Establishing a successful website with a bright future requires more than simply publishing content; you need to constantly refresh and update your website in order to generate traffic, attract links and appeal to new readers. Most search engines recommend updating your website on a fairly regularly basis, but many site owners fail to realize the simple power of these updates. Five reasons why you should constantly update your site:

• Fresh content improves your search rankings
• Updated material appeals to readers
• New information offers an edge over the competition
• Fresh content helps your marketing efforts
• Updates inspire other websites to link to your content

In other words … you should never consider your site finished!

There are over 40 browsers and operating systems in use today, which may mean that your page will not load quickly, efficiently, or maybe not load at all in some browsers. With so many different ways to view your site you should make sure visitors will never miss your message with a slow-loading site. Remember, there are still some internet users with dial-up service (I know it’s hard to believe!) and load times are a critical matter for them.

TIP: Always optimize your photos for faster loading and avoid very large pdf files. Try to save photos at about 72-90 dpi (dots per inch) and size them about 700 pixels wide. This is a good rule of thumb for most website needs.