Deeper Shade- web and new media production and development

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• website maintenance
• disability compliance
• usability overhaul
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The importance of updating

Offline shops long ago discovered the importance of updating their offerings. Supermarkets frequently move the locations of items so that customers are forced to visit aisles they may not have gone to before. High street shops will frequently change their window displays to showcase new products or fashions. Even banks will give their branches a new coat of paint from time to time, or add in a coffee shop, to try to appear as trendy as possible.

Yet many website owners have yet to learn these lesssons. Thousands of company sites go untouched and unloved for many months or even years, with little in the way of fresh content to inspire new customers.

Keeping your site updated regularly can have many benefits:

• search engines regularly check sites for new content. Those updated rarely are seen to be less relevant, and your site's search engine rankings could drop.
• Internet users talk, discuss and share links. The more new content you put on your site, the more chance some of this will be picked up on by bloggers or search engines, leading new users to your site.
• Regularly updated content shows your company is thriving, dynamic, and cares about its online users.
• A stale website, rarely updated, could be seen as a sign of a stale company. Customers may wonder if their needs will be met with the same level of neglect.

So what should I be doing?

Keeping your website up to date is remarkably simple.

• If you have a news feed on your site, make sure you frequently add new stories to it. It doesn't necessarily have to be news about your company, it could simply be links to relevant industry stories. Why not go a step further and get your news stories made into an RSS feed, for maximum ease of use for your customers.
• Make sure the graphics on your page reflect your current product line
• If you have space on your page devoted to advertising and promotions, change the featured items frequently.
• If staff leave or new departments are added, make sure your site is updated to reflect this. The last thing you want is for a potential customer to phone you on a number that no longer exists.

If all this sounds time too consuming, never fear. Deeper Shade offer a range of maintenance packages which mean that for a fixed-fee monthly payment all your updates will be handled quickly and efficiently, leaving you to get on with the task of running your business, knowing that your site will be fresh, vibrant and always up-to-date.

For more details of the maintenance packages Deeper Shade offers, contact us now.

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