Tuesday, July 15, 2008
In
A lot of businesses order websites thinking that once it is up and running, they can leave it to its own devices and the customers will come pouring in.
If only things were that easy.
It is perfectly acceptable to put together a five page brochure web site and leave it at that, especially if you are busy, just want your site to give basic details and you advertise your site through traditional media. For those businesses who can’t justify high costs for traditional advertising or who rely on a good search engine ranking to bring in customers then their site needs to work a bit harder for them.
Some firms recognise this and make provision for a “Latest News” page or similar. A smaller percentage actually update It regularly, and it it that smaller percentage of business owners that will benefit most from their website.
Keeping your site up to date has two main benefits.
Keep your customers informed and interested
Firstly, there is the human aspect to consider. Visitors who see a web site that is current know that that business is still actively trading. How many times has a customer rung you up having seen your web site and asked if you are still trading? A current web site can remove this initial doubt.
If you don’t keep your web site current, for every customer who rings up, there is another who has gone to the opposition.
News pages or “blogs” are a great way of engaging with your customers and letting them know what your business is up to. If you offer services and have sealed a great contract then let your potential clients know. Success breeds success, but only if people know about your success. Likewise, if you have a fantastic new product in you need to let everyone know that you have it – otherwise they will buy it elsewhere.
You may even decide to add an RSS news feed to your web site so customers can track your latest news from their news reader software and is another great way of keeping customers informed – they don’t even have to visit your site.
Keep Google informed and interested
The second benefit is that frequently updated content keeps Google interested. Google will spider your web site more often if it knows that your web site will contain new content every time it comes back. This has a positive effect on your search engine placement, and a higher search engine ranking is proven to bring in more customers.
If your web site isn’t working hard enough for you, contact us to find out more about how you can keep your site current and keep your customers informed and interested.