For a website to be the kind of integral part of your business that it should be, in terms of operations as well as marketing, it must be updated frequently.
Your Web Presence is Not a Catalog
The single biggest mistake we see companies make in developing a new web presence or in a major re-design of a web presence, is that they treat it like a catalog or brochure project, figuring that, once it’s done, they don’t have to think about it again for at least a year. That kind of thinking leads to a static site instead of a vibrant, inherently useful, living document.
Self-Updateable Sections
Many portions of your web presence can be made self-updateable and should be made self-updateable – career opportunities for example. The latest information about many facets of your business should be on the website, simply based on the post, don’t publish maxim already discussed.
The world is headed toward an insistence on real-time information and operations. Your web presence should be designed to deliver information to all concerned parties as it happens.
Automation of website updates (making sites self-updateable) costs more, initially, than just doing something static. Payback is fast and furious, however. Not to mention that no one wants to do the kind of mundane, mind-numbing updates that come as a result of neglecting the automation of such tasks.
Additional content covered in the print edition of WebForging includes a paragraph to a page or more on each of the following:
- Updates and Integration
- Update Responsibilities
- Community Updates
- Disseminating Updates
- Site Updates Checklist