Is my website stale?

That’s a question I get frequently when I meet with firms.  It’s a “yes or no” answer, but there’s more to it than that.

That’s a question I get frequently when I meet with firms.  It’s a “yes or no” answer, but there’s more to it than that.

The days of launching a new website and moving on to the next project are long over.  Websites now need attention as often as possible – daily would be ideal but even I don’t keep up that pace!  For professional services firms, this is a daunting task that can start with momentum and quickly fade into a chore and then into obscurity as client demands become the priority.

Below are three categories of sites.  Identify which is yours and read on for relevant advice.

Sustainable – Your site is in this category if you regularly post new, original content to your blog or news page.  Bi-weekly?  Weekly?  Monday/Wednesday/Friday?  Daily?  Great.  Just keep it going.  Divide the responsibility among your partners or others who enjoy sharing their ideas and hold each other accountable.  You don’t have to write much; even 100 words will do if that’s what you can manage.   And, you can write in advance and schedule the post to appear on the site whenever you’d like.   Share these posts on your social media sites (LinkedIn company page at a minimum) and watch your analytics tool for popular topics.  This can also be the content for your email newsletter sent as abstracts with links to your site at the end of each month.   Your clients and prospects (and Google) will love the fresh content and new ideas so write about what you want to be known for.

Static – Your site has no information on it that changes or needs changing.  While your site isn’t Stale (see below) it’s also not fresh.  If someone sees your site once, they’ve seen it all and they have no reason to come back.  Google feels the same way and you won’t appear very high in the rankings.  Your sits fits into this category as well if you subscribe to a monthly newsletter feed or online calculators that update automatically as long as you’re paying the invoice.  Although the newsletter LOOKS like it’s on your site, it’s actually on the vendor’s site so Google isn’t giving you credit for that content.  (Not sure if this is the case for you?  Go to your newsletter and click on an article.  What is the URL at the top of the screen?)  This category isn’t ideal but it’s not the worst case either.  Decide if you are satisfied to be in this category or if you can create sustainable plan for creating posts.

Stale – Your site has pages for news and articles but you haven’t posted in a while.  This is a bad place to be and you should take immediate action to remedy the situation.  People notice right away when your last article or news piece was posted six months ago.  It gives a negative impression.  When you’re in this category, it’s time to rally.  Put someone internally in charge or solicit help from outside to create a content calendar that will put in writing who will write and when.  Even a monthly post will keep your train on the tracks while you decide if you can dedicate resources to more frequent posts.  If you just can’t find the time or desire to write and don’t want to hire someone to help, cut your losses and delete the news page from your website.  You’ll be in the Static category instead.

Sustainable?  Static?  Stale?  If you want to improve your website at any stage, give me a call.