easy web updating
Have you updated your website lately?
Once upon a time, not so long ago, a business could have a website built, and then sit back and watch the customers roll in without ever having to touch it again.
However, times have changed. The internet has now become a very competitive place, the search engines use different methods to rank websites and customers have higher expectations.
There is absolutely no value in having a website that no-one can find. In previous newsletters we have discussed some of the techniques to help improve your site’s ranking in the search engines, including web descriptions, headers, keywords, and image tags, however one of the most important things that you can do is make regular changes to your site.
This does two things:
- It keeps the search engine spider bots coming back to your site on a regular basis, which helps to keep your site up in the rankings
- It keeps your site visitors happy. We have probably all experienced the disappointment of going back to a favourite website, only to find that nothing has changed over a long period of time. I’m sure we can be forgiven for thinking that the business is probably also lazy, stale and out of date.
Keep your visitors coming back. Encourage them to explore your site. This has the added advantage of increasing the number of “clicks” on your site, which in turn will push up your search engine ranking.
But how?...
It is not easy to regularly come up with fresh content. We are all busy people and unfortunately our website is often the last thing that we get to.
Here are some easy ways to keep your website fresh (and to keep the Search Engines spider bots coming back!)
- Upgrade your website to one that you can update yourself (a Content Management System site). Often by the time you have explained to someone what you would like done on your site, you could already have done it!
- Latest News– by getting a Latest News section installed on your site, you can very quickly and easily pop in the latest happenings in your business. And it doesn’t have to be major achievements…. put everything up there – staff birthdays and activities, local community news, minor changes in your business. This all helps to give your website a personal feel and helps to keep your customers "in the loop".
Alternatively have a “What’s New” or “On Sale” section, or a product/service of the month.
You can even set up the latest news to allow site visitors to comment… making it an interactive site (with the added benefit of getting others to make changes on your website for you!!)
- Photo Gallery – we can install a really easy to use Photo Gallery. Add one to your site and simply upload a new photo on a regular basis.
- FAQS – every time a customer contacts you with a question, add it to your Frequently Asked Questions. Again – we can install a section on your website which makes this very simple to do.
- Event Calendar – if you have a number of events happening throughout the year, make use of the Event Calendar to keep your clients informed.
- Online Store – if you have anything at all that you can sell online, why not give it a go? As well as hopefully providing you with some passive income, it will give the spider bots some fresh, exciting content to crawl.
- Send a regular e-newsletter, and add the content from the newsletter to your site. This can be such a valuable tool. We will discuss this in more detail in a later newsletter.
- Provide tips/hints for your product or service. The search engine spiders love this sort of content (as do site visitors).
Things to do in June
- Schedule regular updates to your website. And stick to your schedule!
