The Importance of Being Proactive

When was the last time you updated your website?

It is quite common for people to have the mind-set that their website, once updated, will ‘last 3 to 5 years’. It is almost as if they have a ‘tick box’ mentality. When a website goes live, they move onto the next business task on the agenda. However that is not conducive to success, or in delivering an effective ROI.

A new website does give the business a new fresh look and feel online. This is always a good thing, however it only gives the business the potential to succeed the way the business wants it to. To use an analogy; the business might invest in new, modern company cars or vans, but they are of no real use unless they go on planned journeys to win orders and deliver goods. The sales team needs to visit customers to win business and the goods that were ordered need to be delivered.

The new website will not achieve any goals unless it is put to work online to actively seek out new customers and encourage new orders to be placed. Like a company car, the website should be serviced regularly so it is always ready to work reliably for the business. With every customer click, your website is going on an online journey to help win business and deliver information to existing and potential customers.

Keeping Content Up To Date

Businesses should regularly be looking at their own websites, checking for information that is not current and adding new and industry relevant information all the time. It is very common for some information on websites to be completely out of date and the company not even realise it. It may be a discontinued or out of stock product that is shown as still offered for sale on the website. Or an announcement that has timed out and is now in the past, such as: “Summer sale now on!” still showing in Autumn. You get the idea.

It is well worth identifying who your main competitors are and regularly comparing your own web site against theirs. They may be updating, relaunching, reskinning and rebranding more often than you. In time, this activity will almost certainly will be placing them above your company in the search engine rankings (SERPS).

The number one give-away to potential customers that you are not serious about your website is your company blog. If your blog is not current and up to date then you are effectively telling the world that you don’t have anything of value to say, and that even if you did, it wouldn’t be worth putting it on your website! Ever changing information, news stories, case studies, new products and company announcements are the lifeblood of successful websites. This kind of information keeps people coming back to your website to see what’s new and interesting. If visitors never see anything new, they will just lose interest and visit your competitors who are buzzing with activity.

At the very least you should be publishing regular news stories and updates to your website – just to let your customers know you are still alive if nothing else!

In the same way as you would have a monthly sales meeting to monitor sales and to plan ahead, so the business should be having monthly website and online activity meetings with the company’s digital agency whose job it is to keep your company’s website fresh, relevant, vibrant, interesting and profitable.