12 Steps to a Successful Website - OurChurch.Com

Sally Surfer is looking for more

Once again put yourself into the shoes of your visitors. Sally Surfer has been to your website once. She found it interesting and read through much of it. A couple of weeks later she decides to return to your website. If you haven't updated your website, Sally is not going to have any reason to be there unless she is specifically looking for something she saw on her first visit. Chances are she's going to leave within a minute and may not return again. If you have updated your website, Sally is going to find something interesting to read and may make a point of returning regularly to check for new content.

A website is a source for news and information. Typically the details about your ministry, business, personal life or other website topics will evolve over time. So keep your site updated. Add news about upcoming events, recent successes and more. Update the calendar. Change the look of your site occasionally to match the holidays - then don't forget to change it back immediately after the holiday is over.

Where oh where has our webmaster gone?

Few things can hurt your site more than building it and then allowing it to stagnate. A calendar that is a month behind or announcements for events that have already occurred are some of the most obvious signs of neglect. Not only will this discourage site visitors, but search engines may soon forget you, too. Search engines reward higher rankings to sites that are kept updated regularly.

How often?

How often should you update your website? How often do you want people to visit? There is a direct correlation between the two. If you update your website once a week or once a month, your regular visitors will probably visit that often as well. People check news sites like CNN.com daily because most it is updated at least daily. The most frequently visited websites are those with message boards where visitors to the site are creating new content hourly or even minute by minute.