Upgrade Your Static Website to a Dynamic Web Portal
By: Wayne Ergle
The internet has evolved considerably since its early days when it was used primarily by scientist to share files. From those humble beginnings, the internet became home to millions of web sites; most of which featured static pages with content that rarely if ever changed.
Because of the rapid increase in social media applications such as blogging and sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Myspace, visitors to your website expect something more than three year old content. They expect to see fresh relevant content, to create content and form communities.
This article is about the change from old, static websites to new, dynamic web portals.
Is Your Website Copyright From 2007?
Have you had the experience of landing on a website that just looked old? A quick scroll down usually shows the website is several years old. I don't know about you, but my inclination is to click away from the site and that is usually what I do.
Credibility Lost
Why click away so fast? A site that has not been updated in two or three years simply has no credibility. And even worse, the company loses credibility. Web users are not going to waste their time looking at two year old content when there are so many other options.
Leftovers
If your website has not been updated in the last year, you are basically serving your website guest leftovers. Think of your reaction to finding a serving of year-old meat loaf in your refrigerator. That is the same reaction your website is getting if the content has not been updated recently.
Why All the Old Content?
One reason there are so many old websites is that several years ago it was very expensive to develop a dynamic site. It could cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop a dynamic site.
Open Source to the Rescue
Now through open source development platforms such as Joomla and WordPress, you can create a dynamic site that your visitors will want to use and return to use in the future.
Blog Your Way to a Dynamic Site
One of the easiest ways to convert your site to a dynamic one is to add a blog. Through consistent once or twice per week blogging, in less than one year, you can grow your site from a typical, boring five page site to a site with over 50 pages of fresh, relevant content. Blogs also demonstrate your expertise in your field which builds your credibility. And through blog commenting, your website visitors and customers can interact directly with your company.
Five Other Ways to Make Your Site More Dynamic and More Interesting
- Convert the current static design into a Content Management System (CMS). Joomla and WordPress are examples of free, open-source CMS's. Converting to a CMS will make adding new content as easy as writing an email.
- Add a Community Forum. Web users today want to collaborate with other users. They want to build communities. Again, Joomla and WordPress make this easy.
- Add Twitter and Facebook feeds. Social media is here to stay and is a great business tool. As was the case with websites several years ago, your customers are beginning to expect that your web presence extend beyond your website. Twitter and Facebook are great ways to interact with your current and future customers.
- Add a shopping cart. If you sell products that could be ordered online, but don't offer this service, expect to see reduced revenue. Add a shopping cart and allow your customers to buy your products at exactly when they want to.
- Add relevant content feeds from other sources. The web is now a huge content generating machine. So you don't have to create all the content. Find reputable experts in your industry and feature their blog postings on your site.
Take Advantage of This Great Opportunity to Interact With Your Customers
Unlike never before, you have the opportunity to interact with your customers through your dynamic website. The visitors to your website are there because they want to be. Give them reason to stay and to come back.
Author Resource:-> Wayne Ergle is the owner of onclickConnect which provides Web Design, Search Engine Optimization and Social Networking services to small businesses. He can be reached at 678-360-7938 or online at http://www.onclickconnect.com.
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