Why update my website often?

Many is the website that was coded and uploaded, saying exactly what the owner wanted to say….and hasn’t been touched since. It’s nothing more than a brochure for the person or organisation and if their message changes then they will change their website. We believe this is a fatal mistake in website management. There are two reasons for this: 1) people buy from human beings, not fancy slogans or the right typography and graphics, and 2) most people find sites via search engines and search engines LOVE dynamic (changing, or developing) content. Search engine attractiveness is an enormous other topic which we will write about later but the first, and for the small organisation, most important topic, websites can be mission critical or a waste of time and money. We believe dynamic content is the difference between the two.

People buy from people. Because of this, dynamic content can be very effective in humanising your website. But what do we mean by dynamic content? Does this mean one has to sit around and come up with Newton’s physical theories, Tolstoy’s novels and Kant’s critiques of reason every two or three days?

No. The point is to make the website be you out in the big world. To put across your personality in the same way you would personally if the person on your website called you up. Which brings up the question, why do people put up the websites they do? Telemarketers and PR people who spew meaningless marketing jargon are universally reviled, yet this is what most small organisations do with their websites. They’re presenting the organisation as a bland, for-hire PR hack without substance. Your website should be your personal salesperson to the world bringing all the charm and charisma of yourself to that bit of the world that you can’t possibly see, or speak to personally, everyday.

And no, it doesn’t take vast, erudite tomes to do this. A regular comment on a blog or a company newsletter type page is a nice start. Looking at your site (assuming business owners have actually done this!), viewing it critically as if you were a customer and asking yourself would you buy from yourself? Would you even be vaguely interested? Have people who know you look at your website and comment on what it would be like if YOU edited it personally. Finally, I assume you are excited and passionate about what it is you do. If so, imagine you’re sat down next to someone who knows nothing about what you do and is fascinated when you begin to describe it. What would you tell them? Write it down and get it on some webpages. If what you do is worth spending a great chunk of your life doing it, write about it and tell the rest of us. Who knows, we might be your next life-long customers.