Should a website be constantly updated?

[Spider]

I often hear people say that a website should be constantly updated. Suggestions are made, like "write a new article every week." But is this really necessary, and is it wise?

I can see the sense in it if the site is to make money from the advertisements on the site, but not if the site sells a single product or a limited range, nor if the site is meant to attract clients for a service-provider. The work of a dental office, for example, doesn't change every week.

What is the best approach?

[vangogh]

It depends some on the site and I think the words constantly isn't the best word, though it gets used often. I'd say consistently as opposed to constantly.

Updated also doesn't have to mean new content. It's more about making incremental changes consistently to improve the site. Take the dental office you mentioned. Their work doesn't change, that's true, but how well does the site itself perform? Say the goal of the site was to acquire new clients for the business. People visit the site, but no one calls to make an appointment. Leaving the site as is wouldn't make sense.

In that situation you'd want to look over the site's analytics and try to understand why people are visiting, but not calling. Maybe you realize the phone number is buried on a page few people visit so you update the site to make the number more visible. Or maybe the site requires people to fill out a form that could be reworked. Updated in this sense just means improving the site. All websites could be improved.

The idea with adding new content as the way to update the site has a couple of benefits. One would be to pick up search traffic. More content shows the site is active. New pages can pick up traffic for long tail searches and pick up links to help raise the authority of the site and the pages being linked to.

In the case of someone selling a single product new pages, say on a blog, can keep people coming back and reading. Many of those people may not be interested in buying the product initially, but the free content removes some of their objections to buying and in time they do buy.

If your site is a few pages and I read through most of them on my first visit, why would I visit again? I probably won't, which means you have one opportunity to convert me from visitor to customer or client. If your site updates with new content you give me many reasons to keep coming back and have many opportunities to convert me from visitor to buyer.

Does a site need to keep updating? No, but it will be at a competitive disadvantage to those that do. Think of a brick and mortar store. Do you do nothing once the store is built? Or do you at times move the products around to see where in the store they sell best? Do you place certain items on sale at times and have different displays by the window to attract people in? Do you change products at the register for impulse buys? Do you change up the products you offer? Maybe every so often you even redecorate the entire inside of the store with new shelves, a fresh coat of paint, and new carpeting?

Why wouldn't you do similar on your site?

[Harold Mansfield]

The short answer is no. Every web site does not need to be constantly updated with new information, unless you actually have new information.

It all depends on what the purpose of the site is. If it's just an online business card for people to find out more about your company, hours of operations, services, location and so on...you are probably directing them to the site by other means, most commonly your business card, or any ads that you have going.

If you are depending on the web to bring you traffic and customers, then yes, you need to find some way to keep getting articles and information out there, linking back to you, or the competition will bury you because they are doing it.

So it's easy enough...if you want web traffic..yes you need to feed Google with frequent information.

If that's not a big concern...then no.

[KristineS]

I have to agree that I don't think it needs to be updated every week, but there should be changes fairly regularly. Every web site needs tweaks and updates. Even if it's just changing a picture or rewriting copy to reflect new circumstances, small updates happen all the time.

[DeniseTaylor]

I adamantly agree with vangogh.

A lot of people in the world treat their website like an online brochure. They drive traffic to it manually, which is a lot of work and expense for very little return. This causes many site owners to think using the Internet for promotion is not money well spent.

However, those who understand the benefit of using the Internet for getting free search engine, usually also realize it can be a source of never-ending leads for their offline business.

To that end, constantly updated content makes the search engines happy. It lets them know that someone is there, building the site and interacting with the public. Getting your visitors to return over and over, gives you more changes to convert them to customers.

If your business is very local you can still monetize the traffic by selling things that appeal to everyone, no matter their geographical area.

In this day and age, it makes sense to step out of the "brochure" mode of websites and turn them into lead generators.

[vangogh]

I want to reiterate again that updating a site doesn't necessarily mean add new content. It also means improve existing content.

There's nothing inherently wrong with having a "brochure" site. You just have to realize that's all it is and unless you keep promoting it elsewhere it's not going to do much for you. The thing is a website can be so much more. If you leave it as a "brochure" site then you're missing out on all the things the site could be doing.

Why not take advantage of what a site can do for your business instead of leaving it as is while your competition takes advantage of what their site can do?

[Dan Furman]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the authority aspect. Having a ton of articles (informative blog, etc) relevent to your audience paints your company as an authority. Obviously, this isn't for every site - Best Buy need not tell me they are an authority on DVD's. But, all else being equal, would I choose a contractor that I felt "knew more" because of the depth of their site? Probably.

However, there's a flipside here - you can't just have any old content. Boring, poorly written, or non-interesting articles will actually hurt you.

[vangogh]

Good points. I'm sure a few will disagree, but we do tend to trust larger sites more. Again it's a sign the site is active and the owner can afford to work on it. And assuming the content is well written it shows off the knowledge of the people behind the site.

A small site that never changes leaves you wondering if it's been abandoned.

[Business Attorney]

I agree that even a brochure site should be updated occasionally. I can't tell you how many times I have looked at a site for a business or professional firm and they have key pages that are clearly out-dated. Things like "the firm will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2008" or "Upcoming events: May, 2009 ..."

If a business isn't going to freshen its site regularly, it should carefully inoculate its site against built-in obsolescence.

[KristineS]

If a business isn't going to freshen its site regularly, it should carefully inoculate its site against built-in obsolescence.

Very good point David. If you are doing date specific things, you have to make sure that those things are updated regularly. A listing of trade show dates or something might be able to lag a bit behind, but articles or announcements should be current.

It only takes a bit of thought at the beginning to figure out whether or not you'll have the time or experience to update your site on a regular basis. If you don't, you're much better off having non time specific content. As you so accurately pointed out, nothing dates a site like "Grand Opening, May 2009".

[billbenson]

That's a good example of why you should update the same page frequently. Say you have an older site with a lot of info so G likes it as an authority site. You keep adding new information. Buried in the site is a page that is obsolete. That is the page that G will likely show in a search.

As an example type into Google search without the quotes "microsoft media player review" The top listing is a review CNET did in 2006. CNET may very well have a current review on this, but Googles not going to give it to you. This page would be best updated to the most current review to take advantage of how high G ranks the page rather than a new review page of the current version of the product will probably not be in the top 100 or even 1000 results.

[vangogh]

Bill a page like that ranks well because Google sees CNET as an authority. It has nothing to do with the fact that the page in question is old. If CNET created a brand new page on the same topic it could easily compete with the old page. The differentiator would be links pointing into the old review.

Google doesn't favor old pages just because they're old.

[billbenson]

Bill a page like that ranks well because Google sees CNET as an authority. It has nothing to do with the fact that the page in question is old. If CNET created a brand new page on the same topic it could easily compete with the old page. The differentiator would be links pointing into the old review.

Google doesn't favor old pages just because they're old.

But thats not whats happening. I'm frequently looking for solutions to issues on SUSE.org (Linux). Its an authority site. If I don't put "SUSE 11" in the search, I'll get results for the same issue in SUSE 9 or 10. They are all on the site, but the older page will always be what is at the top of the SERPS without exception.

[Harold Mansfield]

But thats not whats happening. I'm frequently looking for solutions to issues on SUSE.org (Linux). Its an authority site. If I don't put "SUSE 11" in the search, I'll get results for the same issue in SUSE 9 or 10. They are all on the site, but the older page will always be what is at the top of the SERPS without exception.

I think the one that has had the most links pointing to it,and the most traffic going to it from the SERPs will be the one that ranks highest on a general search.

[vangogh]

Exactly. It's mostly likely because the older page has more links pointing to it. That comes with age naturally, but the ranking isn't specifically due to the age of the page. A new page on the same domain could also rank well. It will also depend on the specific keywords and competition for those keywords. SUSE 11 is still a pretty generic query so the results are pulling from a large range of pages.

[billbenson]

When I said SUSE 11, my query was probably something like "audio drivers SUSE 11" as opposed to "audio drivers SUSE" no quotes.

Ok, the older page has links, but most visitors would leave immediately. Also, most likely there are few if any new links to the page. How many new links do you think a win 98 page is getting on MS?

You must be correct, as something is driving G to put these old pages on top. No matter how you work it, it is a lousy result for G SERPS as its not what the users are looking for. I've pretty much switched to bing as most results are better.

[vangogh]

Search for small business forum and the old SBF still ranks #1 and #2. Given what the site's been like for the last couple of years can anyone honestly say that site should still rank well?

Bill I agree that showing those older pages sometimes makes for very poor results. It shows that search algorithms aren't nearly as great as they want us to think. However on the positive side Google added extra links to refine the results. Click the more link on the left and then choose a date range. I've been using that option ever since it was there. In fact it's the only reason I still use Google.

[billbenson]

I'll try that. Never noticed it.

[billbenson]

Search for small business forum and the old SBF still ranks #1 and #2. Given what the site's been like for the last couple of years can anyone honestly say that site should still rank well?

Bill I agree that showing those older pages sometimes makes for very poor results. It shows that search algorithms aren't nearly as great as they want us to think. However on the positive side Google added extra links to refine the results. Click the more link on the left and then choose a date range. I've been using that option ever since it was there. In fact it's the only reason I still use Google.

This also brings me back to my original point, steve. If you have an old page that ranks well but is useless, why not redo it to make it current and relevant.

[vangogh]

Some people do, though I think it depends on the topic. The pages you referred to earlier are about a specific version of SUSE. Would it make sense to update the page? Also if the links are using anchor text specific to a handful of queries that's having the main effect on ranking changing to another topic wouldn't make sense.

Another example when you probably wouldn't do it is if the page was specifically about some news event.

On the other hand years ago I wrote a series of posts about basic seo stuff that has generally done well in search engines over the years. The series is dated though and could use some serious improvement. There's no reason why I shouldn't rewrite those posts and leave them at the same URLs. The topic would be the same, the links pointing to the pages would still make sense, and I could make the posts better and more useful to anyone who reads them.

There's nothing wrong with updating old content that ranks well. It's possible in rewriting you remove words that were helping the page rank, but more than likely as long as the subject is the same the page would bring as much if not more traffic overall. it's definitely something people do with good results. Some people prefer to use a 301 to redirect to a new page, which can also work. It really depends on the page in question and what content is currently there and what you're thinking of changing that content to.

Another thought is simply reworking the page solely from an seo standpoint. If the page ranks well around a few keywords you might add another mention or two of those keywords or add additional modifiers or simply move some of the words around. Maybe add an image with alt text that's relevant or rewrite the page title.

[bizjunkie]

I agree with everything said here - I even think that since you are asking the question - that you might be considering doing more updating. My suggestion - try it for a while (using good relevant updates) to see if it imporves your business - find a way to measure the success or lack of - based on your efforts. If it helps, great - if not, scrap it and try something else.

[Harold Mansfield]

You know, just to add to the OP...

If you are a supposed expert or knowledgeable in your field and there are changes or things in your niche that change frequently, or have new information..and that information is of particular interest to potential clients...and you aren't updating your site or blogging to provide that updated information..you aren't going to be penalized by Google or anything like that..you will just loose out to those in your field that are talking about it.

Who would you choose?

The company with a 3 year old site that is basically an online business card, or the company that has been writing frequent articles about the industry as it pertains to consumers?

I'm going with the guy that seems to be elbow deep in the industry and keeps up on all of the latest trends.

[vangogh]

Yeah, this isn't specifically an seo related question. Updating content can have seo advantages, though. To me it's mostly about providing the best site to your audience and one that most effectively achieves what you want it to achieve.

I've said this a few times already so why not once more. Updating doesn't necessarily mean adding new content. It also means improving your existing content.

Like Harold just said, keeping your site current is a competitive advantage over those sites that don't.

One more thought. How many sites that haven't changed in years do you currently visit? I don't mean ones you find through a search engine. How many do you continue to visit after you first found them? And of those you only visited the one time did you buy something on that first visit?

[billbenson]

It also might make people rethink using the blog format over a paginated site. You really shouldn't go back and change older posts in a blog as its a chronological format although you certainly can. But I bet a lot of blogs would be better off structured as a standard site so you can do updates in a more elegant fashion.

[vangogh]

I don't think having a blog makes updating any more difficult. You can easily change the publication date to change the chronological order. You can also develop a theme so it shows posts in some way other than chronological.

I do understand what you're saying as far as the content showing in chronological order. On the other hand having posts with dates from this week also shows the site is actively maintained. There are pros and cons to it. I do know plenty of sites that don't ever date posts or remove the dates after a certain time too.

[Spider]

Even though I started this thread and haven't commented since, I am paying attention.

No-one has commented on the overload aspect. If a site is constantly being updated with additional material, weekly articles, etc. doesn't one risk reaching a point of having too big a site? The question has been asked —Would you buy from a large "authority" site or a small static site? — with the obvious implication that the large site will sell better. I would suggest that, if Google gives better ranking for a large site, it is the additional traffic so generated that produces the greater sales, not the size of the site. IOW, if Google favored small sites and ranked them higher, they would sell better. I wonder how many sales are lost to the large site by overloading the prospect with too much information.

Amazon is obviously a huge site because of the vast array of products available, but, really, there is not much information available on each product. I have often left a large (presumably "authority") site simply because I have not been able to find the information I want amongst the huge amount of information I did not want. Okay, this says more about the organization of the site, but it is still a difficulty that gets greater with the size of the site.

I have been told that my site has too much information, and that I would be better off with a basic 5-page website - home, offer, testimonials, about and contact. Which advice seems to contradict the general consensus of this thread so far.


VG - I accept that updating doesn't necessarily mean adding new content, although when I said 'updating' in my original query that is what I meant - adding new content or revising outdated content. Correcting typos and re-phrasing the odd sentence here and there was not what I had in mind when I asked about updating.

On this score, do we know that Google and others, use the date of the file in their search algorithms? I mean, could one just 'save' the old, unaltered file (to get a new file date) and upload that and have it seen as a new updated page? Or do they have some other way of knowing a new file from an old one?

[Harold Mansfield]

Even though I started this thread and haven't commented since, I am paying attention.

No-one has commented on the overload aspect. If a site is constantly being updated with additional material, weekly articles, etc. doesn't one risk reaching a point of having too big a site? The question has been asked —Would you buy from a large "authority" site or a small static site? — with the obvious implication that the large site will sell better. I would suggest that, if Google gives better ranking for a large site, it is the additional traffic so generated that produces the greater sales, not the size of the site. IOW, if Google favored small sites and ranked them higher, they would sell better. I wonder how many sales are lost to the large site by overloading the prospect with too much information.

It's not so much whether or not it's a large "authority site". It's more about if one company or person seems more active than the other.

Google is not giving better tanking to the larger site just because of how big it is, it is rewarding the regular flow of new information

I have what would be considered small sites or blogs, but some have over 700 posts. Still a "small site" but constantly updated with current information on the subject.

As far as the "too much information" aspect, I would think that more sales are lost because of not enough information.



Amazon is obviously a huge site because of the vast array of products available, but, really, there is not much information available on each product. I have often left a large (presumably "authority") site simply because I have not been able to find the information I want amongst the huge amount of information I did not want. Okay, this says more about the organization of the site, but it is still a difficulty that gets greater with the size of the site.
Now, I feel just the opposite. I think that Amazon has a wealth of information and being able to read reviews from people who have actually purchased the products, is the best thing that anyone could have come up with on the web.

I purchase from Amazon religiously, at least one product a month...minimum.

A site doesn't have to be difficult to use just because it has a lot of information.

On my music blog, 2 of my busiest posts are over a year old (200 articles ago). If you enter my blog from the home page...you will never see them unless you specifically look through the archives, or search for them. My home page is all new information... but they are still accessible from Google and that is what counts.



I have been told that my site has too much information, and that I would be better off with a basic 5-page website - home, offer, testimonials, about and contact. Which advice seems to contradict the general consensus of this thread so far.
Like you said before, it's about the organization of that information. You could have 5 pages and it still look like too much information if it's not organized well.

For someone like you, this is where a Content Management System would help you greatly. Immensely. They call them Content Management Systems because that's what they do.

I think you are still thinking linearly..one page at a time...and building everything from scratch and you don't have to do it like that anymore.

And sites that update regularly, aren't doing it like that. One of the reasons that fresh information has become such a staple in the way SE's see things is because CMS's have made it easy for everyone of any size to do.

Do you really think that CNN is building a new page in Dream Weaver every time a story breaks?



On this score, do we know that Google and others, use the date of the file in their search algorithms? I mean, could one just 'save' the old, unaltered file (to get a new file date) and upload that and have it seen as a new updated page? Or do they have some other way of knowing a new file from an old one?
Yes, they still see the old article. The best, and most sound way to raise the ranks on an old article is to continually get new links to it.

There are plenty of older articles and website pages that rank well because the information in them is sound and they have been referred to multiple times.

[Business Attorney]

Like you said before, it's about the organization of that information. You could have 5 pages and it still look like too much information if it's not organized well.

Likewise, you can organize a 70 page site to feel more like a 5 page site by designing the site to steer the user to the important five pages. The other 65 pages may be important to snag long tail key word searches and provide an entry point to your site, but once the reader is done absorbing the information on the particular page that brought him to your site, he is not distracted by the remaining 64 pages but is directed by the design and navigation to the important 5 pages.

[vangogh]

I accept that updating doesn't necessarily mean adding new content, although when I said 'updating' in my original query that is what I meant

Yeah, I know. My comments about updating were mostly for everyone else. I didn't want people automatically associating the two words and thinking they meant the same thing.

Frederick, I'm going to agree with both Harold and David.

I don't see the overload danger you mention. And there's no reason why a site with a lot of pages has to start appearing like a large organizing. Using myself as an example I probably have around 500 pages on my site, mostly blog posts. If you spend a minute or two at the site though, I think it's pretty clear it's a one person site, certainly not a large business.

Part of the beauty of a blog is that most of the posts fall back. I don't expect anyone is going to visit my site and start reading old posts by date. Some of those posts do well in search engines so they get read, some have been linked to often enough to pull traffic, some people will use the internal site search, and I'll point people to older posts at times.

Overall most of those pages are easy to ignore if you want. Even if ignored though, people can see I've been updating the site for quite some time and that the site remains active.

It comes down to how you organize your information. The pages on my site you would want to read if you're debating hiring me are not many and I hope are easy to find. The blog posts that people don't need to read are hopefully categorized well enough so that people can find the ones they want. In truth I could do a better job organizing my posts and developing better navigation to find older posts, but hopefully you get the idea.

By the way organization of content is a huge aspect of what a web designer does and it's not as easy as it sounds sometimes.


Amazon is obviously a huge site because of the vast array of products available, but, really, there is not much information available on each product.

I think Amazon has a ton of information on their site. I mostly buy books through them and I'll visit their site the moment I hear mention of a book I might be interested in just to see all the info they have about it. There are great reviews, ways to look inside and see the table of contents and a few pages, basic info from the editor, etc. Maybe not every book has that info, but that's less to do with Amazon and more to do with the specific book.


I have been told that my site has too much information, and that I would be better off with a basic 5-page website - home, offer, testimonials, about and contact. Which advice seems to contradict the general consensus of this thread so far.

I think what that person really means is they want those pages to be quick and easy to find. You could easily make those 5 (or any 5) pages stand out in your navigation and still offer plenty more content.

When I visit your site here's the main navigation I see:

HOME
About
In Action
Business
Life
Wealth
General

To be honest I know what to expect when clicking on the first two links. I have no idea what to expect with the other 5. I have clues based on the words, but take something like General, that could lead anywhere.

Why not

home
services
testimonials
about
contact
blog

I changed offer to services since I think more people will understand what that page would mean and I added a blog. Now every piece of informational content can fall somewhere under blog. The 5 pages you've been told you should have are very easy to find and you can still have as much content as you want on the site.

Say at some point your services expand to the point where one page isn't enough to describe them you can turn the Services link into a new section with a few pages under it. The main page quickly mentions each service then directs people to the more detailed page. The information is still easy to find.

Sites can grow as large as they want as long as they're organized well.

[Spider]

Thank you, guys - again. I will experiment further based on your suggestions.

[Harold Mansfield]

Thank you, guys - again. I will experiment further based on your suggestions.

Frederick, if I may. I would really like to see you get familiar with Wordpress. At least play around with it.
You just are not going to realize the benefits and speed of being able to optimize your content on the fly, automatically having your updates pinged, and the syndication options by building your content pages from scratch.

Not to mention the actual organization and "Content Management" that the software provides for you.

I understand that you have been not just reluctant, but completely resistant of doing it any other way, but I am looking at you work harder than anyone else and only getting half of the benefits.

At least think about it.

[vangogh]

Frederick I'll echo what Harold said and put in another recommendation for WordPress. You could install it behind the scenes and play around with it, without anyone knowing it's there. In fact that's always how I start a new install for people anyway. Harold and I could easily walk you through getting it installed and set up.

The hardest part will be customizing the theme. It's not hard per se, but until you're familiar with how themes are put together the files and code are going to look unfamiliar.

WordPress really has a lot of benefits. Once set up it will be very easy to add, remove, or edit content. You'll be able to add tons of functionality by uploading some files to the server and clicking a few buttons to activate the plugin you just uploaded. Changing the look of your site if you decide to doesn't require every piece of content on your site.

Oh and your site will finally be using a css layout :) Sorry, I couldn't resist that last bit.

[Spider]

I appreciate both your concerns and your obvious interest in me making progress with my site. I will visit the WordPress site to see if I can find some good reason to take the time to learn it. I am not resistant to learning something new, yet there is so much still in this world that I do not know and could benefit from learning, I feel I would rather spend my time on stuff that seems to offer greater benefit for the time it would take.

As an example, to explain better -- I have a regular old cellphone with a menu of 9 items - messaging, phonebook, im and e-mail, voice notes, log, t-zones, fun and apps, settings and help. I use the phone to make phone calls and receive phone calls. That's all. I could buy an iphone, a blackberry and who knows what other gizmo, and all I see myself using it for is making and receiving phone calls. Why would I want to bother with these other wonderful devices?

Likewise with Wordpress. You say, Harold, that you see me working harder than anyone else and only getting half of the benefits. I don't think I am working very hard at all on my website - that is a problem. I have yet to discover what benefits I might gain from learning Wordpress. For example you say once WP is set up it will be very easy to add, remove, or edit content. I find it very easy to add, remove and edit comment at present without WP, and it currently takes only a few clicks to upload my edits.

I'm not arguing that WP is not what it's cracked up to be - only that all the 'advantages' I have heard so far have been minimial or unrequired - and do not appear to be worth the effort (like an iphone for me is not worth the effort.)

But I promise to visit the site to see what I can find out. If you have some other advantages that WP can afford me, I'd be happy to hear them.

[vangogh]

Frederick there are some things that before you use them you don't think you'll find great use for them, but once you have used them awhile you wonder how you could ever do without.

If you want to get a feel for using WordPress go to wordpress.com and sign up for a free account. You'll immediately have a blog running on WordPress that you can test to see what you think of it. You won't get the full experience, but you will get a very good idea of what it will be like to use WP on a regular basis.

Go to WordPress.org (http://wordpress.org/) to download the version you install yourself (the one we really recommend) and click on the Docs link to learn more.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'll just mention one thing that you would benefit from with Wordpress that you are not getting with your website.

Syndication.

These days, the web is about syndication. It's not enough to merely have content on your own site, that content needs to be packaged so that it can be easily referred to, linked to, subscribed to, and spread across many channels and put in front of the most possible eyes.

Without the benefit of syndication. specifically RSS, on your site, compared to the rest of the web and your competitors, your site is less than half as accessible as everyone elses.

Your readers only have one way to receive additional info from you or stay updated, which is basically visit the site, and you also are only indexed in one way.

With syndication, RSS, you open up all the possible channels and possibilities of who can find, and consume the info that you are providing, thereby promoting yourself and your expertise.

The way your site is set up now, additional information, or frequent updates and articles would not serve you very well because you are on a closed system and you would physically have to link to your site to get your information picked up by other sources.

This is not some fancy new technology. This is the way the web works. Information Syndication.

Right now you are optimizing and working so that people will find you. Syndication allows your content to go to where they are and find them.

[Spider]

Did some reading this morning - started a WP blog - Frederick Pearce's Blog | Thoughts from the World of Business (http://frederickpearce.wordpress.com)

[vangogh]

I realize it's very early in your WordPress use, but what are your initial impressions?

[Harold Mansfield]

HEY! HEEEYYYYY!!!
Way to go Frederick !:)

[Spider]

I realize it's very early in your WordPress use, but what are your initial impressions?Thanks for the Hey, Heey! Harold!

Initial impressions, VG. It's as I expected - easily done. About as I remember another blog system I tried some time ago (Blogger, or one of them.) I thought the themes were rather limited - even though there are 95 of them, they all look much the same in essence. That may be intentional to encourage users to purchase upgrades. (I have no problem with that.)

[Business Attorney]

Good job, Frederick. And I made the first comment on your first post (other than the automatic WordPress comment that you should probably delete).

Make sure to install an antispam filter like Askimet. Somehow, the comment spammers find these new blogs pretty quickly.

[Harold Mansfield]

Just remember that this is a basic version of Wordpress (Wordpress.com) and it is limited and very bland. You said they have about 95 themes ? You obviously know there are hundreds of themes out there...I have 170 on my network alone and will be probably adding another 30 pretty soon.

But it's a good place to play and get familiar if you are on the fence,

Self hosted Wordpress is where we hope to influence you to go. If you play around with this and decide that you want go with it, we will help you get you own Wordpress install going which will expand what you are able to do as far as themes and advanced or specific functions or plug ins.

If, that day does come, you can choose any design that you wish to install on your self hosted Worpdress site. Installation and admin function pretty much operate the same way.

If, you have content that you want to move over, it is easily done via the import/export function.

I don't recommend upgrading through Wordpress.com since you already have your own hosting. If you stick with Wordpress you want to be self sufficient and there is plenty of help around here that you should never be without any answers.

Don't want to overwhelm with possibilities, just a few things to keep in the back of your mind.

[billbenson]

Remember as well Frederick, you already know how to write a web site. You fall in the category of a web designer to a degree. You know how to FTP, have a little bit of knowledge on css. That makes the basic installation pretty simple. The only thing you would need to do that you aren't familiar with is creating and adding a user to a database which is simple and done from your control panel.

A lot of hosts have one click installs to make this even easier.

[FreshFishDesign]

Have you ever visited a site that says 'Welcome to our new site' and the info at the bottom says last updated 3 years ago?

These days there's no excuse for not updating your site regularly. If you have a business site you should have plenty of content to update your site with, unless your business is dying.

It's good for the search engines and it's good for your customers. Updating your site regularly is the only way to go.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum FreshFish. I noticed you recently commented on my blog post from earlier today so I'm guessing you found your way through the post.

By the way I removed the link at the bottom of your post. If you click on User CP in the upper left and then look for Edit Signature in the menu down the left you can add a forum signature with a link or two back to your site. That way it'll show up automatically when you post so you don't have to add it each time. If you have a problem setting it up let me know. I can always set it up for you.

Sadly I have seen sites that show they haven't been updated in 3 years and you're right there's no excuse for it. There are so many good reasons to update your site that those who don't fall behind the curve and worse fall behind their competition.

[Spider]

I accept that the SEs penalize a site that is not updated often (and that to me is the only reason updating is important) but I do not agree that it should be. As I suggested before, a dentists' office does the same thing year after year, and unless and until they change the service they offer, neither they nor their clients need an update. And there are many, many businesses that do not change their service.

Sure, there are also many businesses and other organizations whose products and services do change. I agree, they need to keep their websites updated. But I can see no reason for the others to do so, and to penalize them for not changing their products and services is illogical.

[vangogh]

Frederick to be clear, search engines don't penalize your site if you don't update it. In terms of adding more content it's a matter of having more opportunities for pages to rank and more opportunities for others to link back to your site. You can improve how well your site ranks, by adding new content, but you won't be penalized for not adding new content.

Think of it this way. Say you decide to start body building. You lift weights every day or every other day. A few months later you have a greater chance of winning a body building contest. The body building contest isn't penalizing all those who didn't work out, though.

Let's be clear about one other thing too. Updating doesn't only mean adding new content. It can also mean changing and improving existing content. We'll use your dentist as an example.

Odds are the dentist has a contact page with a phone number, email, contact form, or some combination. Through analytics he determines that only 1% of the people visiting that page ever contact him. He could do nothing or he could update the page. Maybe the phone number isn't prominent enough or the form asks for too much information. By updating one or the other he now discovers that 2% of the people visiting the page are now contacting him, doubling his leads through the site.

We could take it further and suggest that updating other pages on the site leads more people to the contact page itself further increasing the number of leads and how many clients he has. By updating his site his business grows.

Let's look at the other form of updating, which is adding new content. Often this is done through a blog. One of the biggest barriers to any business and especially business online is trust. There's little to no reason to trust a sales page. However by writing content and updating his blog, hence his site, our dentist can put a voice on his site and build trust and relationships with people who might become clients or customers or maybe just recommend him to friends.

New content also lets the visitor know the site hasn't been abandoned. There are a lot of sites online where you can't really tell. They look about 10 years old and they make you wonder if anyone is minding the business. Even that moment of hesitation to wonder can cost our dentist new business.

So what can our dentist do? He could blog or create new site pages with the latest information on prevention of tooth decay or gum disease. He could create videos showing the proper way to brush or floss. He could keep adding new patient testimonials. There's a ton of information he could create. If he releases it all at once people read it and leave. If he updates it over time it gives potential patients a reason to keep coming back. The more they keep coming back, the more likely they'll eventually contact him and make an appointment.

Speaking of appointments, another thing our dentist could do is create an appointment calendar online showing his availability. He could even set up the calendar to allow people to make their own appointments. He could create pages walking patients through more complicated dental work like route canal and point people to those pages when they're about to have the procedure. He could add a system where he and his assistants respond to patient questions and do follow ups with them online. He could make updated x-rays and dental records available for patients any time they need them.

Turns out there's a lot our dentist can do to improve his business and his relationship with his patients by updating his site regularly. And of course, every one of those new pages he creates can be improved in some way so he can keep updating them as well.

[Patrysha]

I don't want to go to any dentist that hasn't upgraded his/her services and skills in years and years...

Or an esthetician or massage therapist or almost any business I can think of...technology and advances affect almost every industry and if a business is offering exactly the same range of services and selection that they did five years ago, they aren't one I'm likely to choose. I don't expect cutting edge, but I do expect up to date!

[FreshFishDesign]

@ VanGogh

Thanks - sorted the signature.

You're right - I found this forum via your blog.

[vangogh]

Glad you got the signature worked out. Yeah I saw the blog comment and then hopped over hear shortly after and saw your name. I put 2 and 2 together and came up with something close to 4. :)

[KristineS]

I don't want to go to any dentist that hasn't upgraded his/her services and skills in years and years...

Or an esthetician or massage therapist or almost any business I can think of...technology and advances affect almost every industry and if a business is offering exactly the same range of services and selection that they did five years ago, they aren't one I'm likely to choose. I don't expect cutting edge, but I do expect up to date!

Have to agree with you on this Patrysha. Everyone should be keeping their skills up to date, and that should also be reflected on their website. I want to give my business to someone who cares enough to keep their skills current.

[Business Attorney]

Sure, there are also many businesses and other organizations whose products and services do change. I agree, they need to keep their websites updated. But I can see no reason for the others to do so, and to penalize them for not changing their products and services is illogical.

But the search engine can't read the users mind in a specific case, so it needs to work on general principles. Is it likely that a site that has been updated several times in the past year is going to be more relevant to a user's search than a site which has not been touched since 2006, all other things being equal (incoming links with authority, content, etc...)? If the answer is yes, then it makes sense that the updating would factor into the SERP.

For me, it is difficult to deny that, in general, the fact that a site has been updated recently is a positive factor.

[Spider]

Have to agree with you on this Patrysha. Everyone should be keeping their skills up to date, and that should also be reflected on their website. I want to give my business to someone who cares enough to keep their skills current.Sorry guys. I think you are missing the point here - about dentists and many other professionals and service people.

Keeping their website "up-to-date" cannot be equated with keeping themselves and their professional skills up-to-date. Are we not supposed to speak in the language of our customers? A family dentists who deals with oral hygiene and maintenance, filling cavities, plaque removal, gum health, the occasional tooth removal, and so on, may replace a prodder-thingy or two with something more modern, may start to use a chemical that none of us could pronounce and I cannot spell, probably takes a certain number of hours of continuing education each year, and may introduce a new chair every few years and might have to change the lighbulbs on the contraption that hovers overhead; but none of this is likely to be of interest nor be at all comprehensible to a potential customer.

Likewise, a pizza shop, or a janitorial service, or a lumber yard. How might any of these services be up-dated? Certainly there are things that such businesses could tell their prospective clients, but I put it to you that the customers of a pizza shop want exactly the same thing now that they wanted five years ago - a tasty pizza. And the customers of a janitorial service want the same thing now that they wanted five years ago - a clean office. And the customers of a lumberyard want exactly the same things today that they have wanted of a lumberyard since time immemorial!

I truly cannot see that the frequent updating of a lumberyard's website would bring people back out of a general interest in wood! And who would want to return often to a dentist's website, or a janitorial service's website?

Let's not get carried away with an inflated view of the importance of frequent updating. Clearly, from all that has been said on these forum, even if the SEs do not actually go out of their way to penalize non-updated sites, they certainly seem to have things set up so that a non-updated website suffers as a consequence.

[vangogh]

Did you read my post where I listed a variety of ways how updating a dentists site could help the dentists business and help the dentists patients? I didn't once mention the skills of the dentist.


Clearly, from all that has been said on these forum, even if the SEs do not actually go out of their way to penalize non-updated sites, they certainly seem to have things set up so that a non-updated website suffers as a consequence.

They haven't set up anything to cause non-updated sites to suffer. Search engines don't look for ways to punish people. Whenever they have a results set more than one they have to determine the order in which to display those sites. They do so based on which site they think will be the best result for the person searching. That means those sites that are more inline with what the search engine thinks provides the best results will do better. It doesn't mean those sites not doing as well are being punished.

If you and I go into the same business as competitors and I sit on my ass all day doing nothing, while you work yours off, am I being punished with having no customers? If I want to be a professional basketball player and do nothing to keep my body in shape, and never practice dribbling, shooting, or passing the ball, am I being punished by not getting an NBA contract. I'm sure you'd say no to both, but it's exactly what you're suggesting about search engines.


I truly cannot see that the frequent updating of a lumberyard's website would bring people back out of a general interest in wood! And who would want to return often to a dentist's website, or a janitorial service's website?

Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. You're looking at this whole subject with a very limited viewpoint. Go back and reread my post about the dentist. I offered a lot of valid ways a dentist can update his site to make it more valuable to the dentist and his patients. If you want I'll come up with a variety of ways a pizza shop, a lumber yard, and janitorial services and the clients/customers of those sites can benefit by updating the site.

Here's an easy one for the pizza shop. Rotating coupons on a weekly basis.

Since you see no reason why sites need to update I take it your site is currently perfect and brings in so many leads you have to turn them most of them away.

[Spider]

...I didn't once mention the skills of the dentist...I was responding specifically to what Kristine and Patrysha had written, VG., and they did mention the dentist's skills.

[vangogh]

I understand that, but why skip over everything I said? It seems to me I did show very clearly how a dentist could benefit by updating his site and offered some pretty good arguments against your point. When you skip over something like that it's again a failure to acknowledge something that makes a good argument against yours. That comes across to me less like you're interested in having a conversation and more like you're interested in making sure you can technically be right about something.

You don't have to update your site if you don't want to. I realize I'm not going to change your mind about it. However I'd suggest letting go of the idea that some sites can't benefit from updating. Name any site and I'll show you a way it can benefit. At a minimum adding some kind of information content about your industry of your specific business will give you a leg up on the competition.

Websites that don't update will always fall behind websites that do, all other things being equal.

[Patrysha]

Actually the things I was thinking about in terms of dentistry were more along the cosmetic type stuff that has come up in the past few years (which for many dentists is their profit centre)

Invisalign, for instance which is a cool new way to reposition teeth and some of the newer whitening systems. New flavor and approaches in flouride treatments...and the new amalgams for fillings that are more natural looking (and supposedly safer) than the old silver ones.

Why should websites be different than any other form of marketing? You wouldn't expect a business to use the same newspaper ad, radio ad, brochure or flyer year after year after year...why would the same not be true for websites?

Of course, you can leave a site static...but how well is that going to work for the business as an effective marketing tool?

[Spider]

I understand that, but why skip over everything I said? ...Sorry, VG. I had seen your post but did not respond immediately. The next time I came back to this thread, Kristine's was the last post and I addressed her point. I should have gone back to yours but didn't.



...It seems to me I did show very clearly how a dentist could benefit by updating his site...Yes, you did, and I thank you for the suggestions.


... and offered some pretty good arguments against your point...Yes, you did. You raised some issues I had not considered.

[vangogh]

My bad then if I jumped the gun a bit.

[billbenson]

I didn't see it mentioned above, so excuse me if this is redundant. The thing about a dentist is they generally are booked up months in advance if they have a decent reputation. To my experience, they don't really need online advertising other than perhaps a map and bio etc.

I'm not saying a dentist shouldn't have a good website, but Dr's in general aren't known for being good business managers. Tell them they should use their website for multiple revenue streams in case they hurt their hand and can't practice dentistry, and I doubt you will get much interest.

[vangogh]

You're thinking of successful dentists who've been practicing a number of years. Someone new and out of school wouldn't have any patients. Others that haven't been at it long probably don't have a full schedule yet.

Coincidentally about a week ago I made an appointment with a dentist here in town. I would be a new patient. He was able to take me that afternoon if I wanted due to a cancelation. I couldn't make it that day and made an appointment for next week.

I think that cancelation is a perfect example of how an appointment calendar could work. You might not be able to get an appointment for a few weeks, but if you follow the calendar you could jump on a cancelation and get an earlier appointment.


Tell them they should use their website for multiple revenue streams in case they hurt their hand and can't practice dentistry, and I doubt you will get much interest.

I wasn't suggesting that they would follow the ideas I offered. I was only saying they could in response to it being suggested there wasn't any way a dentist could benefit from updated content.

[Spider]

...I was only saying they could in response to it being suggested there wasn't any way a dentist could benefit from updated content.I hope I didn't give the impression that a dentist couldn't benefit from updated content. My original post asks, "What is the best approach?" having postulated that "..the work of a dental office, for example, doesn't change every week" and therefore, Is it really necessary or wise that their website should be constantly updated?

Apart from the initial, "depends," the only answers subsequently to this question have been, Yes, through to Every site can benefit from updating. And VG listed a number of ways a dentist's office might benefit from updating.

My question wasn't really about whether a website can benefit - I think that is a given, depending on the work that is done and not all changes will necessarily convey a benefit. I am asking, Is it necessary, as some people (here and elsewhere) have suggested?

Considering all your answers to my question, I come to the conclusion that it is necessary for some sites (those with changing products and service, for example) to update frequently. For other sites (where the services or products do not change) there may be some benefit in updating but it is necessary only insofar that to not update would risk losing position in the search engines – and, if the SEs are not a desired source of visitors, regular updating is not necessary, although probably benficial.

[vangogh]

Fair enough. You being against updating was the impression I got, but no big deal if it wasn't what you meant to imply

I don't think anything is necessary outside of breathing taking in food and water and having shelter from the elements. As a species we need to procreate, but for an individual only the things listed in my previous sentence are necessary.

With updating content and we'll stick with the idea of it only being adding new content it gives you an advantage over any other site that doesn't update. Do you have to add new content? No. But I would think we'd all want to do everything we can to make our businesses more successful. When it comes to a website adding new content is a very good way to make your site better. It transforms your site from a brochure into a place where clients/customers/patients/whoever can interact with you and your business. It gives you the opportunity to build relationships with them through your site. A site that never changes doesn't.

If you never add new content then you really only have the one chance to land me as a customer. Once I've gone through the content you have there's no reason to ever come back. If you keep adding new content you have a greater chance of bringing me back and thus a greater chance of landing me as a customer.

There are certainly some businesses where it's easier to add new content and it makes more sense to add new content. For those businesses where it's harder and where things don't change much they don't have to produce a new article every day. They can update less frequently and still get some benefit.

[billbenson]

I'm sure you are right to a degree, VG. However, I have no idea how a dentist climbs the dental ladder. I don know that I don't want to be treated by a dentist right out of school. I'll take a kick - you know where - before dental pain. If I'm correct in that, the road to private practice has to take a while.

It does make a good case for the dentist right out of school joining the current generation and using web marketing to its fullest. I don't see the already established dentists (dentists are just an example industry) utilizing the web.

Again, not saying they shouldn't...

[Spider]

...If you keep adding new content you have a greater chance of bringing me back and thus a greater chance of landing me as a customer...Okay - I'm getting a better feel for this, now. I'd like to focus on your above point, for a moment —

How will you, as a previous visitor, know to come back? You have seen a bunch of pages on my site. You don't know if I added them over time (thus suggesting that there might be something more to read if you return) or if I dropped all these pages on the site on a single occasion (suggesting that there will not be anything new for you to see should you return.) You won't know which, so, how will you know to return?

I am thinking that you will not know. So, you will have no reason to return, except to find out if there is something new. If there is, you might assume (correctly or incorrectly) that the site updates regularly and you might find something new at a third visit. If you find nothing new (whether there is something new or not) you will assume that the site does not update and so - possibly - decide not to come back for a third visit. In this latter case, there may have been an update that you didn't see, or this may be a site that updates but you returned before the next update.

So, what I'm getting at, it seems that a visitor really doesn't know whether the site updates or not, so cannot make a rational decision based on updating about whether to return or not. Except after a few times down the road, which if by then nothing appears to have changed, they can conclude that updates are not going to be done. By which time I've either "got" you as a client or I haven't. I don't see the updating or not having much of a bearing on it.

I do like the greater number of pages providing greater chance of being hit by a stray visitor or two from the SEs, but I wonder how much traffic that produces, really?

[billbenson]

I'll chirp in Spider. We are talking about adding quality content here. In keeping with the dentist theme, you could ad pages or blog pages related to inovations in dentistry that appeal to other dentists, researchers, educators. Could be weekly, monthly or when relevant information permits.

You could also do the above related to the consumer. Ad analysis pages on tooth whitening, implants etc. Useful information with the pro's and cons.

In the end, you are making an on line resource. G likes it because by doing so, you start to have an authority site, the content is new and active, etc. Groups of people also like it, because it has good information that is important to them and not biased. That will draw links from .orgs etc.

No reason not to post credentials either.

So: Bob Schlumptz is looking for a dentist. Your dental site appears at the top of the G search You appear to be respected in the industry because of the site. Who is Bob going to call, you or DentistsRus?

All kinds of other revenue streams are possible with this as well.

[vangogh]

I have no idea how a dentist climbs the dental ladder.

I have no idea either. I suppose the same way any other small business grows. The closest experience I have is my dentist back in New York. The first dentist I saw was coming to the end of his practice. He had been my grandfather's dentist and my mom's dentist. I saw him a couple of times as a kid and then he retired by selling his business to another dentist. This new dentists wasn't just out of school, but I don't think he was too far away from school. He probably didn't keep every patient from the old practice, but I imagine he kept most.

[vangogh]

How will you, as a previous visitor, know to come back?

Good question. I'm glad you asked. It's actually easier than you think and in part this is the magic of blogs and rss feeds. Let me use my blog (http://www.vanseodesign.com/blog/) as an example. The link will take you to the main blog page. It's not the home page of my site, but it's in the main navigation and I point people toward it throughout the site.

If you check the main blog page what do you see in the main content area? You see a bunch of headlines for posts I've written along with the first paragraph or two of each. Directly under the titles each posts notes they are written by me along with the date the post was published. Here are the dates of the first few posts you see.

Thursday, July 1st
Monday, June 28th
Thursday, June 24th
Monday, June 21st
Thursday, June 17th

Can you guess when my next post will be published? Can you tell the site is actively updated with new content? I think the answer to both is yes. I think it's fairly obvious my site updates with new content regularly so you would know to come back assuming you were interested.

Now for the magic of rss. Instead of visiting the site you can subscribe to the rss feed. Admittedly the entire world doesn't quite know what RSS is or how to subscribe on their own, but you can get them to with a good design and copy. On my site I added the large icons below the word subscribe. My audience is likely to be familiar with rss so I don't think I need to do more. Another site might offer the words "Never miss a post" or something similar.

You can subscribe in a feed reader if you want. That's how I keep up with the 550+ blogs I read. I don't visit the sites directly. I subscribe in my feed reader. The one I use is a desktop application. I open it in the morning, scroll through the headlines and decide which posts I want to read. Kind if like reading the newspaper. I think all browsers will let you subscribe directly through the browser itself. Google Reader is a popular feed reader. Most of the search engine with a portal (Yahoo, MSN, AOL) let you customize your home page and create new tabs or pages with content. That content is pretty much all rss feeds.

Let's say you don't know about feed readers. You can subscribe by email. A little less than 10% of my subscribers do so through email. When I publish a post it gets sent to them as an email. People who aren't quite savvy enough to be reading hundreds of feeds are still savvy enough to read an email.

Basically you never have to actually visit my site or any site with a feed in order to get any new content that's been published.

Another nice thing about rss is you could set different feeds for different parts of your site. I typically write about design now, but on occasion I write a marketing post. Say you're not interested in my marketing posts, but you enjoy my design posts. If I created separate feeds for both you could subscribe to my design feeds only and skip the marketing posts.

Back to our dentist. Not quite a blog, but his site could be setup so each patient had his or her own feed that could be subscribed to and only the patient could subscribe to their own feed. The dentist could have an appointment calendar application that he or his assistant maintains. The calendar could automatically send out reminders about appointments and the usual things dentist's offices call about. That wouldn't have to be set up through rss, but since we were talking about it I figured I'd point it out.

Again do you need to do any of this? Of course not. You don't need to do much of anything. You also don't need to advertise or spread the work about your business. You don't need to offer a good service or treat your customers well. We can all come up with examples of companies who didn't do those things and are still successful. However if you're in business it certainly makes sense to advertise and spread the word and provide good service and treat customers well. It also makes sense to update your site with new content.

[Business Attorney]

For other sites (where the services or products do not change) there may be some benefit in updating but it is necessary only insofar that to not update would risk losing position in the search engines – and, if the SEs are not a desired source of visitors, regular updating is not necessary, although probably benficial.

Even if the substance doesn't change, a website that appears outdated can be a turn-off. Most sites that looked fine in 1998 would look amateurish today. They were written for smaller screens with fewer colors and rarely had interactive features. Just as walking into a dentist's office with a tired looking reception area that hadn't been updated in 15 years might not be appealing to some people, a website says much the same thing.

[vangogh]

David I'm glad you pointed out the offline equivalent of the dentist's office. For some reason people seem to understand they need to update their office or storefront and keep it clean, but when it comes to their website they don't see the need to do anything after they first launch the site. Your site is your online office or storefront and really should be treated well. It's going to give people an impression of who you and your business are.

[greenoak]

this is a great topic....we like to change ours a bit.but i dont want to throw out the baby withthe bath water....or get rid of something thats working..... the main pictures are working so i really dont want to put new worse pictures on....ive picked the best i have..
..we just had a reorder f rom a lady in california who got in touch with us because of the pictures she said she just loved....... and bought a lot of big cupboards to outfit her store ....without coming...which is kind of rare...
this year we have added a big visual from our facebook and have added to the pin up page and definitely change the middle to keep it seasonal.... but basically we dont change much...

[vangogh]

Yep. You don't want to update just for the sake of updating. When it comes to changing your site you should be doing so based on what's working and what's not working and seek to make improvements overall. When it comes to adding new content it should come from a strategy for growing your business and not just to add some new content.

[KristineS]

For dentists and doctors or decorators for that matter, you should also think about what will add value for the customer. I'll give you an example.

My doctor has a web site. It had a function that allowed me to order prescription refills online, which I loved since calling the office is usually kind of a pain. Other than that I never went to the site. Recently they added a function with a login which allows me to see articles and tips about health based on my particular needs and also get test results and other things without having to wait for a call from the office. It's useful information and I visit the site more because there's more there that is specific to me and which will help me get healthier.

Updates that give your customers more useful information are always helpful.

[dojo]

When blogging, or keeping any content site (forum for instance) constant updates ARE THE KEY. if you cannot post daily, get a more lax schedule and stick to it. By posting more frequently I was able to get my blog from 4 visits a day to more than 200 in weeks ;)

[vangogh]

I'd add that quality is still more important than quantity. I think posting more makes sense as long as it doesn't reduce the overall quality of any single piece of new content. I'll use this forum as an example. I could easily let every spammer post away to their heart's content. We'd have a lot more threads and posts here, but would the forum be any more valuable? It probably would attract more visitors since there would be more content here, but would it really matter?

I think you should always strive first to create quality and then you can strive to create more of that quality. I wouldn't though reduce the quality of your content just to have more content.

[dojo]

I don't post junk and have never advised anyone to do so. You keep a blog if you've got something to say. If not, there's a lot of SEO jobs :D

So, I agree with you. Content is super-important indeed.

[vangogh]

Oh yeah. I hope I didn't come off implying you were suggesting we just post more junk. If I did, my bad. Just wanted to point out the quality side since I know a lot of people might read and think they just have to post more without thinking about whether or not what they're posting is worth reading.

[avanidesigns]

Here's my take on your question Spider.
One short answer is--It all depends on your goals. Keep this in mind too--"There's a tremendous amount of hype out there in IT world regarding what's right, best, etc, so be weary of what you accept as credible information. The Internet really isn't that complicated. Sure there's a learning curve but no need for a Information Technology or Marketing degree to be successful with the Internet.

Here's your answer in a nutshell... If it ain't broke, don't fix it...