I’m proud to announce my completion of the Advanced Google Analytics certification course. It’s on to the Goggle Analytics IQ exam with Goggle AdWords certification to follow. All of this to serve our clients better and better.
Google’s mission statement is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” At LBD Creative we focus on the “useful” part of that. It is our mission to make the internet useful to our small business clients. One way we do that is to be visible to search engines. Because search engines want to give the searcher exactly what they are looking for. And if they are searching for a business the number one target of that search engine is to return websites for businesses that are actually IN business. Makes sense. So why do I lead with something so obvious in an article about Updating Your Website?
I frequently run across websites that are several years old and look like it. You’ve probably seen them. The content is confined to the middle third of the viewing port on a laptop sized screen. Reduced so small only teenagers can read it on a mobile device. Or the content is on top of a garish background that may be a collision of ill-matched colors, or looks like wallpaper from your grandmother’s bathroom. Google may not be able to appreciate the wallpaper background (it’s crawlers can’t see images), but it can read the old out-dated code that is producing that page. And what does this say to Google, and visitors to your site about whether your business is open for business? It says, “Maybe.” If no new content has been posted on your site since the Bush presidency it says, “Closed.”
So if you want Google, and more importantly, new visitors to your site to see your business as “Open,” you’ve got to stay current. This is not just to follow new trends in website design, but a current site tells Google that your security measures are up-to-date, your website is mobile friendly, and your business is profitable enough to keep your website current. Which makes you a smart business owner.
On that last point, I know that it costs money to keep a current, well-designed, and search engine friendly website working for you on the web, but in our current business climate, the cost associated with maintaining a current site must be factored into your operating budget the same as paying the electric bill to keep the lights on in your brick and mortar. Hard to swallow? I know, but look at it this way; your electric bill doesn’t reach out to potentially thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of new customers and invite them to experience your great products or services. Keep your website fresh, clean and happy. It works hard for you. And never takes a day off.
