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The Art of Website Maintenance
Copyright (c) 2006-2023 elf design, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Erin Ferree
Now that you've designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it's important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information. Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to make changes on your website every few months to make sure that things run smoothly.
If you update the content on your website on a regular basis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site to find out "what's new". The search engines pay visits to websites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you'll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If the search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don't find anything new, they may decide not to come back – which can be a blow to your search engine rankings.
So, when is it appropriate to update your website? You don't want to waste time and money nitpicking at your site if you don't have updates of real value to add. You should update your site if you've:
1. Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your website – and your potential clients – with your new capabilities.
2. Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new offering? Add it to your website and start making new sales in that area.
3. Completed a successful project. If you've just finished a project, include it on your website. Create an online portfolio, add a case study – build a section on your website to use as a place to show the world your success.
4. Gotten more testimonials, or added to your client list. Including more feedback on your offering helps to build your credibility. Be sure to get a testimonial from each of your successful client projects. Updating your testimonials regularly will also show clients who have visited your site a few times that your offerings are "up to snuff".
5. Written an article. Writing articles is a great way to keep your website up-to-date and to put more content on your site. Search engines love content-rich sites, and visitors will love to see the new information. So, if you write articles to educate your clients and promote your business, be sure to place them on your website as well. They're likely to be full of keywords related to your area of specialty, which will help your ranking in the search engines.
6. Press releases. You should post all press releases and other information you publish about your company to your website. You never know who may be visiting, and you may get written up for your accomplishments.
7. Changes in your business. Have you hired someone? Changed your business structure, and you're now required to notify the public of that? If so, you should probably review your website and evaluate how you can add that information.
8. Yearly check-ups. You should do a basic check on your site at least once a year, to make sure that the content is current. Some things to check on include:
Your copyright statements should be updated yearly
Test and validate your links, to ensure that they still work
Your time references should be changed. If your "About" page says how many years you've been in business, this is the time to change that!
Your pricing and offerings – do you have new products or services? Have your prices increased over the past year?
Spotlight any major updates on your home page as well, so that people will learn of those updates as soon as they enter your site. The search engines will also discover the new update as soon as they enter your home page if you leave a bit of information, with a link to the full story, on the home page. That will act as a breadcrumb for the engine to follow – the engines will follow your link to learn more about it.
Any of these reasons, and dozens of others, are great reasons to make changes to your site. If you make keeping your website current a priority, it will pay off with better search engine rankings and increased sales and leads through your website.
Once you've decided to make your changes, the next choice is how to go about doing that. There are two steps involved in maintaining your site:
1. First, decide whether you prefer to edit your content on paper or online.
This can be done in a couple of ways. You can start by printing the pages that have outdated information and then updating that information on paper first. Or, you can copy and paste the outdated content from your website into a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and then edit that file on your computer.
2. After you have updated your text content you can choose either to make the changes yourself or to hire a web designer to make the changes.
There are several tools that you can use to make changes to your site yourself. We recommend an easy-to-use tool called Macromedia Contribute. It's fairly inexpensive, its simple to set up and learn, and it allows you to back up to older versions of your site if you make mistakes.
We suggest that you use this tool to make only simple text changes. More complicated changes-for example, to the overall design or navigation-are more difficult to make, and having a professional make those changes will save you energy and frustration.
If you are comfortable with a more complicated software program, then we recommend a professional-grade tool such as Dreamweaver. With a better software package, you'll be able to make some of the more complicated changes yourself.
If you don't have the time, patience, or know-how to make website updates yourself, then we recommend hiring a web designer. For tips on hiring a designer, see our November 2005 article: – "13 Tips for Finding a Graphic Designer.".
By building more-and more current-information into your website, you will also begin to build trust with your potential clients, since they will have a snapshot of what's currently happening in your business and available to them. Your website can go a long way towards making sure that your online prospects know, like, and trust you – which can lead to more sales from your website.
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Erin Ferree, Founder and Lead Designer of elf design, is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Erin helps her clients discover their brand differentiators, then designs logos, business cards, and other collateral materials and websites to reflect that differentiation, as well as to increase credibility and memorability. To learn more about defining your difference, check out our eBook, Stand Out, at http://www.stand-out-branding.com. For more information about elf design, please visit: Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com
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Top-Level Category: Business Online Articles
10 Most Recent Articles Written by Erin Ferree
Getting The Best Work From Your Graphic Designer
Written by: Erin Ferree |
Distributed: 2006-11-02 |
Word Count: 717 |
Page Views: 4855
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 2.57
A graphic designer's goal is to provide you with the logos,
artwork, and page designs that best fit your business,
personality, industry, and target market and that convey your
offerings and differentiators. The experience of reaching that
goal can be extremely smooth and pleasant if you know what to
expect up front, and if you understand that you do need to work
with your designer rather than just letting them loose to
create.
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Distributed: 2006-09-14 |
Word Count: 799 |
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One of the biggest problems that small businesses face is
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Word Count: 934 |
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Visual elements are a major part of your business's brand
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Distributed: 2006-07-18 |
Word Count: 1650 |
Page Views: 3254
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 2.22
You've designed your logo. Now you need to create some great
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Distributed: 2006-07-12 |
Word Count: 635 |
Page Views: 3095
| Votes: 10 |
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Word Count: 1377 |
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Distributed: 2006-06-21 |
Word Count: 832 |
Page Views: 5007
| Votes: 7 |
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Distributed: 2006-06-15 |
Word Count: 1033 |
Page Views: 3626
| Votes: 15 |
Rating: 2.33
Branding is a hot topic in marketing these days, but it's
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Font Basics for Small Business's Logo and Brand
Written by: Erin Ferree |
Distributed: 2006-06-06 |
Word Count: 1454 |
Page Views: 5183
| Votes: 17 |
Rating: 1.71
There are many components of a brand identity: logo, color
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Define Your Difference - To Stand Out and Make Your Business Shine!
Written by: Erin Ferree |
Distributed: 2006-06-02 |
Word Count: 556 |
Page Views: 3492
| Votes: 19 |
Rating: 2.05
Thoughtfully defining your business - and your differentiation -
will help you to understand who you are, what you do, and what
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Word Count: 1669 |
Page Views: 8139
| Votes: 18 |
Rating: 2.50
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Word Count: 1149 |
Page Views: 9021
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Word Count: 1399 |
Page Views: 6661
| Votes: 10 |
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Distributed: 2013-07-31 |
Word Count: 1025 |
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| Votes: 13 |
Rating: 2.08
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Word Count: 1229 |
Page Views: 6107
| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 1.40
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Word Count: 991 |
Page Views: 8533
| Votes: 14 |
Rating: 2.43
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Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1373 |
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| Votes: 11 |
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Distributed: 2013-07-29 |
Word Count: 1191 |
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| Votes: 11 |
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Freelance writers fill a very important role in today's
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Distributed: 2013-07-25 |
Word Count: 677 |
Page Views: 5745
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.00
Many people suggest that you should write articles on the
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Word Count: 708 |
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Distributed: 2006-06-15 |
Word Count: 648 |
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| Votes: 19 |
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Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-01-09 |
Word Count: 445 |
Page Views: 5516
| Votes: 21 |
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With the rapid expansion of the digital economy, the web site is
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Find out what a web site can do for you.
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Distributed: 2009-07-07 |
Word Count: 1407 |
Page Views: 5916
| Votes: 48 |
Rating: 3.71
Amid recent news reports that there continues to be an ongoing
and substantial gap between the net worth of Whites and other
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raw data. However, I am immediately reminded of a quote offered
by an economic expert from the past... "There are lies, damned
lies, and statistics!"
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Written by: Willie Crawford |
Distributed: 2007-07-16 |
Word Count: 917 |
Page Views: 6772
| Votes: 26 |
Rating: 3.58
At a recent Internet marketing seminar, I was sitting around the
hotel lobby with approximately 20 other seminar attendees and
speakers. The seminar's host was in attendance, and the
conversation covered a range of internet marketing topics with
extreme frankness. Our proximity to the hotel bar certainly
contributed to our 'conviviality.'
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Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-02-07 |
Word Count: 593 |
Page Views: 3490
| Votes: 25 |
Rating: 3.48
Employ these 15 tactics to improve your search engine rankings,
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Written by: Judy Murdoch |
Distributed: 2008-04-15 |
Word Count: 981 |
Page Views: 5963
| Votes: 15 |
Rating: 3.47
Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I
help small business owners create information products. The other
person was very friendly until I said "information products."
Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees
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Written by: Craig Ritsema |
Distributed: 2006-08-29 |
Word Count: 699 |
Page Views: 5502
| Votes: 25 |
Rating: 3.44
Webmasters everywhere are constantly on the lookout for fresh and
interesting content for their website. Along with these content
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their website to stand out above the others in the search engine
results. So what is the trick for you to keep a steady supply of
this quality content coming your way?
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Written by: Harold Hemmings |
Distributed: 2009-08-06 |
Word Count: 1357 |
Page Views: 2660
| Votes: 8 |
Rating: 3.38
Online marketers everywhere are finally starting to tap into
the Twitter Marketplace. Marketers are getting involved in
Twitter at awesome rates, but all seem to have one
unanswered question: How do we actually monetize this
marketplace? It is my goal that by the time you have read
this article, you will have a clear idea of exactly how to
monetize your activities in Twitter.
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Written by: Willie Crawford |
Distributed: 2006-06-14 |
Word Count: 1407 |
Page Views: 7364
| Votes: 40 |
Rating: 3.35
Running an online "empire" of approximately 1600 websites and
blogs, selling a variety of products, services and ideas, I
have to be much more productive than the average person in a
"regular job."
Turn A One-Night-Stand With Google Into A Long-Term Relationship
Written by: Diane Metz |
Distributed: 2007-07-10 |
Word Count: 882 |
Page Views: 2648
| Votes: 6 |
Rating: 3.33
Want to win the favor of Google? Then you've got to build a
long-term relationship with her. Many new SEO strategies are
simply recycled old-tricks. And Google is a smart gal who can see
right through them. Position your website for the future by
understanding what Google really likes â€" and what she
really loathes.
Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-07-27 |
Word Count: 472 |
Page Views: 30406
| Votes: 33 |
Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the
following checklist to find out.
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Total Views: 3399
Article Rating: 1.83 of 5
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