Get more customers with a fresh website

Written on the 18 June 2009 by Bloomtools

Back in the early days of the internet, a business could get a website design made and then just forget about it - it would do its job of generating sales without any involvement from them. Well the internet has changed a lot over the last few years and it's now essential for businesses to invest some time and effort in their website.

These days, content is king on the internet. If you're website is not fresh and up to date, chances are your business isn't getting any leads or sales from it. This is for two reasons - one, websites with outdated content don't appear as high in search engine results and two, if you're website hasn't been updated in years it will hardly make visitors want to buy from you.

Get higher in search engines

Google and the other search engines reward regularly updated websites. If new content gets added to your website on a regular basis, Google's search bots will crawl and index your site more often and they will usually place fresh sites higher up in their listings. So if you are serious about getting traffic from search engines, you need to keep your content fresh and informative.

Impress your customers

People like up to date, well-written content too. Prospects will be much more likely to buy from your business if your website looks professional and current - and nothing dates a website faster than content written in 1999. Imagine if you didn't change your store displays ever? Or if you ran the same catalogue for 5 years? Treat your website the same and compel people to buy from you with relevant, interesting and fresh content.

Tips for fresh content

• Use your CMS: Your website should have a Content Management System and if it does, then there's no excuse for outdated content. You can make changes to your content instantly without paying someone else to do it so you should be logging in and updating existing or adding new content all the time.

• Schedule regular overhauls: Organise to spend one day a month updating your website content. Check that all your product information and pricing is still accurate and rewrite important pages to make sure they are still interesting and relevant. Also make sure you proofread because typos and spelling mistakes make your business look bad.

• Jazz up the homepage: Most of your visitors will enter your website through the homepage. Is it inviting? Does it make them want to stay and buy? A simple way to ensure your homepage is always up to date and attractive for prospects is to have a "What's New" section that you update weekly with new products, services, news and promotions.

• Write articles or a blog: The best way to add new content to your site is to write articles or a blog. Write something each week about your business or industry (making sure it uses lots of keywords) and add it to the site - great for SEO and positions your business as the expert as well. You can also use these articles in your newsletters to save time.

• New offers: You should always have some kind of offer running on your site to capture people's details for your database. Change this up regularly to get maximum results from the human's using your site. Try competitions, free reports, whitepapers or free trials and place it on every page of your site in an eye-catching position for best results.

>> Learn more about Content Management Systems, blogs, articles and database marketing.