Is your website living up to expectations? Is it driving traffic and revenue for your business? Are you getting a solid return on your website investment? If you answered no to any of these questions, read on. This prescription may be just what the doctor ordered.

But you may be thinking to yourself, I did everything right. I got a professional company to design a great looking website and did some SEO work to help make sure I had the right focus and content. But it just isn’t producing like I expected.

The problem is a common one. I call it the “build it and forget it” syndrome. You work really hard at creating a beautiful and engaging website, but then get busy and move on to other things letting your website languish and lose its luster.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Show Your Website Some Love – And it will Love you Back

One of the most often overlooked components – yet one of the most critical components – to any successful website strategy is ongoing maintenance. While the initial website project is critical to creating the right foundation, the ongoing maintenance and upkeep is where you’ll really see your website shine. That is where you’ll really start to maximize the return on your investment.

Here are 5 reasons that you should be regularly showing your website some love and giving it the attention that it needs.

1. MAKE THE RIGHT IMPRESSION FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Ever go to a business-networking meeting and get a business card from someone? One of the first things people do after they get back to the office is look up the company’s website.

What is the first impression they get?

Is the “Latest News” 2 years old? Is the copyright date in the footer from 3 years ago? Did the “Monthly Special” expire last year?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may be leaving your prospects with a poor first impression of your company and leaving business on the table.

On the other hand, if your site is up-to-date, you will be communicating that your company is able to stay on top of things and communicate well, someone whom your prospect can trust.

2. GIVE YOUR VISITORS A REASON TO COME BACK

As they say in marketing, it is easier to keep a customer than to get a new one. What is one of the best ways to do this online? Make sure you are providing relevant, up-to-date information that helps them accomplish their goals. Perhaps this is your monthly newsletter and blog or the latest special offers.

By keeping your site current and informative, you begin to develop a solid trust relationship with your customers and prospects. This trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. Help build their trust by providing the latest and most up-to-date information on your website.

Check out our series on content strategies for some great ideas in this area.

3. BOOST YOUR SEARCH ENGINE RANKING AND DRIVE MORE TRAFFIC

Search engines love fresh content. The more often you update your website, the more often the search engines will visit your site and boost your rankings. And the reverse is true as well. After a site has not been updated in a while, the search engines quit crawling it and your rankings may begin to drop for important keywords.

Not only does showing the search engines that your site has fresh content help to boost your rankings, it also gives you more opportunities to rank for specific keywords.

For a more detailed discussion, see our blog post on the importance of SEO Maintenance. You can also check out this post from SEO Moz on the Google freshness factor.

4. KEEP YOUR SITE UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LATEST SECURITY PATCHES AND BUG FIXES

If you are using a content management system (and you really should be) or any web-based software, then it is vitally important to keep it updated with the latest security patches and bug fixes. You don’t have to be running an e-commerce site for hackers to want to break into your website. Often times, hackers will break into a website and upload Trojan and malware for use in their other attack schemes.

One of the primary ways hackers gain access to a site is through outdated software. As security patches become available, hackers will try to take advantage of websites that are not pro-active in updating the software on their sites. The last thing you want is for your visitors to get infected by software downloaded from your site. If Google detects malware on your website, they will likewise delist your site until you get it fixed.

5. YOUR WEBSITE NEEDS TO GROW AND EVOLVE TO KEEP UP WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY…

The web is ever-growing and changing. New technology is constantly evolving for accessing your content. Is your website keeping up?

There are two common approaches to accommodating new technology. You can make regular but smaller incremental changes over time, or you can do a complete refresh every few years. While a complete refresh is tempting and even sometimes needed, a better and more affordable approach is to make smaller incremental changes over time.

CONCLUSION

Experience has shown us that updating and adding new content to your website will consistently improve its performance and increase your return on your investment.