Every New Year’s Eve/Day a good friend does the following:
- Changes the batteries in all his smoke detectors
- Changes batteries in all his flashlights
- Cleans his garage door tracks and lubricates the moving parts
- Changes the cabin and air filters in his vehicles
- Reviews his RX cabinet for expired meds
- Changes out his socks and underwear
- Cleans out his dryer vent and hose
Oh he’s got a few more, but you get the idea. My friend has disciplined himself to perform these annual maintenance or service items on a holiday. He’s not OCD; he just includes this as part of his home maintenance rituals because he knows if he doesn’t follow some sort of schedule he will never get them done. Routine maintenance and upgrades are part of life. Some of us do it well, others not so much. The same can be said of your company website, social/professional media platforms and overall digital presence.
3rd Quarter is a great time to attend to many of these items. It’s slower, school is out, days are longer, people are gone on vacation and life is just a little more relaxed at work and home. You have time to review/edit proposed digital upgrades, content, or suggestions from your digital design firm. Cutting the wait time from the creation/design process to the edit/approval portion before the implementation can take longer in busy seasons.
Building a website and letting it sit without any updates, or changes is like buying a new bass boat and keeping it in your back yard. Over time it develops mold and mildew. The tires on the trailer rot from sitting. The seats crack and the carpet is nasty. The engine oil and fuel become fouled victims of time and the lack of use. Boats are mechanical equipment designed to be run on water and used regularly, not sit unattended. Do so at your own peril and financial heartache.
Billboard websites (those left untouched/unattended) have little to no impact after their initial launch. Google simply passes them by as irrelevant because there is nothing new in the way of content, tags, titles and keywords. As a result it’s an act of frustration for the company/business owner because they want results, but without an investment in ongoing maintenance and fresh material it’s going to die an early death. A wise person once said, “Investment precedes dividends.”
The best sites have relevant and new content on a regular basis. Blogs, Thought Leadership Papers, and specials, or news events are regularly updated driving SEO and stirring the Google relevance meter, which generates customer/client leads.
Dated team, or company images look bad and create little traffic. Idea: celebrate new hires and team members by featuring them on your website. There is new content and an image. The company summer picnic, or team outing needs to be posted with a blurb. Weekly or monthly specials are a great way to add new content, or information. A weekly/monthly leadership blog post from the CEO, or company owner, or a designated leader can mean more than you think. Are there tags, titles or keywords that need to be added, or changed?
When is the last time you ran Google Analytics, or asked your digital media firm to do so with recommendations? Use the down time to review that page you never liked on the site. Ask your provider to freshen it up, or go in a totally different direction. Are there any instructional, or informational videos about your services, or products that you can use and link to your site via a YouTube account? When is the last time you boosted a social media post and why did you do it? Do you have live chat? Has your logo changed?
Is your current site optimized? Is the site slow as a turtle? Maybe it’s time to find another host, or server. All of these are things to consider when you do 3rd Quarter maintenance.
Dated calendar posts, prices, outdated products, and poor response to online “contact us,” is like having a skunk around those who’ve landed on your site. One whiff and they are gone!
At WebSpeak Media we add value to our clients through our web design and ongoing support. We really do speak web. We have seen the value of regular site updates (both engaging content and design), SEO analysis and management for our clients. We would rather take the boat down the lake than let it sit, rot and die a slow death. If you need help launching your boat, uh website, social media platforms, or updating them contact us today.
Charles Carter, Partner
WebSpeak Media
102 Trade Street
Greer, SC 29651
864.363.8910
