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BUSINESS GAZETTE, August 2000 Update or be left behind by your competitors People often talk about 'sticky' Web sites; by this they are referring to the content of the site being sufficiently enticing for someone to stay - or 'stick' - on it for a significant period of time. Obviously, the longer you can get someone to stay and look through what you have to offer, the more likely you are of generating a sale. But imagine someone has visited your site, seen what you have to offer and perhaps bookmarked your site for future reference. They perhaps pay a second visit in a couple of months time, only to find that the content is exactly the same. It would be so much better if the content had changed - even if only slightly - to reflect that you have a dynamic business. Put simply, if people see text that reads "This page was last updated on 14th January 1999", this just doesn't look good. Having a 'sticky' site, therefore, isn't enough. You also need to do everything you can to attract people in the first place. Some of these ideas were explored in the May issue of Business Gazette, but in this issue I wish to focus solely on the implications of having a site that is regularly updated. If you see yourself as an Internet user - rather than a provider - most aspects of Web design and promotion are probably best left to the professionals. But there are many ways in which you can have a hand in the dynamics of your Web site with very little computing knowledge. Here at The Dedicated Partnership we have developed an 'update script' which allows you to readily update any chosen page on your site without any knowledge of Web site design being required whatsoever. It's a simple concept but one that's very important and all too often overlooked. To get the best from your online presence, you need something on your site that changes regularly. An example of the update script in use can be seen at http://www.grasmere.com/weather.htm - this page is updated daily without fail and cleverly combines the Rothay Garden Hotel's latest news and special offers with Cumbrian weather forecasts drawn directly from the Met. Office Web site. Using the update script couldn't be simpler. All this Grasmere hotel has to do is enter a title and some text into a user-friendly form on a specific Web page. This page is password protected to prevent unwanted editing. Having a static, unchanging site will not encourage people to re- visit on a regular basis. Having regularly updated content such as this, on the other hand, will generate repeat visits and greater publicity. Other businesses throughout the county are using the update script for items such as daily menus, events and even changing wine lists. Finally, another word of caution when it comes to keeping your site current: Web sites can date extremely quickly. In as little as 12 months, a Web site that looked attractive at the time of its inception, might be starting to look tired and flagging behind newer, competing sites. This is due to the nature of the medium and the rapidity of change that the Internet is undergoing. What might look good today could look extremely dated in a couple of years. Having said all of this, many of you might think that once you have your product on the Internet, then the job is really done. There shouldn't really be a need to update any of the content, perhaps, because your product changes little. For some this might be the case, but for most it isn't. The moral of the story, I suppose, is that even if you have a site that is successful, don't for one moment assume that it can't be still more successful, since the opportunities that the Internet poses are endless.
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