Having a website is a great start to allow customers and potential clients to learn more about your company and the products and services that you offer. However, when not properly maintained, it can make or break your users overall impression of your company.
We have worked on hundreds of websites at Nextfly Web Design and it seems that the most successful companies have a website strategy put in place that keeps them at the front line of digital communications.
When we give a website training we provide the keys of the car to our clients. They have the ability to make a variety of changes to their website, whenever they’d like. The most successful clients log in at least once a week and update the following applicable sections of their website:
- Banner/ Hero Graphic images – The banner is the main rotating image on a website. It’s the first thing you see when you pull up the website and should have the most up-to-date information presented. Updating this once a week tells customers and potential clients what is going on right then and there so they are always in the know.
- Blogs – Updating content on your website is of vital importance for website maintenance. Google places a great weight on fresh updates on website and having a blog is a great place to keep those updates coming! Your blog can have whatever information that you feel is important for people to have in order to stay up to date on current going-ons in both your company and your overall industry. We update our blog once a week and would advise others to do the same, however, if a blog a week is not a reality, once or twice a month is also beneficial.
- Events – If you have a calendar on your website for others to see you HAVE to keep up with it. The only reason why you have this section on your website is to keep your audience informed on important dates coming up for your company. This should be updates as often as events are scheduled internally. If possible, the best websites have events scheduled out for an entire month in advance, so I would advise that as well.
- Products – If you have an eCommerce site, you will need to regularly log in to make sure that your current product list has been published and the pricing and inventory is correct. Successful companies have someone on staff who works directly on maintaining the website. An eCommerce store is often a businesses main point of sales and failing to maintain it could be costly to your company.
- Portfolio/Gallery – Having a portfolio or gallery that shows off examples of your work needs to be updates quite regularly. As time goes by, people need to see what your company has been up to and proof that you are an expert in the industry. Plus, overtime, things change. If you are a construction worker, you need to show your newly remodeled kitchen with the looks that are “in” at the time. If you are a fashion designer, you want to make sure you are up to date on this seasons fashions. Being behind on current trends shows that your company might not be as in the know as it should be and might lead a customer from utilizing your services.
All of these edits can be easily done after a proper WordPress training and content calendar. The first step to making things happen? Have a meeting with your team and build a plan! Set regular tasks for each week or month and check in with your team regularly to make sure they are staying on top of things so you can have a digital strategy built for success.