Having up to date content on your website is potentially one of the most important things you can do as a small business or municipality. Think about it, why do you have a website? If you’re a business you want your website to be informative and act as an instrumental marketing tool. You want your website to tell a story about your business and bring in customers. As a municipality you want to provide as much relevant information as possible about your local government. You want to make sure that your residents, tourists, prospective residents, and businesses looking to invest in your area are able to find what they need easily. So what content should you put on your site?

Let’s start with small business websites. It’s important to be able to tell your customers who you are and what you do, so every small business should have an “About Us” page and a “Products/Services” page. These pages are your opportunity to warmly introduce yourself to your customers and tell them about what you do and why. The next most important item you should have on your site is your CONTACT INFORMATION. Having a website is no use of no one can get in touch with you right? It is also important to have links to your social media, online fillable forms for appointment scheduling, information about sales or specials, and effective calls to action. Again, it is extremely crucial to actively maintain all of this information and update your content frequently otherwise it’s all useless.

As for municipalities, the function of your website is different so your content should be too. Ordinarily someone will want to get in touch with an official so it is important to have a section for your officials and their contact information. Similarly having information available for each department can help users find what they need more easily. Next it is important to have permits and forms available online. If these permits and forms are fillable directly on your site it will save your residents and your staff a lot of time. It is also crucial to have your meeting minutes, agendas, and calendar of events available online so your community members can stay in the loop. Your calendar should include board meetings, trash or recycling days, fundraisers, festivals and any other activities that are hosted in your community. By the same token, having a section for news and events is a great way to keep your residents informed.

Having the proper information and content on your website is hugely important, but making sure that content is up to date can be even more important! Whether you are a small business or a municipality the best thing you can do is provide the right information to your users and make sure it’s accurate. If you’d like a deeper explanation or have other questions you’d like answered just shoot me an email!