My new website went live January 31, 2014. I love it! It’s a fresh new look and it turned out exactly the way I imagined.

My first site went live January 26, 2012 and two years later, I have a new look. A look that is more “me” and what Social Dragon Marketing represents.

How often do you update your website? If you look at your site does it say “current, 2014, visually appealing” or does it scream “old, 2008, not relevant anymore?”

I realized that updating my website was not just important for the appearance, but it made me realize I did not know the content I had on my site. I even wrote every single word AND I still didn’t remember two years later what was written.

Quick, what does your website say? Do you know? Do you still provide the same services or products that are listed? It’s vital our website content is always current.

Cheryl Annett, Founder of AdminStudios.com worked with me to create a web design I wanted. So I asked her how important is it to have your website updated? “A Website is Your Virtual Business Card. I believe having a website is a MUST for any business. These days everyone wants to “check you out” first before they do business with you. Customers want to make sure you are credible and they want to get a “feel” for who you are and what you have to offer. Having an up-to-date visually pleasing and easily navigable website is extremely important. We don’t like it, but we are judge by our appearance first and that goes for your website too. You should be proud of your website, it is there to represent your personality, your business, and set you apart from your competition.”

Some people feel they don’t need to worry about it because they have social media. Social media was never and is NOT intended to replace your website. Last year, Derrick Barber, Owner of LOWD Media spoke with Social Dragon Marketing whether websites are necessary. You can read more about it here. Derrick said, “First, people are tuning out traditional media advertisements. We tend to dislike most kinds of advertising, so we train our brain to ignore them. Having a well optimized website will allow you to be seen when someone is ready to buy, and is trying to find you. Second is credibility. I have heard this quote used a lot lately but it is worth repeating…“People do business with those they know, like and trust.” If someone has received a referral, that is a great way to build some initial trust… but when they go online to learn more about your business and can’t find you, you immediately lose this built trust with most people. They will worry that if you are not serious enough about your business to have a website, how great of a job are you going to do?”

So how important is it you, to have a current up-to-date website? Did you notice both Cheryl and Derrick used the word “credible”?

Do all the links on your website work? Do you even know? I found that I had a large number of links that were no longer live on my old website and Google frowned upon that. These were not internal links, (although that can happen too) but links to external websites. These could be bad hyperlinks or even dead links. If you have a WordPress website, you may wish to install the broken link plugin. There are many ways to check for broken links including this one. It’s easy-to-use and you may be surprised with the results.

Websites are the hub of your business, your online business card and is truly something we need to keep updated. If not, our customers may just decide we aren’t relevant enough and buy from the competitor.