Caring And Feeding Your Home On The Web: Your Existing Website!

Care of your existing website is as important as the creation.  Set it and forget it mentality turns these web portals into barren real estate that holds no value, either for retention or resale.

You may say that you can’t afford to update or that it looks good and everything is fine with it.

But how long has it been since you checked for broken links? When was the content written? Did you check for any error messages on your pages? Is your website secure enough?  Are all the plugins working?

If you imagine your website to be your car, would you drive it around with a flat tire? If it were your home, would you leave the broken windows without repair?

What are people going to think about you and why would anyone want to visit a website in a dilapidated condition?

How can you NOT afford to update?

Website Maintenance – The Key To Marketing Success  

Consistently updating a website’s content is the only way to maintain a competitive edge. Here is a look at the importance of updating certain aspects of a website to ensure that users are getting the best experience possible which will, in turn. result in improved sales and a better online presence. ~ Dave Stephenson via seo-news.com

The hard part of website creation is already over and you have a great website in place.  But if it’s been a while since you updated it or if you’ve never updated it (like most new marketers), then it’s time you take a look.

It may need SEO tweaking, what with the search engine algorithm changes, it may need new pages, site map updated, links checked, social networking buttons added or updated.

• Remove all old material (unless its a blog) and update it with fresh content, with SEO done based on today’s needs.
• If the content is still relevant today, rewrite it a bit and make it fresh. Use new headlines and sub headings and optimize it.  Whatever you do, refresh it.
• Look for calendars and dates, deadlines for old promotions, seasonal specials, products that no longer exist; and archive anything that has an expiration date immediately.
• Check for pages that you don’t have links to. These pages are orphaned and you can find them using analytics. If there are any such pages that are not needed, delete them from the hosting server.
• If you’ve enabled comments, respond to them every single day.
• Check your About Us page to see if it’s relevant today, including people’s names etc.
• Check the home page and ensure that your product or services are relevant today.  Include or delete links as required.
• All new content should be optimized for peak performance.
• Update the site map after any changes.
• Link internally as required and if your website is lacking some good incoming links, check out guest blogging or social media promotion.

• Register with the relevant search engines for your business type.
• Add site-tracking technology to make sure you know what your visitors are doing in real-time.

• Email campaigns, including email newsletters.
• Social media presence.
• Discount programs and other limited-time offers.
• Content marketing.

The impact on users won’t be visible until the new changes take effect — but for some users, it could mean a drastically different experience. ~ Christina Warren via mashable.com

If you’re heaving a sigh of relief, then don’t.  There are several other things you need to keep your eye on.

For example, Twitter recently changed its API. If you don’t know what it is, it’s the software-building code library.  These API changes affect all software that has ever been written to interact with Twitter. Many users have no clue about this. People install these widgets and plugins with a click and they think that’s the end of it. If only things were that easy.  With the API changes, these widgets and plugins start showing error messages because they cannot connect to Twitter anymore. They need to be updated.

And the worst part is, it’s not just Twitter, many other Internet services keep changing their APIs once in a while, like Facebook and Google.

You need hawk-like eyes to stay on top of the marketing game.  But the results are well worth it.

Your Customers Are Watching 

New or old, your website is your home on the Web and it’s a valuable asset that needs to be nurtured and cared for at all times.

Take a backup of your website regularly, to ensure you don’t lose everything, should something happen.  This can be done efficiently by scheduling backup cycles, bi-monthly or monthly, or more frequently depending on the frequency of the updates.

How long has it been since you updated your website? Last month? Last week? Not yet?