Is your WEBSITE ready for the holidays?
Many businesses are busily preparing for "Black Friday" and what they hope will be a month (or more) of crazed shoppers spending tons of money on products and services. If you own a business, you have probably ordered extra inventory, have hired some temporary staff, have extended your store hours and have decorated your storefront to entice the buyers - but have you updated your website lately? If your website is anything like the majority of the sites I have seen on the web, the answer is likely, probably not.
I cannot tell you how many websites I have been on recently that are still (in November) offering a "Mother’s Day" special - or that have coupons that expired in July. Summer hours are still listed (probably from the Summer of ’08), products that are obviously sold in "spring/summer" are featured as opposed to "fall/winter" products. This "neglect" can have a negative impact on your business - you want to make sure that your business is professionally represented at every "touch point" that you have with your customers or potential customers - and content that is out of date is not professional.
Why does this happen? A lot of times, websites are forgotten because you just don’t see them every day - they aren’t right next to the cash register or hanging on the door. One way to remind yourself to look at your website on a regular basis is to make it your homepage.
Sometimes website owners find that the process to make updates is so difficult, tedious or expensive, either because they created the site themselves, have to send updates to their webmaster, etc. that they just let it go. One way to resolve this may be to consider having the site redesigned and adding a content management system that allows you to easily update the site yourself. While there may be some upfront costs involved, the long term benefits and savings are often worth the expense. Another option may be to actually take the site down. In my opinion, it is sometimes better to have no website than to have one that is not professional.
Finally, there are some website owners that just can’t seem to find the time to update their website. Perhaps you are like many small business owners that just wear so many hats - you just can’t do it all. If this is the case, just make it easy on yourself - instead of putting up a Holiday Special that you know if going to be left up until May - JUST DON’T DO IT. Instead, put up a generic "10% OFF" instead. Take down all dates or anything that is going to expire. Simplify. Maybe in the future you will have more time to devote to your site, but if you don’t right now, that is ok as long as you remove the dated content and don’t add anything else that is going to become dated.
About Websketching
Websketching is a web development company offering a full range of website design, development and marketing services. Websketching specializes in creating custom website designs that can be equipped with their proprietary content management system, as well as the development of online website directories aimed at promoting tourism. Websketching is the creator of http://www.salemcountywoman.com/. For more information, please visit http://www.websketching.com/ or call 856-769-5600.
I cannot tell you how many websites I have been on recently that are still (in November) offering a "Mother’s Day" special - or that have coupons that expired in July. Summer hours are still listed (probably from the Summer of ’08), products that are obviously sold in "spring/summer" are featured as opposed to "fall/winter" products. This "neglect" can have a negative impact on your business - you want to make sure that your business is professionally represented at every "touch point" that you have with your customers or potential customers - and content that is out of date is not professional.
Why does this happen? A lot of times, websites are forgotten because you just don’t see them every day - they aren’t right next to the cash register or hanging on the door. One way to remind yourself to look at your website on a regular basis is to make it your homepage.
Sometimes website owners find that the process to make updates is so difficult, tedious or expensive, either because they created the site themselves, have to send updates to their webmaster, etc. that they just let it go. One way to resolve this may be to consider having the site redesigned and adding a content management system that allows you to easily update the site yourself. While there may be some upfront costs involved, the long term benefits and savings are often worth the expense. Another option may be to actually take the site down. In my opinion, it is sometimes better to have no website than to have one that is not professional.
Finally, there are some website owners that just can’t seem to find the time to update their website. Perhaps you are like many small business owners that just wear so many hats - you just can’t do it all. If this is the case, just make it easy on yourself - instead of putting up a Holiday Special that you know if going to be left up until May - JUST DON’T DO IT. Instead, put up a generic "10% OFF" instead. Take down all dates or anything that is going to expire. Simplify. Maybe in the future you will have more time to devote to your site, but if you don’t right now, that is ok as long as you remove the dated content and don’t add anything else that is going to become dated.
About Websketching
Websketching is a web development company offering a full range of website design, development and marketing services. Websketching specializes in creating custom website designs that can be equipped with their proprietary content management system, as well as the development of online website directories aimed at promoting tourism. Websketching is the creator of http://www.salemcountywoman.com/. For more information, please visit http://www.websketching.com/ or call 856-769-5600.
Labels: content management system, website
posted by Christine DeGraff at
8:24 AM
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