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How often should you update a website?

by | Dec 6, 2009 | Featured Articles

As a website designer, I get asked this question a lot. Should we be updating our site every day? Every week? Every month? And are regular updates needed to keep ahead in the search engines? Most people assume you need to update your site regularly. But what does “regular” mean?

Let’s assume that we are talking about content updates rather than design updates (which I will touch on in the last section, #4). The truth is, all websites need updating regularly, but the definition of what “regular” should mean will vary from one website to another. In fact, how often you should update your website will depend on your business and your objectives.

If your objective is to entice people to come back to your website on a daily or weekly basis, then daily or weekly updates are likely to be beneficial. This might involve adding new information, introducing new products or services, offering industry news, or running promotions.

Retail stores, for example, depend on repeat customers using update strategies that might be daily, weekly or at least monthly. However, if the primary objective of your website is to provide information or generate new business leads, it really depends. The prospect of making daily, weekly or even monthly updates might be daunting for some website owners – and in some cases, it might not even be necessary. (more…)

10 Ideas to Improve your Website

by | Dec 6, 2009 | Featured Articles

Are you looking for ways to improve your website? Here are 10 simple ideas you might not have thought about:

  1. Review your homepage – don’t waste valuable real estate welcoming your visitors, instead tell them what you offer and try and convince them to stay a little longer.
  2. Make navigation simple and consistent. If you have a lot of links, consider using a drop-down style menu to organize those links, and keep the navigation bar looking the same throughout the whole website.
  3. Write meaningful titles. Titles are the most important aspect of your page, both from an SEO and a user standpoint – use keywords for the search engines, but make it obvious to the user what the page is about.
  4. Break up large blocks of text and use bullets where appropriate. Nobody has the time to read. Admit it – you “scan” webpages too! Short paragraphs and bullets make reading much easier on your visitors.
  5. Add a photo of the business owner or president. People like to know who they are doing business with. Also replace those snapshot photos of your staff with some professional portraits – the difference will amaze you. (more…)

10 Ways to Promote your Website

by | Dec 6, 2009 | Promotional Techniques

There are a number of things we could and should be doing to drive legitimate traffic to our websites, but we can all act a little over‐zealous at times too. Here is a short list of 10 things you should and should not be doing:

  1. Make sure you’re included in ALL the search engines.
    ‐ Many focus on Google ‐ which is understandable, and even advisable, since they have consistently well over 60% of the search market. But recent news indicates that Bing (the revamped MSN/Live) is gaining market share, and with the expected Microsoft‐Yahoo deal, Bing is likely to be powering Yahoo Search by early 2010.
  2. Consider Pay‐per‐click advertising.
    ‐ We’ve all heard of Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter, but fairly new on the scene is Facebook pay‐per‐click advertising. With Facebook pay‐per‐click, you can still target your audience geographically, but your targeted keywords are matched to keywords present in individual user profiles.
  3. Use Social Media.
    ‐ Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are growing rapidly ‐ Forrester Research reports that there are 55.6 million adults in the US that use social media. If you haven’t already, it’s time to get in the game. Get yourself a Facebook business page. Sign up for Twitter ‐ and integrate those accounts into your website. Using services like Twitter to drive traffic to websites is possibly the greatest threat search engines have ever had. Talk to your web developer.
  4. Think Local.
    ‐ Searching for local businesses online is up ‐ but did you know that Google, Yahoo and Bing all have separate local directories that are free to sign up for? Other local directories such as SuperPages and YellowPages also have free basic listings. Some of these services offer paid enhancements ‐ adding your logo, giving preferred placement etc. Other local directories such as SurfDaytonOhio.com can help drive traffic to your website while also providing those all important back‐links.
  5. Start a Company Blog.
    ‐ Writing articles about your business or your industry can be a great way to drive traffic to your website ‐and increase your search engine visibility to boot. But be sure to commit to a Blog before you start. Blogs are often started with great enthusiasm, but then neglected shortly afterwards ‐ and a Blog that hasn’t been updated in months often looks worse than not having a Blog at all. (more…)