Many business owners just want to establish their place in the web so that when someone Googles them they will be found. Others just want to keep their business from looking like a fly by night operation and show anyone who searches them that they are legitimate. Still others have sites done to ‘show off’ as if to tell everyone that ‘hey, we’re hi – tech, we now have a website!’.
A website is a great solution for these but if a website is not updated it will easily give the appearance of a dead company or worse, one that was set up just to look legit.
To avoid that from happening consider these:
Your Products and Services Are The Best Way To Be Found On The Net: Nothing beats making your site look ‘legit’ than placing all your Products and Services on it. Don’t skimp on anything. Nowadays every little product or service is being googled on the ‘net and if you have it on your website this increases the chances of your company being found.
Establish A Protocol For Updating the Website: Ask your webmaster for clear written instructions how an update can be done. It doesn’t really matter whether it is updated by himself or by yourself or your staff, there just needs to be a clear SOP on what will happen once you decide to update it.
Determine which parts of your site needs updating and which do not: When I deliver a project I always tell clients which areas of the website can be updated without cost (usually inclusive in the monthly retainer) and which jobs constitute a ‘major’ (and therefore paid) update. Areas such as the Products And Services and the News page are usually updated for free as part of a monthly retainer. Additional pages, changes in color or background and such work however are considered major and will entail cost.
As an aside, I determine this usually via my own personal scale of what I should charge and what I should not using time as a measure. Jobs such as fixing typos, adding telephone numbers or adding a link or two shouldn’t take more than an hour so I provide this to clients for free. Anything that takes longer than an hour should usually be charged as it is probably major. Other developers may have their own system and you should come to some agreement about these things.
Establish A Protocol For Updating the Website Within Your Company: New Products and Services are no – brainer, necessary updates. But you might also want to update your site whenever your company reaches a milestone or lands a big client. You can use cost as a measure so you do not have to update your site with every sale you make, so for example, a cake company can update their site with their latest delivered cake that costs P80,000.00 and above. Or a construction company can update their site with news of their latest projects when these are valued at P2,000,000.00 and above. Prices of course vary depending on the size of the company but the point is that these are set protocols so that when such an event occurs it’s an indication that a site update is due.
Make A Checklist: Now that you know your site needs regular updating, determine your SOP. How many pictures are needed for an update? How many words? Who will write and edit it?
For example, a pre owned vehicle company that sells their cars online can have a checklist like this:
- 5 pictures – Bring car to brightly lit area. Take pic of Front, Left, Right, Interior & Engine.
- 300 characters max – Must include cost, mileage, papers, highlights if any, and if anything needs to be fixed.
- Written by – Fred
- Edited and checked by – Boss
- After posting, submit to classified ads (OLX, Ayosdito, etc.)
Once these are all checked it should be considered ready to be published on the company website and handed over to the office webmaster or developer.
If you have any questions email me at [email protected]. More info about what I do here.
