Keeping it fresh

Confession: I am the world's biggest hypocrite for writing about keeping your online presence relevant and up-to-date, but I'm going to do it anyway (see my lack of blog posts for 3 months).  It's one of those "I'm not only the president, I'm also a client"-type problems.

If someone who visited your site last year, last month, or even last week visited again today, would they notice a difference?  If they don't, what impression does that give regarding the success of your business? 

Obviously you might be too busy running a successful business to have time for regular updates, but that still doesn't minimize the importance of timely, relevant content.  Your online presence should give the impression that you've got something good going on. Your presence should be reactive to trends in your industry as well as larger scope items like the economy or culture as a whole.  How does your business fit in with those things? 

Why should consumers and end-users engage with your company when they have less money to spend (these days) or less time to think about it?  Give them a reason through content that makes sense, gets to the point, and is RELEVANT.

The growth of Web 2.0 means nobody has an excuse anymore NOT to keep things fresh:

• Add a blog to your site and push the lead story to your front page.  Even updating it once a week keeps you looking current.
• If you use Twitter, publish your latest status updates to your site.
• If you keep a YouTube or other video channel going, make sure that content is readily accessible from your site.
• Publish weekly specials.
• Create an RSS feed of specials, news, etc. and add it to the home page.
• Even just swapping out graphics on your home page on a regular basis can make a big difference. 

If I visit a site and the content is exactly same time as my previous visit, I am much less likely to return.  My assumption is that it will be the same the next time I return, so why come back?

You'll notice on my site that I follow a few of these rules.  I keep blog headlines on my home page and I swap out the main site graphic on a regular basis.  The portfolio page is updated once in a while with new designs and customer quotes. 

I still have a long ways to go to keep things truly fresh. I shouldn't tell you this, but on my "ABOUT" page I talk about the family dog.  Yeah...we had to put him to sleep about 6 months ago. 

 

How are YOU keeping it fresh?  Give us some more ideas...