Now that you’ve launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your site is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is part of your website maintenance, and it’s important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information.
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”. Search engines also visit the sites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you’ll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don’t find anything new, your site may be removed from the queue – which can adversely affect 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:
Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your site – and your potential clients – with your new capabilities.
Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new product or service? Add it to your site and start making new sales in that area.
Completed a successful project. If you’ve just finished a project, include it on your site. Create an online portfolio, add a case study – build a section on your site to use as a place to show the world your success.
Gotten more testimonials or added to your client list. Including more feedback on your products and services helps to build your credibility. Be sure to get a testimonial from each of your successful projects.
Written an article. Writing articles is a great way to keep your site 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 site 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.
Issued press releases. You should post all press releases and other information you publish about your company on your site. You never know who may be visiting, and you may be recognized for your accomplishments.
Made 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 review your site and evaluate how you can add that information.
Make regular reviews a priority. A monthly review of your site is ideal. But at minimum, you should do a review of your site at least once a year, to make sure that the general content is current. Some things to look for 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 products and services – do you have new products or services? Have your prices increased over the past year?
Any of these reasons, and dozens of others, are great reasons to make changes to your website. If you make keeping your site current a priority, it will pay off with better search engine rankings and increased business from your website.
By building more and more current information into your site, 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 available to them. Your site 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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Would you like support for your website? Webb Weavers Consulting based in Ventura, CA can help! See more about WordPress Website Maintenance Plans. Or Get in touch with questions or to schedule an introductory call.