If you want to keep visitors coming back to your Web site, content
is king. DannyBradbury explores ways to keep your content fresh -
and your customers interested
With the wealth of different Web sites to choose from, getting
people to visit your offering these days is difficult enough, but
getting them to come back is harder still. Web software suppliers
now talk about "sticky" sites, which are able to keep people
interested and encourage them to come back on a regular basis. When
trying to create Web site loyalty, content is key.
The biggest problem for some Web sites is that the content
creation process behind them is haphazard. Many businesses may set
up Web sites offering static (non-interactive) content with the
best of intentions, but the managers responsible forget that Web
publishing is akin to normal publishing, and needs to be supported
by an adequate content management team and workflow process.
Without this, companies may end up with inaccurate, badly-spelled
and poorly crafted content that quickly becomes obsolete.
You can create a workable content management process using
discipline and conventional office productivity software, where
business managers create and feed content through to a content
editor who then edits it, marks it up and gives it to the
Webmaster, for example.
There is no reason for you to produce all of your content
yourself. Sometimes, you will want content that is updated on a
very frequent basis, and you will not have the staff power to
provide it in-house. An example is news. Providing relevant news
headlines on your site will give customers another reason to come
back for more. Sites such as NewsNow (www.newsnow.co.uk) will
license you news headlines linking to stories covering different
areas such as sports, current affairs, IT and finance.
But there is one problem with all of this content - it's static.
Static content is there to be read, but doesn't offer the reader an
interactive experience, and therefore doesn't take advantage of the
Web's greatest features. It is possible to license programs that
will provide you with more interesting content for your site,
giving you the edge over the competition.
Personalisation is the most popular means of differentiating Web
sites among companies. But, this presents a problem, because as
more companies do it, there is less differentiation - it becomes a
prerequisite for an e-commerce Web site, rather than a value-added
service. The next big trend in Web pages is likely to be more
personalised customer contact, in the form of real-time online
customer service, and this will be a useful way to maintain a
sticky Web site with a loyal customer base.
One of the most useful approaches here is online chat. Text
messaging can be used to hook you up to customers on a real-time
basis, enabling them to ask you questions about your products and
services instantly.
The importance of such services cannot be overestimated -
customers often want answers as quickly as possible, and they may
not bother making further enquiries if they are forced to send an
email to your customer services department. If they can access a
sales or service representative instantly by clicking a button,
they may choose not to visit your competitors' site after all.
Ultimately, the key to keeping your Web site fresh is to think
beyond static presentation and think about ways to offer your
customers dynamic content that will change according to their
needs. At this point, the line between content and services blurs,
presenting you with the opportunity to turn your basic site into
what so many software and service suppliers are glibly calling the
Web experience.
Check your links!
There is nothing quite so irritating as following a hyperlink
from a site to an external source, only to find that the page
returns a "404 Not Found" error in your browser. While checking
your content, don't forget to scan your hypertext links to ensure
that they are still active. There are plenty of automatic link
checking tools to choose from - go to www.softwareqatest.com to find some of
them.