When equipment breaks down, we have it repaired. When software becomes out of date we upgrade it.
Are we as meticulous with our website content? And if it becomes a little out of date, does it really matter?
Continually keeping your web content fresh can be arduous. What’s more, there just aren’t enough staff to work on it. There is so much else to be done. The website will have to wait.
But can it?
When outdated content appears on your website, you risk losing visitors. Why? Because they don’t trust it to be accurate or reliable.
An old news item on your site can imply that the whole site is out of date. Even when it’s not.
If your website has become a place where pages are randomly uploaded to it, it’s time for the process to change.
Don’t overlook the damage that can be caused when web page updates are put off to a later date.
Visits to your website should always cause a positive reaction. People should feel informed, interested, reassured. Not doubtful, confused or mistrusting.
Web content management – easier planning
So start a plan to keep your website up to date today.
Create a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel and enter into it a list of all the pages of your site with their URLs and page titles. Add a date column to show when pages were last updated. That way you know when it will expire and when to update or remove the outdated page.
You now have the beginning of a very useful inventory that will help you stay in control of your website. When you’re moving pages within a large site or merging one site to another, your Excel spreadsheet will help you to keep track of the location of all your pages.
Check whether your can set your content management system to published or unpublish content on scheduled dates.
Avoid frustrating or confusing your website visitors because it contains outdated content.
When you regularly update your content, you’ll keep people informed and they’ll keep coming back.
Web management hints and tips to help you
Are you interested in reading more about content management? If there’s anything specific you’d like to read about send me a comment and I’ll include it in a future month’s blog.
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