The Best Customer Is The One You Already Have

Your website is often the first way that many customers connect with your company, so make sure you make the best impression. Sites with broken links and stale information can confuse customers and lose their trust. Even the busiest business owners can make time for these three tips from Entrepreneur experts and contributors to ensure sites are up-to-date, functioning properly and sending the right messages.

1. Make a date. You or your web team should set an appointment to review the site monthly and quarterly. At the bare minimum, think monthly about numbers and names. Did any phone numbers or addresses change? Did key staffers come on board or leave the company? Make sure the information is current. Once youve finished, click key links on your About Us page, and in your header and footer to make sure everything is still live.

Use quarterly reviews to think longer-term: take a few minutes to see what your competitors are doing online that you should work into your upcoming plans. Similarly, take a moment to step back and ask yourself: are your pages easy to navigate? Is the information you share clear and understandable? Fix anything that is confusing or distracting to customers.

2. Make it simple! Get rid of bells and whistles that slow your site - and your customers - down. And dont give yourself tasks you cant finish. If you find you cant keep up with your blog, get rid of it. If youre more likely to post a Tweet on the fly, replace your blog posts with a feed from Twitter. Find solutions that work for your business.

3. Think online when you think big picture. The solution here is expanding your approach. Whenever you sketch out plans for big changes, clue in your online team so they can keep pace and be prepared. Information on new locations, services and products are often overlooked but are a basic part of marketing. Thinking on the front-end can save you massive headaches, lost time and lost sales on the back-end.