We hear how it won’t be long until branding is totally through social media or voice communications using the likes of Alexa. While much of may be true, are you going to take out the Ouija board to figure out when? Meanwhile, does it make sense to keep your current strategies up-to-date and useful as possible? We think so…

Our clients often start working with us because of their website. For some, they never update the site because they don’t have time or it’s so old. We often hear, “We only use because it is on our business cards or to respond when someone asks for one, because it would look really bad if we didn’t have one, right?” MCC then takes it to the next level…whether that is updating, adding relevant pages or starting all over to clean up an old HTML site.

The bottom line is you are saying volumes about your reputation, your values, and how you work when you have a website that isn’t competitive. The message is probably not what you want.

Here is what is important to start getting serious about your website:

Keep your content up-to-date. Your potential visitors and even technology such as Google do not like to see dated material. If they look at your blog or news page and see that you have nothing new for several months, you are showing a lack of attention to your business. If you say you have been in business for 15 years and it now has been 20…well, you have just lost a few years of value to some of your audience. If your website links to a Facebook page that you never update, again you are leaving a bad impression.

Make sure it is easy and logical to move around your site. You may have a new focus for products or services that your sales rep is talking about in meetings, but you don’t have it on your site in your list of services. Is it easy for your audience to know what is on a page? Do you have links that make sense to additional, related pages?

Mobile and Uncluttered. They kind of go together. There is specific design and technical elements to consider in making your website mobile. Additional, if you are still using an old HTML type site, you probably are not thinking about mobile at all…and today, that’s where you will be found the most often. Survey your tribe to find out what information is most important to them in searches from phones and other mobile devices.

Repurposing content does not mean repeating content. Simply repeating the same content on different website pages or repeating a blog you wrote five years ago shows a lack of ideas and thought. Repurposing content has a lot of opportunities but takes some planning. Try reusing your most popular posts or blogs using Google analytics to determine what is working for you. Take an old topic, give it a new title and new examples to support your key messages. Break down a longer blog or article into separate blogs based for highly targeted audiences.

If you would like more ideas on how to improve your website, we would love to talk. Our services include:

• Conducting an audit and report on the design and content of your website in relationship to your goals.
• Build, redesign, or expand your website.
• Identify creative ideas for visuals, pages, topics to engage your audiences.
• Develop new, impactful content and visuals.
• Write and maintain your blog and news while cross marketing with your social media.
• Create and manage landing pages for offers and special promotions.
• Identify opportunities for blogs, articles, and case studies…from interviewing key personnel or customers to writing the final, approved content.
• Increase loading speeds and apply special applications such as intranets, ecommerce, and other technical aspects of website development.

For more information about content and technology management, visit our website www.managingcommunications.com