How to: Keeping your website current
By Matt Pearce
Having regularly updated content on your site is essential: it gives users a reason to return to your site, and Search Engines a reason to index your content more frequently. Here we list ten simple tips
for keeping your content current.
Post news bulletins on your website on a regular basis, or feature a 'what's new' area that frequent users can automatically check.
Put a date on each piece of content to show how current it is, and indicate how often new information will be added (e.g. in a monthly bulletin).
Refresh your design (even just slightly) once every six months so the website reflects that your business is moving forward.
Feature feedback from users and customers - or create a discussion forum - so that regular comments appear on your site.
Check and update your links every few months. Dead links frustrate the user. A link checker and orphan page tracker may well be included in your web design package.
Update your old articles. The advantage of the web is that you can keep old articles archived online, but making them constantly accessible means it's advisable to keep them up-to-date, as they
reflect on the whole site.
Run regular competitions or special offers - this will attract users back to your home page.
Add new technology - but only if it will really make your site a better one. You might want to add videos, sound files, forms, etc., to enhance the user's experience of your site.
Monitor your competitors' sites regularly, and surf widely. If someone else is doing something interesting, see if you can emulate them.
Create a timetable for making changes to your site (including regular updates, design updates, technology reviews and complete overhauls). Devise a long-term strategy for maintaining a website to
keep it vibrant and alive.
About the Author
Matt Pearce is a freelance technology writer. Comments on this article may be directed to
editor@itwales.com.
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