Keep Your Content Fresh: Nobody Likes a Dead Website

My high school football coach was as tough as they come.  In one of my first practices under him I asked him why I couldn't run as tight-end the way I always had, and he said something I'll never forget: "You do it my way, the right way, every time so that you don't have a chance to learn any bad habits!"  Working with your website shouldn't be that tough, but the principle is the same, so I'm telling you this at the beginning so that you don't start forming any bad habits:  Update your content regularly, because you DON'T want a stagnant website. 

So what does that really mean for you?  Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind as you follow this golden rule of online success:

• Change text or add text somewhere every single day, most often on your Home page.  It is best if you can make multiple changes in different places on your site daily.  Why is this important?  Take a look at the segment below about how Google sees and rates your website.
• You should also be swapping out images on a regular basis.  Change an image in your slideshow.  Swap out an aging product in your What's New section for one that is truly new.  Change supporting photos on some of your lower-traffic pages periodically to keep them fresh.  We will teach the 'how' of all of this, but it is up to you to make the time and do it.
• It is very easy to get busy with the normal business of your store and to let the website sit, just for a while.  This is a bad habit that can get away from you quickly.  Remember that you have to make time for your site daily.  At the beginning it's easier since it's new to you and so very much in need of work, but as you go along you have to continue to make time for your content.  It is best if you can just block out fifteen to thirty minutes of 'web time' in each workday, a time when everyone knows and expects you to be working on the site.  Getting in the habit of doing your web time every day will help you keep things fresh and new for the search engines and your visitors.
• You've heard the academic maxim 'Publish or Perish!', and that idea is even more true in a website environment.  It is not enough to tweak text and swap images from time to time.  It is not enough to feature your new products and market them well.  Your competitors are all doing that.  What you need to do to stand above is something bigger from time to time.  Write an article with useful advice, techniques, or tips for people in your industry and post it on your site.  Put together a tutorial, a video, or a PDF download you can offer as a freebie where you teach how to do something cool and interesting.  Whatever it is, doing something like that once a month would be good, but if you could do it two to four times a month, the internet will love you.  You can read more on this topic by clicking here.

Coming Up Next:

Take the Time to Shine: Make Your Product Listings Better