If it ain’t broke, Don’t fix it

Slang aside, we’ve heard that expression before, and it came to be long before the Internet. A common issue with a website is once built, people tend to forget about it and leave it on auto pilot. In the early days of Internet that seemed to be an acceptable practice only because so few people knew how to make a site and we did not have Google or Yahoo to help us find them. Fast forward to present day, and leaving a site to its own for only a few months, let alone a year or more delegates it to the basement in terms of visibility and relevance. Sites that are relevant and changing regularly are sought after and identified by search engines, and that brings more visitors to your website, which should bring you more business. Here are some simple suggestions to keep your site relevant and ranking better.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

Your site is not worth anything if nobody can find it. Now we could fill a small library with all that people are saying about Internet Marketing and getting better ranking on Google, Yahoo and YouTube. Start simple and ensure you have a relevant title, description and key word for every page on your site. And yes you do need wording on the site to describe what you do and why you are good at what you do and why people like you among other things. Setting these up is simple as typing the words into the page settings in WordPress but we recommend using a WordPress SEO Plugin to do the heavy lifting and keep up with the ever changing rules those search engines come up with. WordPress Yoast for SEO and the All in One SEO Pack are two good and FREE SEO plugins for WordPress. We can also help setup your SEO tools with you.

Theme upgrades:

When people find your site what is their first impression? A theme is the look and feel of your site and sets the first and lasting impression for your visitors. Over time themes get tired like a faded poster in a sunny store front window. You would not allow an old faded poster represent your brick and mortar store so why let a dated website image represent you online. By upgrading your theme to a newer, fresher face, you improve your impact on those who visit your website.   From custom themes to pre-built and purchased themes, updating your theme is a quick and easy way to stay fresh, and who doesn’t want THAT? We can help and work with you to pick and update your theme.

Creating a newsletter:

Tell your customers what’s new. What better way to garner and maintain a close relationship than to tell them what is going on in your business or share helpful tips or ideas. WordPress is a perfect platform for writing and publishing articles and who knows your business better than you. Channel your inner author and use that writing to promote your business. We can show you how and link those articles to social marketing sites like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, and more to reach a wider audience.

For those of you on monthly managed hosting package we already include some of this training and support so why not take advantage of it. Changing your website doesn’t need to be a scary venture leading you down false starts. Little steps taken consistently over time will take you a long way compared to running in the dark. Doing something proactive no matter how small is better than inaction.
Stay tuned next time when we talk about SPAM and how to take back control of your email inbox. We can all use less junk email.

If you have questions about the topics in this email, about your website or email, or if you have ideas about future topics you would like us to share drop us a line. We would love to hear from you.