Dust Your Storefront Window
About a block away from our office is a small locally-owned hardware store. Every morning on my way to work I stop at the stoplight in front of this store. Back in the fall I started to notice that they hadn’t removed the summer merchandise from the store windows. Dust was starting to pile up on the rakes, hoses and lawn care supplies. Then a couple of weeks before the holidays, a sign appeared on the door announcing that the store was closing for good. It’s been almost two months now, but the same merchandise still sits in the window, just as it had when the store was open, but no one is going to buy any of it now.
Your website is a storefront for your business, instead of your address being main street, its www and I bet if you asked new customers, your www address is also the first location they visited your business.
This past week I met with a new customer about their website and they made the comment, “I’ve worked on my website, I’ve got it the way I like it, it’s been up six months, there is nothing to change.” I am sure there are many business/website owners out there that have just finished a lengthy web design project and the last thing they want to think about is their website. But I have to ask, how is this any different than the hardware store?
Keeping your website updated is easier now then it has ever been. Social media tools, RSS feeds, Content Management Systems can all be employed to help. Identify pages on your website that easily get stale, anything with dated material, and schedule time on your calendar to review it. Stop thinking of your website as a project with a start and a finish, but part of your marketing process.
Since the recession started, have you looked up a business’ website to see if they are still in business before you drove there? What clues let you know they were still in business? What if you found six month old content? Would you still make the drive? How likely are you to buy something from a store with dust all over their storefront?
If you are wondering why your website leads have dried-up, maybe its time to do some dusting.
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Yea, Carmen! You have finally gotten me off of my butt to switch out my “seasonal recipe” !!!