This is Part 3 of a 3-part series “3 Steps to Online Success”. In Part 1, we discussed getting the right website. In Part 2, we discussed online marketing. In this article, we’ll discuss managing and maintaining (your website and online marketing) and why it should be apart of your business operation.

There are three steps to online success:

1. Getting the right website
2. Marketing online
3. Managing & maintaining

3 Steps to Online Success

There are two things you need to maintain or online success:

1. Your website
2. Your online marketing

Many (and we emphasize “many”) website owners and business owners make the mistake of neglecting their websites and not updating them. They have the “set it and forget it” mentality. If your website is to be a live marketing center for your business, you can’t just “set it and forget it”.

Here are a few reasons why you will want to manage and maintain your website:

• Readers, customers/clients and any interested party that care about or has an interest in it will not read or look at the same content over and over again (how many times can you read the about us page of the same website?)
• New content is interesting, it gives a reason for your interested parties to return to your website and pay attention to it
• Your business’s environment and industry is always changing and evolving
• The Web and the online world is always changing and evolving
• Content such as textual information or even pictures/images can become outdated or look outdated, if left untouched for a while

Routinely updating and maintaining your website is not expensive. Losing customers because you don’t, can be very expensive. Maintaining  and managing your online marketing is also important and necessary. Here are the reasons why:

• Different points-in-times require a differently tweaked message that is different in order to be effective
• The world evolves so your message and how you’re distributing that message needs to also evolve
• The Web is constantly evolving (and quite rapidly, we might add) so your message along with your choice on marketing channels needs to evolve
• Managing and maintaining your online marketing helps you maximize your investment in online marketing. (Imagine if your favorite store decided to run the same holiday ads over and over throughout the year to “save money”. That would not only seem ridiculous but it is probably a poor use of their marketing investment and it’s probably not “saving” them much money.)

It is likely that your business is already constantly changing to adapt to the competition and challenges in its environment (you probably didn’t just “set it and forget it”). Make sure you don’t “set it and forget it” for your website and your online marketing. Follow these three steps, be persistently and patient. Over time, it will help your business reap the rewards the online world has to offer.