A Website Is For Life, Not Just For Christmas

So you’ve just unleashed your nice new website on the world, with high hopes and big expectations. Or maybe yours is getting a little on the dusty side and didn’t quite achieve all you hoped when first launched. A very common misconception with websites, is that they will work some kind of mystical advertising magic and your company will be flooded with new business without any effort. The general myth, is they will do a lot of the marketing work for you, so you can sit back and watch the orders come rolling in. In fact, a website should be thought of more like a child. In order to function well for any length of time, it needs to be regularly feed, cleaned, tidied and intellectually enlightened. On day one, it might look great and receive worthy credit for its “shiny newness” but if ignored, it will become a website with an ASBO. So, just how should a website be treated?

• Wash its face and brush its teeth. The homepage is the most important page on the site. Add new content regularly - the more often the better. Search engines will pay more attention and your customers will find it more useful and trustworthy.
• Give it a direction in life. Make sure you have relevant META keywords, description and title on all pages. And then make sure the content on the page reflects these keywords and descriptions.
• Introduce it to new friends. The more links from other websites you have which point to it, the better. Search engines pay more attention to highly linked sites.
• Teach it to be kind and helpful. Having lots of content on a site is great, but if people (or search engines) can’t use it, there will be problems. Make sure the navigation is easy to use and there are plenty of links on the pages to other content on the site (cross-links).
• Promote good dress sense. A bland, generic, forgettable website will not attract interest. It doesn’t have to be wearing all latest designer gear, but it should look colour coordinated, crisp and clean.

What now? Take a good hard look at your current website. The most important questions are:

• As a customer… Would I want to buy from this company?
• As a search engine… Is this website useful, relevant and worthy of attention?

The solutions

• Content Management System Allows you to easily update the content on your website yourself. Whenever you want.
• Search Engine Optimisation The first step is to have the whole site reviewed and perform all the basic requirements for good search engine rankings.
• Design Review Move with the times. Sites that haven’t not been visually updated for more than 18 months, look dusty and start to look dated.