel proud of their website.

Jonny Ross

-: 02:08

In the 90-day website podcast, we have four sections, as always. We have the You Ask, We Answer. We have website stories, the website engine room, and of course, the website call to action, where we give you one little thing that you could be doing right now to start feeling proud of your website again. Let's get this podcast episode started with You Ask, We Answer.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 02:33

Now, this is interesting. This question, you could argue someone's two questions in one, and it was during a mentoring session that I hosted last week, Johnny, and here it is. I've heard that updating your website regularly helps with your ranking on search engine results. Is it true?

Pascal Fintoni

-: 02:39

My business information is the same. I don't really see how I could update it anymore.

Jonny Ross

-: 03:02

Are you asking me this question, Pascal? So I think that's fair. I think that if you went back many years, Google was looking for fresh content, was looking for dates of when you last updated the website, when you last updated a page. That still is part of the algorithm.

Jonny Ross

-: 03:25

However, gone are the days of just updating things for the sake of updating things. So it's only updating things if you've actually got something to say. Now, of course, if you've got an e-commerce website, then adding product, new product, fresh product is a brilliant way to be able to add content. But if you're a B2B business, then you're obviously not creating many services on a regular basis.

Jonny Ross

-: 03:48

You probably haven't got new about us pages or things like that. So a lot of it's around sort of case studies and news and thought pieces, insights. But again, not creating content for the sake of it. So it's trying to find a balance of how can we keep fresh content, but only when it's worth it and only when it's important.

Jonny Ross

-: 03:53

And it's that whole thing of quality over quantity is what I would think, Pascal.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 04:19

Yeah, and of course, research can be part of it. But if I go back to, and I suppose I have an advantage on you because it was during the mentoring session that this question was asked and I've got a few days to think about it, but I have some sympathy with the belief that the more regularly you update your website, the more it seems as do you have more traffic, particularly if you look on Search Console and Google Analytics. And I think for me, it's that split between causation and correlation that we see a lot happening in SEO.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 04:47

For me is this idea of if you update your website, the likelihood is that you're going to have more admonition for social media, where the traffic may be coming from. The more you update your website, the more actually you may be invited as a guest speaker at a local networking club, which then leads to traffic and people become curious about it. Indeed, you could become a guest contributor. If you update your website regularly, you may find actually new ways in which you can explain what you do and how you do it and so on.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 05:18

So for me, it's more because you're updating your website, there is a reaction either from the audience or there's some new doors being opened that increase your visibility. But that's not necessarily linked to the traffic that perhaps you're thinking all of you, which is a traffic from the search engine result. Because ultimately, it still remains that what we call the off-page optimization is by and large, All the experts have done the data crunching. Bang & Olufsen plays the majority of the role in traffic generation.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 05:35

So this side of being a guest blogger on different platforms is probably what you're thinking of. But when it comes to your website itself, I'm going to take everybody back to the way I split sometimes website content in terms of a structure. You have the promotional side, and you have the social side. The promotional side, I would agree with you.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 05:46

I think case studies, testimonials can be refreshed. regularly. I would even challenge people to think about the Meet the Team and the About Us section. What happened last time since you wrote it?

Pascal Fintoni

-: 06:12

Maybe you've won new contracts, perhaps you gained new qualifications and so on, and that would be quite important. And, you know, review, as you and I have recommended a lot throughout the podcast, all your calls to actions, even the homepage navigation, there's always means you can do that. And once you've exhausted the promotional side, then you can move into the social side. And as you mentioned, industry news, there's always something happening, company updates on a monthly basis.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 06:35

But all the questions you can research nowadays with the likes of Google and many tools we've recommended, and of course AI, you can really understand what it's like to be someone that is going to buy from you very, very soon and answer your questions. So it may be true that the business information itself is reasonably constant, but everything else around it can be supported and be updated frequently.

Jonny Ross

-: 07:10

Yeah, and you're right to challenge on the About Us page, because, I mean, you know, we've talked about in previous episodes about reflecting on what's on that About Us page, what's on that Team page. So, yes, you can always find things to update, but always remember it's all about the quality as well, and how can you keep giving signals to the social networks and to the likes of Google about fresh content but high quality fresh content would be the thing to focus on. Let's move on to our second segment which is website stories.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 07:49

Now, in every episode of the show, we select an article, a podcast, a video, maybe an infographic, something that we can react and review for you, our lovely audience, so that we can reflect what it means to be a web manager in today's economy. And Julie and I have chosen something which is a bit futuristic in nature. But if you follow us and follow the logic of our conversation, you'll see where we're getting to. So this time of year, many of us get excited about CES, which is that incredible event showing technology of the future, primarily for the home environment, I will grant you.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 08:22

But that can give us an insight into what's coming around the corner that can help us market ourselves more successfully. And Google, during this CES 2025, unveiled an AI-powered TV that can summarise the news for you. And this is, I mean, it's been written by many kind of journalists and tech reporters, but we chose an article from TechCrunch written by Maxwell Zeff. And what was interesting for me, Johnny, was, OK, I got caught out by the first word, Google, thinking, why would Google be bothered by it?

Pascal Fintoni

-: 08:35

entering the territory of TV. Surely they have enough going on as it is. But it was this idea of really finding new avenues for their AI solution called Gemini. It's had different names before.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 09:09

So it's not the TV itself, it's the presence of the Gemini app within the interactive TV that can help deliver what's called a news brief. And essentially what Gemini does, it takes the news articles from Google search results and from YouTube. And then what you can do using voice, you can interact and request specific information. And what I can gather, if you have a family using that one TV, interactive TV from Google, you can create different personas and profiles so that, you know, dad's summaries will be different to mom's, to the kids, and even, you know, friends and family.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 09:24

And what I find fascinating, I'm always asking myself the question, why do they bother? And what would be the application for us small business owners? And that's kind of where I want the conversation to go. But to begin with, were you surprised by the news?

Pascal Fintoni

-: 09:27

Do you find it interesting or just a may moment?

Jonny Ross

-: 09:52

Yeah, I think Google want to stay ahead as much as possible, don't they? And I think they are feeling the pinch in terms of AI, especially with open AI being such a big competitor. So I think that's certainly one thing. And then in terms of technology, when you look at how Samsung are moving ahead in this market, that's where Google are trying to compete as well.

Jonny Ross

-: 10:13

So I'm not surprised in terms of the family profile. And that's collating more data, collecting more data, the more they can understand different people and different personas. the more they can tap into us and really talk our language. So this is all about collecting data but being seen as the people, the company at the front.

Jonny Ross

-: 10:23

So yeah, it's interesting to see where this is going and I like the integration of them thinking bigger than just YouTube.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 11:07

And what is interesting, so I think this won't be available by the way, it's just one of the frustration of programs like CES and many others before the end of the year, so they have plenty of time to iron out issues. People say well sometimes the summaries get it wrong or sometimes you know they get confused or they use the term hallucinations and so on, but this will be sorted out. What I like about it is that this idea of using Google content for sure, search results on YouTube as a source of information to begin with and then having no doubt partnership with other media, but what they're claiming is that you'll be able to have this interactive TV that will have sensors that will detect and actually recognize users when they enter the room.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 11:28

So I was thinking, I thought that was a bit freaky and a bit kind of Big Brother-ish, but I was thinking, actually, if you have a physical location and your customers walk into reception, and they have to wait a few minutes before you go and meet and greet them, then the sensors could recognize who they are and provide them news about the business. and maybe news about the industry that would be relevant. So that was thinking that.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 11:51

But then I'm thinking, what about those who work primarily in a virtual sense? How long would it be, do you think, Johnny, before we have access to Gemini that can summarize the content of a website? And bear in mind our conversation a moment ago, you've done some recent updates. It's not always obvious to visitors if there's been some updates, and they don't want to put too much work into finding out.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 12:02

So could you have Gemini to summarize and say, hey, I recognize you. We can discuss whether or not that would be right to be recognized by someone's website. And here's the stuff that you may have missed since your last visit.

Jonny Ross

-: 12:50

Yeah, and I think you're right to bring in, we were always thinking about how can small businesses utilize this or what can small businesses learn from this. And I think the beauty of a small business is that we can adapt very quickly, we can change, we can test, we can try far quicker and far better than large organizations, large corporations. In fact, looking at the UK government now, they've suddenly had a huge U-turn in terms of AI. So originally it was like, oh no, we're keeping well away from AI, we're protecting jobs, etc. And all of a sudden, they're like, we're going to embrace AI, we want to spend fortunes on it and it's going to change our world.

Jonny Ross

-: 13:28

Whereas small businesses have been using AI for a much longer period of time and have learned and have tested and have tried and have started finding how AI can be incorporated to speed things up. So it's a similar thing. It's about, as a small business, my advice would be to sort of play with this technology, understand this technology and see how you feel that you could adapt it to, to create better customer journeys within your business. So, so that's, that's, that I think is an important thing from a small business point of view is around knowing that you can test and try and understand how you can integrate these things into the business.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 13:52

Yeah, and interestingly, I queried AI, saying, OK, here's the news, you know, Google Interactive TV, AI, what would be the application for a small business? And actually, the replies were very poor. And really, it showed me that AI really struggled with that innovative thinking and that future thinking. And you and I came up with three, four, five different ideas about the future applications.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 14:15

Remember, this TV won't be available to anyone before the end of the year. And we can do that, whereas AI still struggles to come up with clearer ideas. So it's just fascinating for me. But the one suggestion that was put forward when I insisted was, well, actually, a business owner could have the Gemini new summary function available and use that as a source of inspiration for their blogging, which I thought, yeah.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 14:28

It's a decent way to go about it. But I tell you what, let's not wait another year for some new tech to be used in the business. And can I invite you to launch the next segment, Website Engine Room? Absolutely.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 14:48

Let's go to the Website Engine Room. In this segment of the show, we'd love to present to you two apps, maybe two software solutions, maybe a certificate that can make life easier as a website manager and content creator. What is your selection for today?

Jonny Ross

-: 15:02

So my selection for the website interim this week is, I don't know if I can pronounce it. So it's a copywriting app. R-Y-T-R. Writer.

Jonny Ross

-: 15:17

That's exactly how it's pronounced. RYTR and it's rytr.me. I'll put that in the show notes, a link to it. It's a user-friendly AI writing assistant that generates engaging SEO optimized content in literally seconds.

Jonny Ross

-: 15:44

It's good for blogs, good for ads, good for product descriptions, saves huge amounts of time for marketers and content editors. This isn't me suggesting that you should be using AI to write all of your copy and you shouldn't be, you know, humanizing it and checking it yourself. But as a starting point, as a structure, as a time saver, what a tool. And there's plenty of other tools like it, but this one is really worth looking at.

Jonny Ross

-: 16:08

And as I was saying earlier, as a small business, you need to be trying and testing these tools. to see which ones, the best way to move forward and to learn is by failing. So the sooner you can test different tools and try different tools, the more you can understand which tools are working better. And for me, this episode is at writer.me, spelled R-Y-T-R dot M-E.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 16:45

That's a very innovative spelling there, and I understand why you were challenged by the pronunciation. Listen, I think my selection might be a bit of a cheat, because I've used it before, but there's been a massive update late December. Notebook LM by Google was presented to many of you a few episodes ago, and this idea of a ring-fenced environment where you can query and use AI support for, you know, coming up with ideas for content, for challenging this. And one of the features that made the headlines for the Notebook LM by Google AI platform are the audio summaries.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 17:17

Literally, you can upload some information, you can copy and paste some text, you can put a hyperlink, and then ask AI to critique, to comment, and to give you some suggestions based on what you have shared, but you can listen to it. It's a conversation between a male and a female kind of podcast host, if you will. And there's been really quite something, and I've enjoyed demonstrating this in conferences and so on. But late December, they've added a feature where you can actually pause the conversation and ask a question, mid-conversation.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 17:56

So instead of having to listen to the whole conversation, almost like reading an article back to you, you can literally join the conversation, ask a question which is relevant to the conversation, and literally the two podcast hosts or bit.ai creator will stop what they're doing and reply to you, even using your first name and so on. And as a assistant as a learning platform that is incredible because if, for example, you're still stuck with what to do with your website and how to update it, you can literally ask the question of notebook.lm, here's my website link, give me some suggestion about what kind of blogging I should be undertaking.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 18:07

And as they give the advice, if you are unclear about the suggestion being made, you can pose the conversation and ask for clarification. This is just simply mind blowing.

Jonny Ross

-: 18:28

It really is. And the step it's taken is immense, but where it was, was huge. And the application is, there's many different ways of using it. So just for people that, you know, perhaps you're listening to the podcast, perhaps you're with us right now, live on LinkedIn or live on Instagram.

Jonny Ross

-: 18:41

Thank you for being here, by the way. We absolutely love our listeners and it's great to get feedback and, you know, please keep giving us questions and thoughts. But have you tried Notebook LM? And if you haven't, we suggest trying it.

Jonny Ross

-: 19:08

Put your website URL in there and see what it's got to say. What I've found is that from a pre-read or a researching point of view, if I'm about to walk into a meeting or meet a new client or want to research a particular brand or a company, if I put their website or some of the documents into Notebook LM, it brings it to life. I'm quite a visual and audio person.

Jonny Ross

-: 19:39

I prefer to listen to things or watch things than read. And how it can bring content to life is unbelievable. And another application where we've used it is we've written a report for something, shared that with a client, and we've put it in Notebook LM to bring the report to life But what it's also done in the same time, and we obviously put caveats around it when we share the link to say, look, AI has written this, AI has produced this.

Jonny Ross

-: 20:02

But what it's done is it's taken it to a whole nother level of blue sky thinking in terms of, well, what happens if you took this even further and you did X, Y, and Z? And it really helps open the mind. So the applications for Notebook LM, I think, are immense. The fact that you can now ask questions whilst they're talking is just crazy.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 20:17

It's absolutely crazy, but I've just realized that there's a link here. So you and I do our research separately, and then we add to the show notes. So you can begin your journey of planning and relaunching your website sections with Notebook LM. And then, yeah, I get it.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 20:38

I agree with you. Sometimes it's a bit scary to look at the blank page cursor blinking, say, come on, write something clever. Then you can move into a writer to give you the kind of the structure of what they should be about. But generally everybody go on the book by Google, do a first one, which is get an audio seminar with your website and listen to what Google understands of your business.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 20:56

You can find some gaps in there, but then go a second time and ask for a critique, but also some advice about how you can improve what's there. I would recommend to be quite precise. And then once you have been given your kind of to-do list from the two podcast hosts, you can use a writer to give you a bit of a starting point.

Jonny Ross

-: 20:57

I

Pascal Fintoni

-: 20:57

love it.

Jonny Ross

-: 21:02

Let's move on to our last segment, which is the website call to action.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 21:17

And this is about the one adjustment, the one chance that you should be making right now to make the website work harder for you. And Jonny, what is your recommendation?

Jonny Ross

-: 21:37

So this is one thing that you could implement onto your website pretty much immediately. There's loads and loads of plugins out there. For example, if you've got a Shopify website, a WordPress website or many, many other platforms. There's lots of add-ons or plugins that you can get and it's called, it's a social proof pop-up.

Jonny Ross

-: 22:16

So what we're talking about here is whilst a user is on your website, how can we build trust with that user converting into a potential client or a potential customer. and it's about bringing social proof into the equation. So that social proof might show recent purchases, it might show recent sign-ups, it might create a sense of trust based on other visitors in the local area or the local city. What it's trying to get across is showing you as a user who else has been on that website recently and what they've done.

Jonny Ross

-: 22:54

So it's still about authenticity, it's still about making it very true in terms of the picture that it's painting, but demonstrating that another X number of people have been on this page recently, have perhaps made a purchase, have perhaps signed up for a free trial, signed up to speak, filled out a contact form, and the location that these people are in as well, It creates a huge amount of trust and urgency for new visitors. So it's social proof pop-ups and most platforms there will be an add-on or a plug-in that you can get to do that. And it's really quick and simple to integrate.

Jonny Ross

-: 23:08

You can make it much more authentic and live by integrating it into your Google Analytics as well. So the data that it's sharing is based on your Google Analytics data in terms of the numbers as well. So it makes it far more authentic.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 23:35

I love that, and you know, that's a lovely compliment because you and I will sometimes be critical websites where they have a one page saying what our clients say. And then you just have a long, long list of testimonials which are not particularly easy to navigate or understand or kind of find, you know, those are relevant and that you can essentially relate to. So I just love that, different ways to maximize the praises and the thank yous and the well-done messages that you received in the business. So that's great.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 24:07

So listen, my contraction is going to get a few kind of eyes rolling, but please hang in there people because it's actually rather important. When was the last time you actually reviewed and updated your privacy policy in terms of conditions of use? And I know it's the boring bit that everybody allegedly looks at, but actually people do look at it and including Google and all the search engines and now the AI summaries. So my question would be, you know, this is a perfect time to kind of ask the question, are they fully up to date, but also are they fully up to date with maybe changes in regulations in your industry?

Pascal Fintoni

-: 24:42

Have you, for example, remembered to check that you're still registered with the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK or an international equivalent? So anything where we are now in the business of driving more traffic and having more interaction in the business, you might as well protect yourself from people who don't understand how to get the best of your website, but also make sure that you have all your policy And I'm sure that there will come a time there very soon, if not already, Tony, where we're going to have to declare openly the kind of AI add-ons that exist on the website as well. So you might as well be prepared for that.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 25:14

But yeah, it's not the most fun exercise to do, but it could be a very important one. As you increase your visibility online, you also increase visibility with regulators who will check that your website is operating as per the laws of that country. And in the UK, I would argue we have one of the best rules in terms of customer protection, and make sure that you comply. It's dead easy to do, but I know this is always bottom of the list, but do it now, and then it's done, and just review it midway through the year.

Jonny Ross

-: 25:28

I really like it a lot. It's a way of keeping compliant. It's amazing how many websites still do not have privacy policies, do not have terms and conditions. And so it's a way of making sure that you're compliant.

Jonny Ross

-: 26:02

It's a way of making sure that you're up to date. But it's also a reminder whilst doing things like that of thinking about where the future of website surfing is in terms of accessibility. So, you know, what's your accessibility policy and what accessibility tools have you got on your website to make the web easier for more people to access? And I think by writing that privacy policy, by implementing terms and conditions, you're staying compliant, but you're also really starting to take things seriously.

Jonny Ross

-: 26:20

And I think Google is is more interested in websites that are compliant. And not having a privacy policy, not having TNCs, could well be a ranking factor. So I think it's a really important point. And of course, it covers what this episode is all about, how to keep your website fresh.

Jonny Ross

-: 26:30

I mean, there's your starting point. Go and check if you've got your TNCs and privacy policy. And if not, there's one way to get a bit of fresh content onto your website. and keeping it up to date.

Jonny Ross

-: 26:45

But yeah, what another great episode. It's the 38th episode of the Website Mastery podcast. And we've covered how to keep your website fresh and optimized. So the question of, well, you know, the business hasn't really changed.

Jonny Ross

-: 27:08

The business information is the same, but you know, how important is it updating your website? And I think we concluded that it is really important to have fresh content, as long as it's quality. It's about having that balance. and it's about finding ways to make sure that things are up to date and use it, whether that be bringing new insights or white papers or user-generated content onto the website.

Jonny Ross

-: 27:31

We talked about Google unveiling the AI-powered TV, which comes later in 2025, and the uses for small businesses. And of course the website engine room, Notebook LM. We highly recommend you all use Notebook LM. whether it be a research tool or whether it be to get you thinking and tools like writer.me to start helping you produce that content.

Jonny Ross

-: 27:45

And the call to actions that we've given you in this episode are thinking about how you can use social proof to increase trust and urgency and reviewing your TNCs and privacy policy. A great episode. Thanks, Pascal.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 27:56

Oh, indeed. And listen, I'm always surprised we can pack so much in half an hour. It's more so like us, because we usually do long-form content. But I'm also reflecting on people who want to do more.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 28:23

So you've got a couple of options. You can go onto our official website, and you will find some additional resources, including an action randomizer. You also have a selection of the top 50 AI and software digital solutions that can really help you manage your website more. And if you really, really want to make this year count for you and be that kind of shift change in what you're doing, then do consider checking out WebProud on Amazon.

Pascal Fintoni

-: 28:25

I don't think you'll be disappointed at all.

Jonny Ross

-: 28:45

Yeah, that certainly will be in the show notes because that is a wrap for episode 38 of the 90-Day Website Mastery Podcast, your audio companion to the 90-Day Website Mastery Program. And of course, WebProud, the book. For more information, visit 90daymarketingmastery.com where you can book a discovery call with either myself or Pascal. It's goodbye for now.

Jonny Ross

-: 28:56

We'll leave you with a fun video and audio montage to enjoy whilst you review your notes and action steps and put those things into place to start feeling web proud. Take care. See you all soon.