Stumbling Blocks to Web Site Success - Keep Your Site Up-to-Date
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Believe it or not, there are such things as digital cobwebs. I'm convinced I've seen them on plenty of web sites. For example, have you seen a site with frames lately? Or one with a nice big splash page? How about the site that boasts the nice shiny flash video as soon as you get to it (whether or not you can skip it)? These features are bad ideas for a number of reasons. They represent a design aesthetic that is no longer appreciated – which is just a nice way of saying that they're old ideas and they annoy your visitors. Worse, using these features makes it harder for search engines to index your site.
These items may not be the only cobwebs you need to clear from your web site. Do all of your links work as they should? I mean not only the links that go to internal pages, but the ones that leave your site as well. I caught hell once for linking to an external site that is no longer active. It's hard to think like this when someone is yelling at you, even figuratively, but when a visitor brings this to your attention, you should be grateful, and fix it promptly; most visitors won't care that much. They'll just go elsewhere, and you may never know why. So check your links regularly!
You might also need to clear the cobwebs off your site's content. Yes, content is a wonderful thing, but it's less wonderful when it's outdated. Do you really need information on your site about a product that you haven't sold in over a decade? And how about the pages that cover special events or link to press releases? Is your last press release more than a year old? That's a problem. A site with content that is visibly old looks neglected, and site visitors might conclude that you'll be as neglectful in taking care of them as you are about keeping your web site up to date.
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