Every website needs love and attention

I think we can all agree that a website is not just for Christmas, it's for life....! Well, perhaps not but it's true that you cannot expect to get much from your website if you ignore it. And why would you? After all, you have spent good money hiring a web designer in the first place, why launch the site and leave it idle?

Yet, that's what I see often. Small business sites that aren't updated. No new content. No search engine work. No website reviews.

I'm not writing this post to tout for business as your website developer or site manager. I'm more than busy enough, thank you. But, every business needs to give its website some care and attention. Otherwise, you will end up with an old* and under-performing site .

* Old in Internet terms is about two years.

What Can I Do?

Here are my suggestions. They are the minimum that I would consider for any site:

1. Assign someone in your business, or hire somebody, to write articles and posts on the site. Give them a schedule and an allocated time for this. Perhaps a day every month? As a follow-up, put some time into publicising and content marketing the articles.
2. Manage the site in Google Search Console (aka Google Webmaster Tools). This gives you free and valuable feedback from Google. Why not use it!?
3. Check your website visitor statistics every month. Use Google Analytics or simpler services like Gaug.es for this. All website analytics tools provide ways to automate reports and provide customised dashboards. Use these to get the information you want at your fingertips! Follow-up with goals and conversion tracking.
4. Review your site and carry out a content audit every six months. It's better to do this too often than not enough in my opinion.

In Summary

Every business needs to set aside time, and learn the skills, to work on their website. Many companies (usually the bigger ones) do a fantastic job. Others, sometimes smaller, often find it much more difficult. But, the truth is that a website is a part of your business. Just like you. It needs love and attention (and a hug every so often!)