Publishing content on a regular basis is a good idea. Keep reading to learn why its important and how to do it correctly.

It’s now common knowledge that you should have regularly updated content for your web site. The key reasons for publishing regular content are:

* More visitors
* Changes to your site keep people coming back
* Better search engine rankings
* Helps keep you on top of business issues facing you and your clients

Hubspot published the results of a recent survey from their clients. It turns out that those who publish on a regular basis receive 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages. (If you aren’t sure what the latter two are, they are great for search engine ranking.).

More visitors mean more people see your message and this could lead to more interactions with your organization.

How do you go about publishing regularly? Make a schedule and stick to it. If you do not have the time, outsource it (we can help).

How do we do it? Each month, we publish content on behalf of our clients. They may come up with an article, a video, or a podcast and we’ll make it “web-ready”, post it and make people aware of it through social media and newsletters. Sometime the week after publishing, Google and Yahoo pick up the new content.

Some clients publish more regularly, some less. Some participate in the process and some outsource everything.

Make sure your content is relevant to your audience! This is more important than regular publishing because a bunch of web content will only slightly affect your search rankings if no one links to it.

Have ideas? List them in the comments below….

When the web first became a popular means of communication among businesses and organizations, its information stream was decidedly one way. Companies would establish websites that told customers who they were and what information they wanted the viewers to know.

As the web developed, it became more interactive. Websites began incorporating blogs, which allowed for a more informal conversation that encouraged the viewers to respond. But even with blogs, there can be a definite lag between comments, which slows down the conversation. Websites also began including video and audio clips, which are useful, but don’t lend themselves to immediate interaction between the viewers and the website’s business.

For a more immediate degree of interaction, businesses have begun incorporating live streaming video.

What is Live Streaming Video?

Live streaming is created when audio or video signals are sent over the Internet in real time. Some examples of it include video conferencing, NCAA basketball tournament videos, and showing movies online. The immediacy and the degree of interaction are the key aspects of live streaming.

Imagine if the television show “American Idol” were broadcast as a live streaming video. Although it is currently shown live, it does not allow for viewer interaction during the actual program. What if, after a performance, host Ryan Seacrest were to turn to the viewers and ask for them to vote immediately through their computers. A winner could be determined even before the commercial break.

Live video, or streaming video, is being used in online adult education classes. The teacher can introduce the material and students can ask questions in real time, leading to a greater understanding of the lesson.

Businesses and organizations that want to introduce products or help their users increase their product knowledge also use streaming video.

When To Use Live Streaming Video

A regular day in the office probably doesn’t warrant using live streaming video. But a special event certainly would. A grand opening, a special religious service, a product introduction, an educational course, or a business meeting with employees spread across the country or world could warrant the use of live video.

Ustream.tv is a leader in creating and sharing live video. It allows users with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly set up a streaming video format. Ustream’s service is free, and is used for personal and business use. Ustream recently introduced a pay service, Watershed, which is designed specifically for businesses.

Other providers such as Mogulus and Justin.TV also offer free and for fee models.

You can establish your own “channel” of programs on most providers, and can also embed your video onto your own website.

Do You Need Live Streaming Video?

If you have an important event that you want to share with your customers, members, volunteers, or followers, this is an excellent way to keep them involved and informed. If you want to spread your message to others who are not familiar with you, and encourage their interaction, this can be a good start. If your website is well developed, maintained, and robust with updated information, and you are marketing your organization or business through social media channels, this is a good next step.

Informative, interesting website videos usually don’t just happen. Careful thought is needed to develop a video that captures the viewer’s attention while communicating your organization’s message. If you want to create an effective video, follow these four steps.

Plan The Video

Although your video does not need to be tightly scripted, you should first spend time planning it out.

What is the purpose of your video? Are you a religious leader who wants to welcome people to your site and introduce them to your organization? Are you a small business owner who wants to inform prospective clients of your services or products? Do you want to demonstrate or teach a concept? Depending on your needs, this may be a one-person message, a montage of short interviews, a longer interview or an instructional demo.

Who is your audience? Being very clear on who will see your video helps you determine your style, including language, music and references used.

On paper, determine exactly what you want to have in your video: what key points you want to make, what camera shots you want to include, what call to action you want to have. While you’ll sound more natural if you don’t speak from a script word for word, you do want to have an outline of how your conversation will flow.

In Hubspot’s blog “6 Tips for Making a Business Marketing Video”, author Catie Foertsch adds to be sure to end your video with a call to action. What do you want your audience to do once they’ve seen this video? Tell them clearly, so that will be their lasting memory.

Plan Your Location

Deciding where to shoot your video means finding a place with a suitable background that isn’t too plain or too distracting. Many videos are shot in an office, perhaps with a bookcase or closed curtains as a backdrop.

Your location also needs to allow for adequate light. Natural sunlight provides a soft lighting, or you may use additional artificial lights to counteract shadowing.

Make sure your location lets you record without unintended outside noise (traffic, wind, etc.) or the echo of an empty room.

Picture your scene. Look at your scene through the eye of the camera. Is there anything in the background that is distracting? Be sure nothing in the background looks awkward. Floor lamps, for example, can stick out behind heads and look like painful appendages.

Get Your Equipment

Having necessary tools is essential in creating a successful video. Naturally, you’ll need a camera. In the white paper, “22 Mistakes Corporations Make with Online Media and How to Avoid Them,” MobileCast Media, a video production company, suggests recording in high definition. HD videos can be reused for other purposes, the white paper explains. But some media outlets reject content shot in standard definition. “Shooting in high definition not only ensures a great image online, but gives your footage more mileage when new needs arise,” the paper continues.

A tripod is also very helpful to make sure the camera stays still.

You may want to have a separate microphone from the one on the camera. Steve Mack, author of The Podcast Bible says in an article on video podcasting that viewers have little patience for listening to videos with bad audio. He suggests finding a quality microphone for around $100.

Edit Your Video

Now that you’ve got your video captured on camera, it’s time to put it on the computer. Video editing software can help you edit out unnecessary parts, as well as add music and pictures. From there, you can put it on your web, or format it for additional distribution as a video podcast.

By spending some time upfront preparation, you will save time and effort and minimize frustration and costs–all while developing a professional looking video.

Your website is a thing of beauty. You have spent hours designing it, your content developers are busy writing material and you have created a detailed calendar of topics to include in it.

But is the website working for you?

How do you know that your website is effective? Is it reaching the people you want to reach? Is it getting them to do what you want them to do? The website is a major part of any advertising and marketing campaign, but is it having an impact on sales or fundraising or volunteering?

Most web hosting programs offer a variety of analytical information that can help you determine who is using your website and how. We prefer Google Analytics with a few modifications over any host-based stats program (plus, it’s free).

Here are some important ways to use that information to see just what your website is doing for you:

1. Number of visitors. How many people came to visit your site today? While it’s great to have a solid number, you need to know more. How many of them are unique and how many are repeat visitors? What sites did they come from? If they found you through a web search, what search words did they use? Are they looking for you specifically by name, or by function? By knowing where your visitors are coming from, you can get a better idea of how to attract even more.

2. Conversion rate. How many viewers take an action that you want them to take in your website? This could be purchasing a product, clicking on a link, or downloading a report. A low conversion rate could signal that your message isn’t clear, or that visitors are looking for something different.

3. Stickiness. How long a viewer spends on a particular page is important. If they bypass a page you feel is chockfull of useful information, that page may need to be retooled. On the other hand, if you find that visitors are spending more time on a page than expected, there may be more opportunity to enhance it and link it to other pages.

4. Exit Pages. Where do your visitors leave your website? Practical eCommerce suggests that there are natural places for visitors to leave your site, such as the last page of a purchase. However, if visitors are leaving your site before that, they may not be able to find the information they are looking for, get frustrated and exit. Does your website need to be altered so information can be found more easily?

5. Ranking. Can visitors find you on the web? If they are looking for you specifically by name—and your name is not a common one–probably so. But if they are looking for a more generic product you sell or a service you provide, your website may get lost in the crowd. Increasing your search engine ranking will bring more visitors to your site. Using keywords that are used in searches and adding new information to keep your website fresh will help increase your rankings.

You can also see when someone uses your website’s name on the Internet. By setting up a Google Alert, you can be notified anytime a specific phrase or name appears on the web. In the case of your website, you can see who is using it, where and how.

Web statistics should be reviewed at least monthly so you can tweak both your website as needed, and adjust your other advertising and marketing efforts accordingly. Also, check your search engine position monthly. Search engines adjust their methods for ranking periodically, so your rank could change even if you haven’t done anything different.

In addition to statistical information provided by your web host, you can also uncover more information through free sources such as Google Analytics or Yahoo! Web Analytics.

Developing this routine of reviewing and improving your website is a vital part of growing your website and your business.

Once your website is up and running, you can forget about it and let it do its work for you, right?

Well, no. A website alone is just a collection of data on the Internet, unless you maximize its usefulness. Used effectively, however, it can be the foundation of your marketing, and the connector to all of your promotional efforts.

In order to make sure your website stays healthy, happy and effective for the long-term, be sure to follow these four steps.

Integrate

Your website is often the first way that potential customers, members, volunteers or clients find you and learn about your organization. Creating a visually appealing website, developing pages and links that are easily navigated and populating it with interesting information is essential. Once people have come to visit you, take the opportunity to connect them with other aspects of your organization.
Make sure that your website has links to your newsletter and blog. Be sure your website address can easily been found on those other media. Use your website address as part of your signature in your business emails. Better yet, use an email address that incorporates your website name. For example, joesmith@mybusiness.com sounds much more professional than joesmith@hotmail.com.

Does your website truly represent all parts of your business? Are you including activities from all departments and branches? Are the initiatives and goals of various divisions incorporated on the site? This process helps the website provide a more complete view of your company.

Refresh

To encourage viewers to visit your website frequently, it needs to offer something new periodically. Develop a schedule for adding new items. It could be a preview of upcoming events, new newsletters, or updated blog posts. It could be a review of a new product, a thank you for contributors of an activity, or an acknowledgment of contest winners or awards. Develop content for your desired audience.

Refreshing information in your website isn’t limited to text. New pictures, video or audio are very effective at communicating with your visitors.

Invite readers to check back with the website for new information, so they form the habit of visiting you repeatedly.

In addition to keeping your website interesting for current visitors, by changing your content periodically, you can attract more new visitors. When a person does a search on particular keywords, search engines scour the web to bring up appropriate search results. By adding new information to your web, you give the search engine more information to find, which helps it find your website faster, and puts it higher on the results list.

Keep looking at your web site statistics. The stats program will show you how people found you and what words they used to find your site in search engines. You can use this information to help you create new material for your site.

Renew the Design and Functionality

At minimum — Every two or three years, it is time to give your website a checkup. Is it starting to look a little dated? Are the links in it still up to date? Are there better ones to use? Every few years or so, you may need to overhaul your website. Does it do everything you want it to do? Do you have the space and speed you need to convey your organization’s message? Do you need to incorporate any new functions, such as a shopping cart? Based on customer needs and business direction, you may need to retool your website so it stays compelling.

Plan and Budget for Website Health

Whether you’re just starting a website, adding more content or looking to upgrade your existing site, it is vital to plan for the website’s continued maintenance. Who will you designate to maintain the website?

How often will you add content? Do you have writers and a fixed schedule to ensure you’ll keep fresh material in stock?

Most importantly, do you have money set aside to pay for maintenance, including new programs or upgrades that may be useful as your website grows and develops? You should set up a monthly operating budget that includes money for personnel, stock photos, hosting, and any outside help needed.

By planning for the long-term needs of your website, you can help it live a long and healthy life and return your investment.