Gradually Adding Website Content

Over the years of being a web developer, I have seen quite a few different approaches to content development when a company launches a website. Some companies do the basic brochure website content plan with your requisite 'About Us' and 'Company History' pages, while others go the extra mile with extended content pages that describe facets of their products and services. Whether they have five pages or fifty to start, a very common paradigm is to write all the website content at once, then never touch it again. Having a website with content that only changes with big updates is common, but it's a terrible approach to content development for a website!

But my products and services don't change!

Yes, I realize that most businesses do not launch new products or services often, or even ever, but that doesn't mean that content should not be added to the website often. For example, a criminal lawyer might argue (go figure!), that he only needs to have basic information about his specialty. Three or four pages describing who he is, what he has done, and how to get a hold of him. Sounds reasonable since it's really the most important information that a visitor will be looking for. However, that same lawyer might wonder why his website doesn't show up when someone searches for 'criminal lawyer in {his city}'. The answer, more often than not, is the website doesn't have enough fresh, relevant content. Notice the word fresh? Search engines give higher rankings to websites that are updated often with relevant content. The logic is that people usually want up to date content when searching, so giving higher rank to a site that is constantly adding new content makes sense.

But I don't have anything to write about

Nonsense! There is always something that can be added to your website. For example, a construction company can keep a constantly updated photo gallery. Or going back to the criminal lawyer, he can maintain an updated news page of relevant happenings within the law, as well as their prominent cases. Nobody is saying that they have to be huge articles that take up hours of your precious time. Even a few news items added a month is great! Over time, you will build a very good content base for your visitors to be engaged in. Believe me, people notice when you have a website with good content that has been added over the years. It's a great credibility builder for new clients.

But I don't know HTPL or whatever you call it

There was a time when updating websites was something only the geeks could do. Updating a page involved retrieving the file from the server, making changes to the HTML, then re-uploading it back to the server. Not the most friendly work flow for people who are not technically proficient. Things are much different now though. Updating a page is as easy as updating a Word document in Office. You don't need to know how to program HTML, fiddle with FTP or wait for your 'web guy' to make the changes for you. The actual task of adding the content is really trivial nowadays.

Constantly adding content to your website is a great way to build an information base for your users that is up to date and relevant to your business. It will also provide a boost to your search engine rankings because your site will not be considered stale content by the engines. If your website is not equipped with a content manager, give me a call or email me to go over our Wired CMS content manager which will enable you to update your website content quickly and easily.