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Content
Management
There are many things that all webmasters must do on a regular basis to
ensure that their web sites remain useful and functional. Some of the tasks you should be
performing are listed below.
Promote You must promote
your web site constantly. Every single day you should do something, anything, which attempts to get
people to your site. This is extraordinarily critical in order to ensure that people continue to
visit your site day after day. The "Advertising" section describes many of the techniques that you
can use to get your site noticed.
Check your links Another
task that must be performed on a regular basis is checking for "link rot". This is the tendency for
broken links to appear all over a site. It is most common with external links (sites move, are
abandoned or are modified all of the time) but can occur occasionally with internal
links.
Change Your Site People
expect sites on the web to be constantly changing. If your site is static and unchanging there is
no reason for someone to come back again - after all, they've already seen it so why return? One
major way to get them to come back is to change the content constantly and to be sure that your
visitors know it is changing.
Monitor Your
Site Subscribe to a service which checks your site on a regular basis. This is
important, as if your site is constantly "bouncing" you will find it being removed from search
engines and your visitor levels will drop.
Review Your Statistics A
task you should be performing on a regular basis is to review your statistics. At a minimum, you
should check your page counts to be sure that your site is being viewed. At best, you need to know
where people are coming from, which browsers they are using and what they visited while they were
at your site. A webmaster who does not have access to statistics is a crippled webmaster who has no
idea how effectively his website is performing.
Publish A Newsletter I
firmly believe that all webmasters who maintain sites of any significance (a reasonable amount of
content) should regularly publish a newsletter. This allows interested visitors to be updated on
events and new materials published on the site, and gives the webmaster a method for communicating
with his audience at will.
Stay Up-to-Date All
webmasters need to stay up-to-date on new technologies which they can use to improve their web
site. In addition, getting certified, joining organizations, continuing their education and
attending conventions is essential to staying current and active.
Review Your
Site Occasionally review your site. When you look over a page, check your
grammar, spelling and accuracy. Remember that as time progresses your articles may become stale, so
be sure and recheck your conclusions and facts. What may have been true when you wrote the article
last year is not necessarily true or important anymore.
Check Your Site's
Security Learn as much as you can about web site security, and ensure that, to
the best of your abilities and knowledge, that your site is secure. This ensures that your
customers (if any) and visitors information remains confidential and safe. It also protects you and
your web host from harm.
Protect Your Visitor's
Privacy Post a privacy policy and adhere to it without exception. Review your
practices occasionally against your policy to ensure you are following it to the letter.
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