When was the last time you updated your small business website? This week? This month? This year? If it wasn’t this week, it’s been too long and it’s time to give your website a little attention.
Every small business website needs attention in five distinct areas:
- Is your website working properly? Check to be sure that all your pages load and that your links send visitors to the pages you intended. If you link to Flickr images or YouTube videos, realize that these media may be removed at any time and without warning, leaving you with broken links.
- How’s your website design? Does it need to be refreshed? Most websites begin to show their age after about two years. This doesn’t automatically mean that a complete redesign is necessary. Many times a simple change to one or two elements on your site is enough to give it a fresh, new look.
- When was your last content update? By ‘content,’ I’m referring to high quality information shared through blog posts, articles, FAQ’s, video or audio messages. If you’re an artist, when was your last image shared with your viewers?
- Frequent content updates are important for three reasons:
- It gives your viewers a reason to return to and engage with you on your website.
- Frequently updated content is indexed more often by Google, meaning that it helps you attain better placement on the search engine results page.
- It makes it easier for your customers and other website visitors to refer you.
- Can your updated content be easily shared? Links are the currency of today’s online marketplace. Make it easy for your viewers to share a link to your content with their friends and neighbors. This can be as simple as adding a ‘share this’ plugin to your blog or a Facebook badge to any page of your website.
- Is your site secure? Websites can be hacked and links inserted that will direct your viewers to unsavory sites.
This topic deserves an entire post of its own, but for now, I’ll direct your attention to an excellent resource: the Securi blog, where you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about threats and solutions to your website’s security. So how often DO you update your website?
Related Off-Site Article: Google indexing and high quality content
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