Determining What Business Website Content to Update
You can use a simple rule to decide which parts of your business website to update: anything and everything! There’s no need to develop a case of writer’s block. Even small changes can keep your site current — look at these elements, for example:
The home page might need changes, perhaps because you’ve introduced a new product or want to promote a special offer.
The About Us page might need to reflect changes in staffing. Perhaps you have updated summer hours, a new location, or new e-mail addresses for Contact Us.
Product pages might need to be amended with price changes, additions, or deletions.
Your event calendar may need updating with classes, trunk shows, trade shows, training schedules, or other events.
If you have a media page, you might want to add new press releases, newsletters, or mentions in other media.
Remember that your viewers are interested in what affects them, not what’s important to you. Although you might be quite proud of your latest contract, that news probably doesn’t belong on your home page unless your target audience consists of investors or business press.
Some people create a What’s New page specifically to collect all the changes between site updates. What’s New pages are helpful when you have a constant stream of changing news, but you get more search engine mileage by changing multiple pages on your site.
For example, PE Central, a site for health and physical education, posts new information weekly or monthly in multiple categories on different pages of its site. In the following illustration, it displays its new content in an easy-to-find format. A link labeled What’s New on PEC appears on the home page.
Your developer can create a linkable, changing headline that is fast and easy for you to modify with your latest news or product promotion. Drawing a blank? Try some of these ideas:
New products and services
Seasonal specials or page appearance, especially for retail
Sales and special offers
Product modifications or deletions
Price changes
Trade shows where you’re exhibiting, especially if you have entrance passes for the show floor
Planned speeches, signings, performances, or other public appearances where you can meet customers
New distributors or retail outlets where customers can shop
A link to a schedule of classes or activities
Changes in hours, phone numbers, addresses, location, maps
Copies of press releases, newsletters, and mentions in other media
Company news, such as new contracts or installations
A link to a calendar of events that you can update easily, with such software as CalendarScript.
