Keep Your Website From Looking Abandoned

Face it.  Most people view your website just like they view your brick and mortar store.  If it looks old and abandoned, they assume that you are out of business and move on.  But if it stays up-to-date and looks appealing, they assume that you are probably still in business and will likely walk on through the door.

Here are a few easy ways to maintain curb appeal on your website:

Keep a Blog

This might also be known as a News section, or you might have a section for formal news and casual tidbits.  Either way, use this part of your website to generate high-quality content that your users will want to read, comment on, and share with their friends.  Not only does this keep your website looking fresh, but it also provides another nearly-free avenue to drive traffic to your website that could possibly convert into more sales.

If you do keep a blog, you will want to keep it updated on a regular basis.  A good rule of thumb is at least once a week.  People have short memories, and so if you aren't keeping your posts in front of them they will be less likely to come back.  If you are in a fast-paced industry like technology, you will probably want to shoot for 4-5 posts per week at a minimum.

Delete Abandoned Areas

As your business changes, you might quit offering certain products or services.  You might have found that keeping a blog or news section just wasn't for you.  The last thing you want is for those areas to remain in their decayed state on your website.  If you have stopped providing certain services or offering certain products, then removing them from your website will help lower the amount of time you waste fielding inquiries for such things.

Stay Updated

Finally, you need to make sure that important information such as your hours of operation, phone numbers, addresses, etc. are accurate and up to date.  The last way you want to lose business is by someone wanting to get in touch with you only to find that their information was incorrect.  They will move on to the next suitor.

Another thing that some visitors will check is the copyright date at the bottom of the page.  It seems to provide some level of trust that if the year displayed is the current year, then the information is most likely up-to-date.  You can do this manually, or I recommend using a snippet of PHP code.  Just open up a code editor (or Notepad) and replace the year with <?php echo date("Y"); ?>.

Bonus Tip:

Decide how you want to list your address for each of your brick and mortar locations.  When you do, make sure Google Places accepts it.  Once you claim your listing there and use a certain address format, use that format ONLY and NO VARIATIONS everywhere else on the Internet when you create or claim a business listing.  This is a great step toward ranking well in Google's Local Search.