Keeping it Fresh

I am taking a page from Twitter’s playbook today and talking about keeping it fresh. Twitter updated their logo. What does it mean? Read far enough into it and you’ll come up with plenty of reasons. Updating logos, redesigning your web site, and a good spring cleaning every once in a while makes good business sense. Sure, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but, how many ways can you really skin a cat? Do you want to be the good old stand-by? Or do you want to be fresh? Good old stand-by has many good qualities such as reliability and consistency. When it comes to your businesses website, however, if your good old stand-by has not been updated in a few years you will find me in agreement with you that your site performs reliably and consistent in generating a flat amount of leads and interest in your company. A good professionally developed business website works on capturing and nurturing leads while you focus on more immediate matters at hand. If your website has been chugging along for a few years without having been updated, chances are you may benefit from a redesign.

Updating

Depending on your goals, POGA Ltd. recommends updating your website with fresh content daily if not weekly. Here are some tips for keeping it fresh:

1. Come up with 12 topics on which to write. Following this, come up with 3 – 4 subcategories under this topic. Congratulations, you just came up with nearly a years worth of article topics.
2. Set a schedule. Many of us claim to not have time to work on our blogs or update our websites. I have no doubt in my mind about the truth to this statement. Blogging and generating leads through your website does take work. If you can set aside at least one hour a day to work on your blog, you’ll find your creative juices flowing and ideas churning in no time.
3. Write it. Read it out loud to yourself and to a friend. Walk away for 24 hours. Come back, read it out loud again, and edit the posting as you see fit.

Aside from updating your blog posts, consider your images, SEO, site layout, pages and general content. The longer you wait to update and maintain these lifelines of your online presence the worse your condition will become. Case in point: Flash Media vs. iPhones & iPads. Three generations of iPhones and two generations of iPads did not support flash. Millions of people who own these Apple products were unable to view certain websites as the developers intended. If you work with a good web site designer or programmer he or she will be able to safe-guard your site against display problems.

Error Trapping

POGA Ltd offers some of the best programming you will find. Many business owners will allow a family member or family friend to build their website. In my opinion this seems like a totally understandable, honorable, and stupid idea. I come from an enormous Irish family. We all try to give each other a hand when possible. I would not, however, trust my family to work on my car or give me medical advice unless they were professionals. The same goes for your business website. A good web developer and programmer will program with error trapping in mind. What does this mean?

Cross-browser Compatibility

Let’s say you sell pizza. You’ve just built your own website and made it compatible with all the latest browsers and HTML. Great! You may even be ahead of the curve. The only problem I see here would be that plenty of people still use outdated web browsers and older smart phones. If your website has been programmed with all the latest technology and your visitor uses an older browser or device, your web site will not display properly. Updating your site so that it offers cross-browser compatibility ensures that every one of your visitors sees your site just as you had intended At this point I would like to interject that large companies make these mistakes too. In May of 2012 I went to an advanced internet marketing seminar. The seminar leader showed us how his company worked with BMW USA and discovered that their website was not displaying properly on over 10,000 monthly visits because those 10,000 visitors used an outdated version of Netscape. If BMW USA enhanced their cross-browser compatibility because they missed out on 10,000 customers a month, shouldn’t you?

Link Exchanges are Obsolete

Yes fresh content and links offer relevance to your site and search engine ranking, however, link exchanges should be avoided at all costs. Google frowns upon this practice. Aside from link exchanges, please make sure that the links on your site are not dead. Dead links or bad reviews can kill any chance you may have had at capturing a new lead or closing a sale.

Syntax Errors in Code

Aren’t simple mistakes the worst? Simple oversights can result in tons of errors on your site. If your programmer leaves out simple bits in lines of code the result will be that your web page does not display correctly. If your webpage does not display correctly you can say good-bye to getting your message across as you intended. Will this mean the end of the world for your business? Of course not. Will the internet police levy fines against you for improper construction of a web site? Hardly. Will your visitors leave, never return, and recommend your competitor to their friends? You betcha.

What should I do?

POGA Ltd offers free site evaluations. Contact us today and allow us to uncover the skeletons lurking in the closet of your website. Your site can be fresh again.