It is often said that a year in real time equals anywhere from 4 to 12 years in “web time”, meaning that time moves much faster online than off. It is true that the content of your website can become outdated before you’re done writing it. It is always surprising how many businesses are content to put their web site online and then just forget about it, as if the site could take care of itself from there on out. Although keeping a website current does not need to be a daily or even a weekly activity, it is very importance to its success.

Provided below are the top 4 disadvantages of not keeping your website up to date.

1. New visitors can recognize old content: There is something about stale content, a savvy web user can recognize it at first glance. If visitors to your website perceive that your content is not fresh, they may look at it once, but it is unlikely they will bookmark it and even more unlikely they will return again. It’s like the difference between a brochure and a newspaper, a customer may pick up a brochure and read through it once, she may even save the brochure, but believe me, she will not be pulling it out once a month to read through it again, and after a period of time will probably forget she even has it. A newspaper, no matter how small, always has fresh content so that if someone picks it up and likes what he has read, he will likely pick it up again later to see what it says now. Your website is similar, visitors quickly perceive whether it’s like a brochure or a newspaper and treat it as such.
2. Returning visitors will not come back again: When a persons visits your site and likes your content, they may bookmark it and return another time to see what’s new. After a period of time when there are no updates, people assume it is not going to change and will stop coming back. It is these returning visitors who are most likely to become your customers, not only do they like what you have to say, but they are interested enough to keep in touch. In this way your website acts as a networking tool to business contacts you may never actually have talked to, potentially keeping in touch with thousands of valuable contacts with very little work on your part.
3. Others sites may not link to you: You probably know that getting links from other web sites is a great way of getting visitors to your site, but you may not know that this can also drastically improve your search engine ranking. Getting quality sites to link to you can be a very difficult task, a good webmaster does not link to every site that comes along and asks for a link, only those that will offer some valuable information. You will no undoubtedly be able to get some links to your site, even if your site is static, but you can get more and better quality links if your site is fresh and ever changing.
4. The competition will have the advantage: By not updating your content regularly, you are giving the advantage to your competitors. Even if they are not updating their websites, if they were to start tomorrow, where would that leave you? But, if you were keeping your site up to date, not only would you have all the advantages listed above, but you would have the edge on any competitors who did not.

Your website will get more visitors and more return visits by keeping it updated regularly. This is really not as hard as it may seem, just determine to sit down once a month and write a little bit about what your business has been doing and some suggestions on how your customers can use your products or services. By updating your web content at least once a month you will be helping to keep your site moving forward in web time.

Posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 in Secrets of Successful Websites | trackback