Do You Have the Right Tools to Keep Your Website Fresh?

The Web has become the first place your prospects and clients check out to vet your company. It is increasingly important that your Web site present your company in the best light. Nothing looks more stale than a “News” or “Press” section whose last entry was in 2004. Fresh content is critical to keeping your site functioning effectively as a business tool for your firm. It also can help raise your ranking in search engines.
Two of the biggest Web challenges small and medium-size businesses face are that they don’t generate a lot of news and they don’t feel they have the skills or tools to update their sites. How do you keep the content updated and fresh?

Updating Your Site With Ease —the How
Here are some options:
Hire a Web developer to do regular updates.
A retainer arrangement or maintenance contract often yields better rates, and can serve as a catalyst to implement updates because you are already paying monthly, whether you use the allotted time or not.

Set Up a Blog.
This relatively new Web format is easy to install and requires no special skills. It is an ideal way to add simple, fresh content to your Web site. If you can afford it, consider using a designer to create a look and feel that matches or coordinates your brand and Web site. Free blog software such as Blogger.com can be used as a standalone site or integrated into your Web site to act as your updating tool. These services require little or no technical skill to post new content. A blog typically lets users post comments back to the author; this is one of the many optional features that you can choose from, but you can also decide not to enable any features and keep your blog simply for the information you post to your site.

WYSIWYG content editors like Contribute software (adobe.com/contribute) allow designated users to log into your Web site to update it using an interface that looks and feels like Microsoft Word. (WYSI WYG stands for “what you see is what you get.”) It is designed to enable you to make changes without disturbing your site’s basic architecture.

Custom content management tools.
Tools used to make updates or additions to a Web site without the need for extensive technical knowledge are often built into your Web site, or a section of it, by your Web developer; they can sometimes be added later. These tools also use an interface that resembles MS Word, so no special skills are required. Consider building this into your next Web site upgrade, or ask your developer if this can be added to the current site or just the sections you want to be able to update yourself.