Thursday 19 November 2009
A Website's Not Just For Christmas, writes Stuart Wilkin
Children are guilty of it. They rush around with the verve and direction of a puppy on steroids, determined to show anyone and everyone their sparkling new toy. And then, by around the 15th January, it’s consigned to the big box on top of the wardrobe that holds Buzz Lightyear, ‘My First Scalextric’ and more of last year’s technology, never to be vaunted again.
But then children are young, easily distracted and fickle, and until we destroy the most precious gift of childhood, not knowing how much anything costs, you can’t really blame them for loving each new toy for about the time it takes one of our more numb footballers to go without setting fire to a fifty pound note.
Children and footballers have their excuses, but we don’t. Everybody loves a revamped website, for about two weeks. And then the pressures of business take their toll and we concentrate on actions that make money, forgetting how much we’ve spent on the website until the invoice arrives.
These days if you’re not online you’re nowhere. But you want to increase the traffic to your website and then turn traffic into sales. People need a reason to return to your website, and without a reason they’ll simply forget about it.
So when you have a shiny new site, make sure that the IT guy isn’t the only soul interested in it. Engage more of your team, because the more people who can take care of the site, the more vibrant it will become. Like any vital part of your business, ongoing maintenance is crucial. A good content management system isn’t cost prohibitive any more, and you need to constantly refresh your content to rise up the search engine listings.
If your customers aren’t interested in returning to your website because it never changes, then Google probably won’t be interested either. So it becomes something of a spiral of malaise - less visitors and less visitors returning.
So show your website the same love and attention that you gave to your Cindy doll all those years ago. You might find that the love is returned in the shape of business!
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- July (4)
- Why are Businesses prepared to stick with antiquated break fix IT services?
- Focus IT welcomes Shaw Austin....
- Managing Director, Harry Edwards, joins the CIS
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- Is There a Ghost (or a Worm) in your machine? Asks Stuart Wilkin
- When cash is tight slashing your IT budget is a false economy, writes Stuart Wilkin
- Cyber Slacking – Maybe the Aussies have got it right, writes Stuart Wilkin
- A Website's Not Just For Christmas, writes Stuart Wilkin
