So you're a brand new business owner. You just bought a brand-new building and you're going to sell - uh - goldfish. So you give your store a fresh coat of paint, line the inside with shelves and goldfish tanks, drop in the goldfish, and wait for the customers to start pouring in - right?

Wrong! You have to advertise. How else will people know about your fantastic store and your fantastic goldfish?

So you put an ad in the paper. You dress a guy up in a goldfish costume and have him wave at cars passing by. And most importantly - you create a website. In this day and age, consumers spend a lot of their time researching businesses online. And like anything you put your name on, you want your website to be professional and fantastic-looking. So you hire someone (like On Digital Ground for instance) to create your site - launch it - and presto! You're online! Fantastic! There's nothing more to do now, right?

Well, um - wrong. You wouldn't put a coat of paint on your building and then never touch it again, would you? Of course not - the paint would start to peel and look dingy and old. Even though the paint won't peel on a website, it will still look dingy and old if you never do anything to it. You shouldn't ignore your website once it's launched. When you advertise, do you use the exact same ad every time? No - you add new things, put new offers, give new information. Your website should be the same way. Display current sales and new offers on the homepage, add informative articles weekly about goldfish, you can even host a message board where people can chat about goldfish and upload pictures of their fishy friends. When people visit your site over and over and over again, they'll recognize you as a valuable business, they'll recommend you to their friends, they'll have your name fresh in their mind whenever a goldfish need arrises. Brand loyalty creates repeat business, and a changing website creates brand loyalty.

So pretend you're one of your customers and take a look at your site. Imagine you're seeing it through a customer's eyes. What things would you find interesting if they were different each week? What kinds of topics would you like to see talked about? What's something that would keep you coming back to this site on a regular basis? Then go one step further and ask friends and family these same questions. Ask your loyal customers - they know your business from a customer's standpoint better than anyone can pretend to.

We at On Digital Ground would be happy to help you keep your site current. We have the resources to be a webmaster for your site, or we can help you set up a CMS (Content Management System) and teach you how to update your site yourself. Either way, you know your site is fresh, interesting, and people can return over and over and find something new to explore each time.