For most start up businesses, and businesses who are trying to move forward with the times, having an attractive website as the online face of your business is an essential part of a marketing plan. One of the first obvious questions I’m asked when I’m meeting with a new client is “how much will this website cost?” The follow up question, almost 100% of the time, is “how much work will I need to put into it?” The quick answer is always, “do you want an attractive site? or do you want an attractive site that gets results?” There’s a misconception among many small business owners that once a website is developed, the work is done. In reality, it’s only beginning, and we'll discuss what this means when updating websites for seo.
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Websites that have little to no updated content lose credibility in search engine results sometimes very quickly. I see this primarily as an issue for companies that have a highly competitive market – Restaurants, business professionals, medical, legal, insurance companies, etc. These are the industries in which competition is high, and lack of online involvement can be detrimental to welcoming new and returning visitors to your site (and eventually through your doors as paying customers).
This is where you start to really separate yourself from your competition. Add a rotating feature of your website that is specific to your field of work that will keep clients coming back. For restaurants, this can be your daily/weekly food specials, lunch specials, dessert specials, etc. For retail stores, start an “item of the week” to feature or perhaps your closeouts/clearance items. Business professionals, start a “project spotlight” and focus on some of your more notable works in the past. Tie it into your clients’ site, linking to them and giving them free advertisement (which will be much appreciated and makes you look good to the previous clients and new clients alike). Highlight a service you offer, perhaps at a discounted rate for a limited time, and change that service or the rate monthly/weekly. Start a “myth busters” section of your site and clear up commonly misunderstood information.
Your social media pages need to be a source of interaction with your customers, colleagues, etc. But, they must also drive traffic. Make sure your social media pages are linked on the home page of your site…preferably the header or footer so they’re visible on every page. Utilize your social media pages to advertise when something changes on your site (blog post, discount, special, news, etc). Let your customers know there’s something new worth checking out.
Basically, your site needs to be moving. It needs to be periodically changing, and it needs to remain up to date. Remember, content is king. No one wants to revisit a website that has the same information as before.