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Article Title:
==============
The Art of Website Maintenance
Article Description:
====================
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.
Additional Article Information:
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1103 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2006-08-24 14:00:00
Written By: Erin Ferree
Copyright: 2006, All Rights Reserved
Contact Email: mailto:elf@elf-design.com
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The Art of Website Maintenance
Copyright � 2006 elf design, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Erin Ferree
Elf Design
http://www.elf-design.com/
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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