'Set it and forget it," is definitely not the way to think about your business's on-line presence.
A successful commercial website, like a finely tuned engine, requires regular and routine maintenance to ensure continued peak performance. And a well-maintained on-line presence is simply too important to be ignored these days.
Among other things, websites are often the first impression your company makes -- they're where many people actually discover your business in today's networked world. And websites are a primary way to reach out and touch customers within local communities and around the world.
Whether your on-line storefront provides the means to process sales orders or simply serves up electronic brochures, the goal is ultimately to turn visitors into customers. But a lousy website can just turn them off. Poorly maintained and obviously ignored sites rarely get more than one passing glance. Sites with rich content and that are interactive, multifunctional, current and continually changing create a lasting impact and repeat visits.
The latter point might seem obvious, but it is particularly important. A website can't rest on its laurels. It must be made continually appealing to visitors. Refreshing the content is critical, but it's something that many businesses forget about after they get a site up and running smoothly.
But what sort of routine maintenance is required? And where to begin?
The first step forward is a step back, says Steve Grushcow, the CEO of edit.com, a website maintenance services company based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"Ask, 'what do I want the website to do for my business?' A lot of people don't even know," Mr. Grushcow says. "We say that you need to home in on another step. Should the site just give background information, or should it generate leads for me? And how do I get leads from my site?"
Businesses need to strike a chord with their specific type of customer, he says, adding that the main challenge is to translate a storefront business into something that likewise serves customers on the Internet.
It's a process where, among other things, every month you brainstorm new ideas that add to and improve your site, according to Mr. Grushcow. So consider whether the website looks fresh or whether updates are required. Is there new content to be added? Does the site function the way it should?
A checklist for regular website maintenance includes tasks like verifying the function of outbound links from the site. Did these change and do these continue to work? Is the site fast? Do images used still look good or do they seem dated and old? Someone needs to actually use the site from time to time the way a potential customer would, so they can make sure everything is working properly.
Next, check the content itself. Are there date-specific items that haven't been updated or replaced? Does a successfully advertised event lend itself to a Web follow-up treatment, like posting photographs that might have been taken? Has your company received testimonials from your customers or press coverage that should likewise be posted?
Does the website have a professional look? Check to see that formatting is consistent, that the site is displaying properly in all standard Web browsers, and that your company logo and general design give the right impression.
Consider how to improve your customer service -- especially with existing customers. Mr. Grushcow suggests creating hidden pages that only certain customers can access. These special value-added pages, set up just for them, might include items like photographs taken at a customer's event. Sometimes you can serve current customers better by creating member-only or custom pages, offering surveys and doing e-mail newsletters.
Have you considered better ways of capturing leads? Leads and sales generated through the site can be improved by enhancing the way a site captures information. Look at website statistics to discover who visits your site, where your visitors are coming from and which search engines are directing traffic to you.
Website maintenance means regular analysis, updating and improvement of the site to keep it in sync with your "offline" business. This also helps it stay relevant to the search engines that potentially will direct traffic to the site and continue to be effective in keeping and attracting customers, Mr. Grushcow says.
"Productive websites are immediate. Stale websites taste like wood shavings and sell about as well," says Patty Barnes, who breeds dogs as a business and routinely revisits the content on her on-line storefront -- logcabinlabradoodles.com.
Log Cabin Labradoodles breeds and sells Australian Multigenerational Labradoodles. According to Ms. Barnes, 98 per cent of her sales take place over the Internet, and sales have increased fourfold as a result of a concerted effort to regularly update and maintain the site.
"I add new photographs and text daily. Customers comment that my website is professional, creative and current," she says.
Ms. Barnes does most of the web maintenance work herself, through a set of editing tools. According to Mr. Grushcow, it's the sort of thing that most non-tech savvy people should be able to do these days. There are many simple tools available now that let people create images and content on a Web page. In addition, tools like Microsoft's MS FrontPage and Macrosoft Media's Creator are more functional products for the more technically astute.
"But you [might] also need to be able to pick up a phone and call an expert," he adds. "If you are setting up forms to capture information, you'll probably need an expert."
The annual cost for basic website maintenance for a small business probably won't amount to much more than $500 a year, according to Mr. Grushcow. That's only about $40 a month.
"Some sites really don't require much maintenance," he says. "[But] they should look at it once a month, just to rethink it. It's not that there's always something to improve, but you should take a look at it routinely.
"If a business doesn't know that [statement] to be true, then they're probably not doing a good job in their business."
Dan McLean is editor-in-chief of publisher ITWorldCanada.com. dmclean@itworldcanada.com
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