Many people fall victim to neglecting their website because they believe just having one is simply enough. This is not true. You should be constantly seeing a positive ROI well after your website has been paid for. Don't let let the potential customers suffer and not get a real understanding for who you are.
A website is a business purchase that is a great investment. Just because you might've let the passion for the company website slip away, that doesn't mean the potential customer to suffer and not get a real understanding for who you are.
As we discussed a few weeks ago, it's very important to make sure that you're "servicing your website every 3,000 visitors." The article provoked many responses leading us to see a positive course of action on website maintenance.
Servicing your website doesn't always mean you have to spend money, but don't rule it out just yet.
One of the most important things you should be doing is keeping the content fresh. Update the portfolio, add new services pages, add new testimonials, get rid of Christmas specials when its back to school time, to name a few examples. Most websites you spend a good amount of time and money building, come with a content management system. This is thee biggest tool you can have when owning a website. A content management system lets you manage all of the content and make easy updates, without having to call your "web guy", or spending an arm and a leg to get updates.
To quickly expound on the point above -- it's also important when building a website, that you keep scalability in mean. You want to make sure the site is going to be scalable and that you will be able to add and edit content overtime. Having a lot of text as images or as flash can make it very difficult to keep your website updated.
Another common problem in today's internet age, is that companies are going social, and not tying it all together. Many companies fail to properly integrate their newly created social media profiles into their website. This is an update you will probably want to hire someone to complete so that you make the most out of your social media presence. it's very important that you have a proper Social Media Strategy in place, so that you don't miss out on points such as this. It's okay if you want to add a text link or image link if you have limited control of your website, but eventually you'll want to make sure you have at least some of the following elements to fully capitalize off your social media presence:
- Facebook Fan Box
- Facebook Like / Recommend
- Twitter Follow Button
- Social Media Logos (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc)
Most companies are aware of the positive effects social media can have on your organization, but fail to properly execute it. Don't fall victim to this!
Finally, a third piece of advice we could give regarding making sure you are getting the most of your company website, would be to constantly interact with your customers and ask them for their feedback. It's very important that you don't just disregard when customers are giving you feedback on how to improve. Stop and listen to them! Take their advice! They are the ones that are powering your company to continue to do business.
Recently, I was at a local Bistro, which had some of the best seared scallops I've ever had, but noticed many complaints regarding the website. In the short wait to get seated, one couple complained that they made reservations online and the restaurant didn't honor reservations made online anymore. Another couple said that the menu was outdated online and almost made them not want to come. It's very important, that you listen to your customers, and take what they say, and analyze it. You obviously can't make everyone happy, but get what you can and let the customers, who you built the site for in the first place, guide you on the changes they'd like to see.
Whether you think you're too busy to update your website, don't have the resources or manpower to do deploy to such a task, or just don't care anymore, I strongly urge you to take a second glance at your website and make sure it's current and that you are getting the most out of it.
Basch Solutions, LLC – a Rochester Website Design and Website Development company, has been building content management systems for their clients in almost every industry since 1999. Have a look at their portfolio to see some of the many success stories they boast @ www.baschsolutions.com/portfolio.
