Website Management Tips


Recently I have been doing a lot of web research which had me landing at many different websites. I noticed some common problems that are easily corrected. Although none of these tips are new, here are 3 tips that are worth repeating:

Make your website easy to maintain and maintain it. While it might be appealing to pay a lot of money for a flashy website and hand over the updates to someone outside your organization, take a good look into it first. Make sure you pick a company that will process your updates inexpensively and quickly. Make sure that you keep control of the branding and look of your website. If you are handling your website in house, make sure you are updating it quickly as changes occur within your organization. Events and resources are particularly frustrating for web users when they are not current so it is best to always include a link to the organization's website rather than a link to a document they have provided.

Audit your website. Business owners are often far too busy but this is an important task. If you cannot find the time, have someone do it for you. When testing links from your website, stop long enough to ensure the link still goes to the correct information. This will pay off in return traffic to your website.

Make your website your browser's home page. All browsers allow you to designate your home page. When you set your own website as your home page, you will see it every time you go to the web. You will immediately notice if something is obviously wrong or your website is down. This allows you to respond to and correct problems before your website visitors are emailing you.

Website management can easily slip off the radar when things get busy but the benefits of keeping on top of it are worth putting it on the schedule.

Photo by Simon Blackley / Flickr
Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder, March 7, 2012

zone 3 gardening, bird watching, chasing dogs and snapping photos somewhere around sleepy hollow road

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