Do you value your website?

Any business that does not have a website in 2010 is probably at a huge disadvantage.  Back in the day, people used phone books to look things up. Not anymore. Google is the phone book of the 21st Century, and woe to those who are not being found by the search engine.

But you have a website, right? And not only do you have a website, you value your website too. You know it’s as good as gold in getting business (or for nonprofits, supporters/volunteers/donors) for your product/service?  But, too many organizations take their website for granted. They either don’t touch it once it is up or they are always changing it up.

Take CNN.com for instance. The web site was redesigned a few months ago, and in my opinion, made it completely difficult to find the news, which, presumably, is what CNN offers. I used to visit CNN all the time. Now, I don’t.  This is not to say that you should never redesign your website. You should. Your website should be as updated as possible.  Say I go to a restaurant’s website, and the only menu posted is the winter menu. But it is summer.  You get my drift.

Valuing your website means providing your visitors with what they need and expect.

Do you value your website? How many of the following do you agree with?

• I had my website professionally designed
• I have had a third-party evaluation of my website to check content, ease of navigation and usability.
• My website is fully up to date
• I have made sure to make my website search engine friendly
• I have a list of keywords and I have used the on my website
• I have a blog
• I have a newsroom or similar in which I post my organization’s latest news
• My latest news is dated no earlier than 2010
• My web host is reliable and I have very little if any downtime
• I have made my website social media friendly (share buttons, Twitter/Facebook links, etc.)

How did you fare? To really value your website, you should have agreed with most, if not all, of these statements.

Lisa Barone has written an excellent blog post: 11 Reasons Customers Don’t Trust Your Website, which points out 11 things to watch out for.  And according to Daniel Kehrer at Small Business CEO, one of the 13 Mistakes that Can Jinx your Business, is to let your website go dormant.

Value your website. It is a primary source of business.