Where Should You Spend Time/Money on Your Website?

Ok, you've got a website. You know it needs to be updated. You know you need more traffic. You want your website to do more for your company. You have a limited budget. What should you do?

It depends on what kind of website you have. Here are some quick ideas based on different types of websites:

• Brochure-type Websites - If your website just has a few, static HTML pages that talks about your company, then you should first get it up to date. Update contact info, the copyright line, your products/services pages and then update the paragraph or two on the home page. Second, add a blog. Adding a blog makes it easy to update your site, talk about your company, talk about your industry and answer people's questions.
• E-commerce Websites - You already should be able to update your products yourself, so now is a good time to do that. Add more copy to each product and focus on keywords that you'll pick out when you do keyword research. Next, if your cart does not have search engine friendly URLs, get that done ASAP. That's just basic SEO and if you're not doing it, then you're losing out big time.
• CMS Websites - This is a no-brainer... add content! You can already update your site and add or delete pages, so get to it. If your site does not have a blog, start one.

So those are some ideas. Here are some more that could apply to most websites out there:

• Start a blog.
• Set up RSS feeds.
• Get incoming links.
• Set up Google Analytics.
• Change pictures and text.
• Do a redesign.
• Start an e-newsletter with Constant Contact.
• Add more content.
• Write a PDF with valuable information in it and have people fill out a form or sign up for your e-newsletter in order to get it.
• Put a coupon on your site.
• Test your outgoing links.
• Test your contact forms.
• Add search to your website.
• Check your Google Maps listing.

And the list goes on. Owning a website is a lot like owning a car or house. It's going to need maintenance done to it or it will break down. My rule is you only get out of something what you put into it. If you work hard on your website, it'll be successful - no doubt. So just don't sit there reading this post, do something!

Happy Weekend!
-Tony