Do you have a website? Of course you do.

Or perhaps you have a blog? Or have written a book or guide?

Certainly if you are a consultant or part of a business, then that business will have a website, right? And probably a blog? And you might be thinking about a forum or a newsletter?

Or perhaps a whole lot more, audio, video, reports, graphs, moving images and so on?

Either way, you are now publishing, aren’t you?

And, whilst a few websites may remain static digital business cards (and some should simply revert back to this status), the majority of business websites or websites for business people, need updating.

Updating today, and tomorrow, and the week after, and next month? That’s publishing – creating, displaying and distributing new content to the (hopefully growing) band of users.

In fact, how does it look if someone looks at your website and sees the last post or entry is from last year (ie last month, December)? Not good is it?

So, now the tail is wagging the dog. You thought it would be great to have website, you knew you needed to add content to get search engine ranking and so bring in the new enquiries and so forth; only now, the regular blog is getting harder to write. If you send a newsletter it is going out a week late (or two). And you are starting to think, can we keep going?

It is a good question. Or at least, it is good that you are asking the question. Sadly, many websites don’t address this issue – that is, they stagnate and then just sit on the web growing old and damaging your brand.

So, what do you do?

You have a choice, either return your website to a digital business card (such that it doesn’t need updating) or accept that a website is like a magazine and needs to be updated and refreshed on a regular basis.

The reason that so many websites fail, is because they fail to do one of these two things – update and refresh.

We are all publishers now (okay, accept those business that restrict themselves to just a digital business card) and, publishing needs to be done professionally and to a reasonable standard to maintain your brand.

If not, then your website risks joining the other 90% of living dead websites that fill up most of the internet.

Effective use of the Internet can be the difference between acquiring profitable new business in this downturn and just wasting money on empty design and confusing messages.

Sadly, many businesses and their online images are caught in the online brochureware trap.

In many businesses the way to get a steady stream of customers is to be listed on an established web portal for your industry (e.g. for designers, office service suppliers, etc.).

While this can bring leads to your business with little effort it usually comes with the risk that a portal must reduce the data on listed companies to that which allows direct comparison, e.g. price and basic features.

If your business competes solely on price then this may well work in your favour. If, however, part of your selling proposition is your value-added services, or the relationship that you build with your clients then it will be very difficult to project this through the restricted medium of the web portal.

In these cases it is vital that your website clearly communicates the added value that you offer, allowing any initial leads from a portal, or directly from search engines, to be converted, or brought closer to contacting you or buying.

As an exercise, try writing down what you think is special and valuable about your business proposition and check whether that comes across from the copy on your site. If you value the personal relationship with your clients, then is your website personal? Can you see the faces and read the opinions of the people in your company, and so kickstart that process of relationship building?

Or perhaps you just want to project an image of safety and integrity behind a cool, corporate exterior. If you already have this type of brand, then great. If you don’t, then beware, as this type of site is what is usually delivered by designers looking to sell you a ‘polished and professional website’, who confuse this with delivering anodyne brochureware.

If you need help moving your website from a glossy (or non-glossy) digital brochure to a living, breathing builder of new business for your company, then contact us to see how we can help.