Eight Ways to Maintain the Value of Your Website

Transcription

1 Eight Ways to Maintain the Value of Your Website You need to keep your website running in tip-top shape to ensure it s working at peak effectiveness. How do you know if the changes you make are adding or taking away from its value? A Halftone Pixel Publication

2 Authenticity looks good on you. We hope you enjoy this e-publication. Your business is important and how it is perceived by the world around you is a major factor in its success. We believe your authenticity plays a big role in making your organization stand out from your competition. These publications are designed to inform and educate on what makes good design, helping you make design decisions that will benefit your organization. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how Halftone Pixel can help make your business better, contact us today. Tell Us About Your Project graphic design website development etc Kris Trudeau Halftone Pixel TM Website Design and Consulting blends graphic design and website development into authentic, userinspired creative solutions that put your business ahead of your competition. We work with clients across Canada from our office located in the picturesque Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Contact Kris Trudeau today for a free quote or consultation on your project. Kris Trudeau has over twelve years of experience as a graphic and website designer. Her company Halftone Pixel Website Design and Consulting serves clients both on Vancouver Island and in Winnipeg with everything from websites to business cards and brochures to Facebook. When Kris isn t pushing pixels, she can be found mountain biking, honing her photography skills. Kris is a contributor of articles to Small Business BC. 2

3 Updates and changes should make your website better... You have invested a lot of time, effort and money into your website and like many business expenses, it will naturally depreciate over time. How quickly it depreciates is largely determined by the decisions you make. Updates and changes should make your website better but care must be taken to ensure they do just that and not undermine what you currently have. Here are eight ways to preserve and increase the value of your website as it evolves: 1. Use consistent tone. Ensure that any edits or additions to your website s content are written in the same tone as the rest of the site. A page of content written with humour will seem confusing or unprofessional if the rest are written in a straight-forward, nononsense tone. 3

4 ...references to holidays six months past will give your site an abandoned, derelict feel. 2. Don t let your site become obviously dated. If you are unable to edit your site frequently, make sure edits you do make don t draw attention to this. Advertising events that have long since past or references to holidays six months past will give your site an abandoned, derelict feel. If you don t plan on editing the site often, remove any references that will date the site. 3. Maintain the overall design integrity. Ensure that the overall look and feel of the site continues to look as it did on the day of its launch. As tempting as it can be to use bold, red fonts to grab attention, that is not the attention you seek. Stick to the colour and font scheme laid out in the beginning. Watch your spacing big gaps in text or text too close to other elements are elementary mistakes. 4

5 4. Check your links. If you re adding a link to your page, test it to ensure it works. In addition, if you re linking to a PDF or any other type of document, make sure the document is professional and presentable and not unreasonably large. Double check your edits. 5. Don t rely on auto spellcorrection. Spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors will cheapen the quality of your site fast. One online study estimated that one spelling error can cut online sales in half. Spell checkers are great but they don t catch everything. Double check your edits. 6. Cheaper hosting isn t always better. Fight the urge to change hosting companies because you found something cheaper. Moving a website can be complicated and it not only can it render your website non-functional, 5

6 it generally involves moving other related aspects like your domain and . The price you pay to move your site, plus the interruptions and downtime to your website to accommodate this upheaval may eliminate any savings you would have enjoyed with the new host. Double check your edits. 7. Review and assess your search engine optimization strategy every three or six months if not more frequently. If a high page rank in search engines is something you strive for, make sure that any new content is updated in your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. New pages may require some behind the scenes coding to add proper descriptions, titles and keywords. In addition, files like your sitemap.xml and robots.txt may need to be updated as more content is added. 6

7 8. Keep your site relevant and onmessage. If it s not a part of your business or organization, don t put it on your site. As tempting as it may be to add a page to your company website about your part-time dog breeding business, don t. Not only does it make your business appear unfocused but the unrelated topic can also lower your rank in search engines page results. Keep your business site professional and launch an additional site for separate content. Your website is part of your overall marketing strategy and it pays to keep this top of mind whenever you make modifications. Remember who you built the site for and everything you add or change needs to be meaningful to your users. Your website is likely one of your biggest marketing investments its value can diminish quickly if changes are improperly planned or made with haste. Protect your investment and plan with care. 7