Although it may seem like a lot of effort, keeping a website up-to-date and maintained at all times is essential to its success. The bright side is that there are approaches to simplifying this substantial task. Having a well-thought-out web plan in place may make website upkeep more manageable. Incorporating the following suggestions into your web strategy will help you build a site that is both future-proof and simple to update.
In this article, we will go over six easy guidelines.
Take advantage of a malleable layout
While planning the layout of a website, it is essential to take into account how the site may evolve and grow in the years to come. If a website was planned with expansion in mind from the beginning, adding new features will be a lot less of a hassle as time goes on. Get your daily dose of inspiration with a wonderful moodboard maker, which will embody your content ideas.
Make sure your website/platform is compatible with the latest technology
Web navigation techniques evolve as new tools become widely accessible. Thus, it is essential that your website be as flexible as possible so that it doesn’t need a redesign every time a new piece of technology becomes available. If you want your website to look well across a wide range of devices and screen sizes with no effort on your part, responsive web design is a good option.
Mark out-of-date material and use CMS
Good context may be found in time-sensitive material, but only until it is actually relevant. Once the content becomes irrelevant, it immediately transforms into detrimental by signaling to the reader that the item is out of date (even if the rest of the content in the particular post or article is still accurate) and that the company behind it didn’t care to check if they keep on their page outdated materials.
If your material contains polls, research, etc. that are only relevant at a certain point in time, mark them as “dated” or any other internal tag. Content management systems (CMS) and content planning calendars are both suitable for this purpose. With a CMS, updating a website requires minimal technical know-how. When you use it, your data is kept in a database that is isolated from the rest of your website. Since your content is stored independently, you can make design changes to your site without recreating your content, and you can implement consistent updates without having to start from scratch every time.
Do your best to use the exact dates (years, month)
This suggestion does not need any follow-up effort after the piece has been published. If you want to avoid confusion, say the exact date instead of “this year” or “last year.” Then, whenever the information is seen in the future, its viewers will know exactly which year it is referring to. The same recommendations hold true for other time markers and time phrases (“yesterday,” “today,” etc.)
Maintain order in all aspects
Remember, chaos is the main enemy of successful functioning, especially when it comes to such technical things as data updates, content management, etc. Although managing files might be difficult at times, the many advantages it offers make it well worth the effort. It will be a great deal simpler to make modifications and enhancements to your website if its structure is well-defined and well-organized. Maintain accurate naming conventions for all of your website’s files and directories and regularly remove any obsolete or unwanted data. When everything is in its appropriate location, making updates and doing maintenance will be simpler, more efficient, and less time-consuming. Categorize everything as much as you can and create separate material archives according to posting dates. This way, you will definitely know when and what you posted.
Develop more insightful calls to action
Calls to action (CTA) that are really effective use an “act-now” message to inspire immediate action. However, CTAs that are time-based (e.g., for a forthcoming event) or campaign-based (e.g., for a new e-book release) often become inactive long before the material they promote becomes obsolete.
Make sure your call to action (CTA) is applicable regardless of the frequency with which your event occurs (yearly, for example). Let’s imagine, for the sake of argument, that you are designing a CTA for the registration of your company’s annual summer event. Craft a compelling one that will continue to be relevant even after the event has passed, such as “Register now for the best prices for this summer’s Big Brand Event.”
Conclusion
If the idea of conducting a major “content audit” as a means to update, reuse, and rewrite your material fills you with fear and frustration, it is time to start preparing to head off this problem. A method that thinks ahead either will enable you to identify information to update fast or will remove the need for any human intervention at all. Otherwise, you will have to deal regularly with a boring and tedious content audit, which is incredibly difficult and time-consuming.
