Is Your Website Maintenance a Work of Art.

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How many times since the commercial release of the Worldwide-Web have you seen sudden "breakthroughs" of great fortune-making potential come and go where just a few people were in the right place at the right time to be able to take advantage of them? -- You're right ... very, very few.

 The Art of Website Maintenance

By Erin Ferree (c) 2007 

Now that you've designed and launched your website, youhave a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, yourwebsite is only as useful as the content is current. Theprocess of keeping the content on your site current iscalled website maintenance, and it's important to keep bothvisitors and search engines supplied with new information.Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to makechanges on your website every few months to make sure thatthings run smoothly. 

If you update the content on your website on a regularbasis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site tofind out "what's new". The search engines pay visits towebsites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you'llstay in the queue only if you update your site regularly.If the search engines visit your site several times in arow, and don't find anything new, they may decide not tocome back-which can be a blow to your search enginerankings. 

So, when is it appropriate to update your website? Youdon't want to waste time and money nitpicking at your siteif you don't have updates of real value to add. You shouldupdate your site if you've: 

- Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation?New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in yourskill set is a great reason to update your website

- andyour potential clients - with your new capabilities. - Expanded your products or services. Do you have a newoffering? Add it to your website and start making new salesin that area. 

- Completed a successful project. If you've just finished aproject, include it on your website. Create an onlineportfolio, add a case study

- build a section on yourwebsite 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 offering helps to buildyour credibility. Be sure to get a testimonial from each ofyour successful client projects. Updating your testimonialsregularly will also show clients who have visited your sitea few times that your offerings are "up to snuff". 

- Written an article. Writing articles is a great way tokeep your website up-to-date and to put more content onyour site. Search engines love content-rich sites, andvisitors will love to see the new information. So, if youwrite articles to educate your clients and promote yourbusiness, be sure to place them on your website as well.They're likely to be full of keywords related to your areaof specialty, which will help your ranking in the searchengines. Issued Press releases. You should post all press releasesand 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. 

- Made changes in your business. Have you hired someone?Changed your business structure, and you're now required tonotify the public of that? If so, you should probably reviewyour website and evaluate how you can add that information. 

- Made Yearly check-ups. You should do a basic check on yoursite at least once a year, to make sure that the content iscurrent. Some things to check 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, sothat people will learn of those updates as soon as theyenter your site. The search engines will also discover thenew update as soon as they enter your home page if youleave a bit of information, with a link to the full story,on the home page. That will act as a breadcrumb for theengine to follow - the engines will follow your link tolearn more about it. Any of these reasons, and dozens of others, are greatreasons to make changes to your site. If you make keepingyour website current a priority, it will pay off withbetter search engine rankings and increased sales and leadsthrough your website.Once you've decided to make your changes, the next choiceis how to go about doing that. There are two steps involvedin maintaining your site: 

1. First, decide whether you prefer to edit your content onpaper or online. This can be done in a couple of ways. Youcan start by printing the pages that have outdatedinformation and then updating that information on paperfirst. Or, you can copy and paste the outdated content fromyour website into a word processing program such asMicrosoft Word and then edit that file on your computer. 

2. After you have updated your text content you can chooseeither to make the changes yourself or to hire a webdesigner to make the changes. There are several tools thatyou can use to make changes to your site yourself. Werecommend 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 siteif you make mistakes. We suggest that you use this tool to make only simple textchanges. More complicated changes - for example, to theoverall design or navigation - are more difficult to make,and having a professional make those changes will save youenergy and frustration. 

If you are comfortable with a more complicated softwareprogram, then we recommend a professional-grade tool suchas Dreamweaver. With a better software package, you'll beable to make some of the more complicated changes yourself. By building more and more current information into yourwebsite, you will also begin to build trust with yourpotential clients, since they will have a snapshot ofwhat's currently happening in your business availableto them. Your website can go a long way towards makingsure that your online prospects know, like, and trust you- which can lead to more sales from your website.

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