With the continued growth and expansion of mobile internet, it is imperative that in 2023, all small businesses must have a mobile presence.

According to online statistics, 60.67% of website traffic comes from mobile devices and a staggering 92.3% of internet users access the internet using a mobile phone.

However this doesn’t mean that everyone is accessing mobile websites – there is another choice. Customised apps are continuing to be prevalent in the marketplace and it is important to distinguish between mobile apps and mobile websites in order for you to make the correct choice for your business on the internet.

What’s the difference?

Both work on handheld devices such as smart phones, iPads and tablets but their functions can be completely different.

A mobile website is exactly that – a regular website that converts for viewing on a mobile device.  Normally, the navigation will change so that buttons can be touched with a finger, text will enlarge to a point where it can be easily read and some components of the standard site may be removed to optimise the mobile viewing. The function remains the same as the regular site. The mobile website will deliver information, allow contact via various means and the user will be able to purchase goods online if it is an e-commerce website.

A mobile app is a software application that must be downloaded to be used. This means you will need to visit the App Store (Apple) or Google Play (Android) and download the app directly to your device.

Most smart phone and tablet users are using mobile apps already. A perfect example is the Domino’s Pizza app. Through your phone, you can choose a pizza to order and pay for it online. The app utilises your phone’s GPS and automatically chooses your nearest Domino’s store.

An app is an ideal fit for a larger style organisation that has many store fronts or outlets. Accommodation booking providers such as Trivago and AirBnB have mobile apps to download –allowing customers that frequently need accommodation to book their rooms with very little hassle.

Should my small business have a mobile site or a mobile app?

Whilst convenient to larger organisations, mobile apps are used in very specific circumstances where an “operation” such as ordering pizza or booking accommodation is done frequently. If a visitor to your site needs only to “pop in and out” of your site occasionally for your services then they are unlikely to download an app to do so.

Due to this specific nature, mobile apps are also quite expensive to develop as no one app will be the same.

Regardless of your business, it’s still vitally important that small businesses have a mobile responsive website – this acts as the main point of contact with your customers and will do the job of promoting and selling your small business online.  Whether your business could be further complimented by the addition of a mobile app depends entirely up to the type and scale of the business that you operate operating in.

As proved by 43% of all websites on the internet, the WordPress CMS is an amazing framework to build upon when creating any site.

Not only is it simple to use and update, WordPress has a huge community of developers around it, consistently creating new plugins for use in the CMS. The base framework of WordPress itself is so popular, it is estimated to be used by over 810 million websites worldwide!

It’s so simple to use WordPress to add fresh content, plugins and imagery that sites can easily get slowed down by the shear workload imposed on them by images, plugins, videos and general content. This can create a big issue as modern site visitors expect a site to load its content in under three seconds! Any longer, and they will start leaving in droves.

Fortunately, there are five simple actions that you (or your web developer) can put into place to ensure that your site speed is up there with the best.

#1 Optimise all Images

All website owners and operators need to ensure that images have been optimised before they are uploaded to a website. This means that PNG files should be run through an optimizer like TinyPNG to reduce them and JPG images files must be reduced to at most 80% quality.

The new web standard for images is the WEBP format, which reduces images at a much higher level than PNG or JPG without sacrificing too much in the way of image quality. Most photo editors support WEBP and it should be used in preference to older image formats to ensure higher loading speeds.

#2 Minimise Website Code

Most websites are made of complex programming code, generating everything that you can see on the browser screen. This code is not usually contained in one single file, meaning that your site is “pulling” information from several places as it loads, slowly down the load time.

Adding a plugin to your site such as JCH Optimize helps to automatically compress and tidy up some of the code (specifically CSS, JavaScript and HTML) into one file on the server. This singular file is then accessed by your site visitors, effectively speeding up the load time on their browsers.

#3 Reduce call-outs to external sites

Whilst grabbing web fonts from Google and displaying Social Media on your site may be appealing and give you loads of instant content, they are responsible for a majority of site drag. When accessing information from external sites, your poor website not only has to load itself but it also needs to load content from these other sites.

To prevent this, use common fonts or fonts that can be stored on your own server and minimise your Social Media display – at least on the home page.

#4 Optimise your site’s database

Over time, site updates and usage takes a toll on the database which stores all the information for your site. Keep this data inline and optimised with the WP-Optimize plugin – it will automatically tidy the stored information on a set schedule and keep the background of your site neat and tidy for quick access.

#5 Use Online Tools to determine blockages

If you have tried all the tips above and still need to squeeze out a few seconds of load time, head over to GTMetrix and type in your website address. This online tool analyses your site speed using Google PageSpeed and provides a concise list of how your site is performing and where improvements can be made. Some areas may be too technical and need the assistance of a web developer however quite a few can be “fixed” by a novice user with a few spare minutes.

It’s important to note that not only is site speed essential to your visitors, it’s also important to your Google ranking too. Page speed is an important part of the Google Algorithm – slow loading sites will be penalised with low ranking in search results.

Need help getting your site “Up to Speed”? Tropical Coast Web Design are specialists in developing WordPress sites and we can tweak your small business site until it is purring like a kitten. Get in touch with us and we’ll check it out on GTMetrix for you (free-of-charge) and we’ll let you know exactly what we can do to help!

One of the first questions I am asked when a business approves a quote for their new website is “What happens next?”

And fair enough – most small business operators have had next to no experience in building a website and the whole process can be a bit daunting.

The process itself is fairly straight forward. In this blog, we’ll discuss the very beginning of the site development and work through each of the steps involved to produce a fully functional website that kicks goals for your business.

Step 1: Set your goals and make clear your intentions.

This step often comes after a client says, “I want you to build me a website”. Wrong – you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve online BEFORE you contact a web developer. How else will you be able to describe (in detail) what you want?

Step 2: Choose a developer who can best help you achieve #1

Search Google for web designers or developers in your region (don’t forget to “go Local, grow Local” if you can) and have a look at their online portfolios. If you see any work that “connects” with you or is similar to what you want, get in touch with them and request a free quote. They may ask a few basic questions to personalise the quote but nothing too in-depth at this stage.

Step 3: Create a Design Proposal

Once you have found a developer who you believe can fulfill your online goals, they will start to develop ideas for a possible site. Ideally, they will ask you more questions about your proposed site or send you a detailed questionnaire.

It is at this stage (and all consequent stages) that you need to remember that this is YOUR site, not the developers. If you have concerns during the process, you need to voice them immediately at any time. The design proposal may go through several iterations, but each is very important – you (and your developer) must get it right.

Step 4: Build the Framework and fill with content.

After approval of the design proposal, your web developer will start to code/assemble a framework. This is a “live” version of the site, based on the proposal, that you will be able to view and test before it is launched into the world.

At this stage, ensure your site will have the following components upon completion:

Content Management System (CMS) – Built-in tools for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – Site Security (SPAM, SSL Certificate, Security Blocks) – Clear Call-To-Actions (CTA) on every page. – The ability to track statistics on site visitors (i.e. Google Analytics)

You will also use this stage to develop the content that will appear on the site. Make sure each page is clear, concise and purposeful – no “fluff”.

Step 5: Testing Phase

Due to the wide variety of devices that are used to access webpages, it is vitally important that you check your new site on as many devices/screens as you can. Look and test the site on desktop computers, tablets and smart phones to make sure that your developer has covered all the bases.

Further to this, ask your friends and colleagues to road test the site and give you appropriate feedback that you can pass on to your developer for final tweaking before launch.

Step 6: Launch the Website

Release your site into the World Wide Web and monitor it daily, taking note of any feedback that may help adjust the site for your target audience.

Some may think that the launch of a new website is the end of the process – you can now sit back and watch it bring in all that new business. But, the truth is… launching a site is only the beginning!

Email can be both a blessing and a curse on modern business.

The evolution of electronic mail (yes – that’s where email comes from) has made instant communication and document sharing possible without involving Australia Post. However, email is also responsible for “eating up” valuable time each day as Inboxes are filled to the brim each time we look.

To stay on top of this, I became an Inbox Ninja. Before you ask, let me explain that this doesn’t involve any kind of Martial Arts. It simply means that I have a methodology in place to ensure that I can reduce my Inbox to zero – every single day.

Impossible you say? Well, you too can become an Inbox Ninja by following a few simple rules.

#1 Unsubscribe from Email Lists

Never use your business email to sign up for online newsletters and downloads. Instead, create a Gmail account and use that for any non-essential email sign-ups.

In addition, look at all the junk emails that you receive and unsubscribe from any that you don’t need. Most of the time we don’t read them anyway, so you won’t miss them in the future.

With the emails that you can’t unsubscribe from, use your email program to create a rule that will send them directly to the trash.

#2 Sort / Delete EVERY DAY

To avoid answering emails throughout the day, which can be a huge distraction, set aside time at the beginning and end of each day to do the following:

Sort – Create an email archive folder with relevant subfolders and, after adding required tasks into your schedule*, move emails into those folders – only if they need to be kept.

* I use the project manager app called Flow to keep everything organised (see #5 below).

Delete – Any superfluous emails that don’t need to be answered, tasked or archived should be deleted immediately to clear the Inbox.

#3 Answer emails straight away

Take care of emails that can be answered directly (or with a two-minute task) straight away. Once this done, archive or delete those emails.

#4 Go Old Fashioned

Don’t forget that email is not the only choice of communication. Can you walk over to your colleague to discuss those price changes? Or can you call the distributors to sort out the dispatch issues?

If you can sort things with a quick conversation, don’t send an email – do it in person.

#5 Remove your tasks from your Inbox

As a web developer, I receive most of my work-related tasks via email from my clients. To stay organised in my work, I use Post-It notes to write down each task, archive the email (see #2) and then stick the Post-It to the edge of my computer monitor. Once a day, I add these notes into my project manager, Flow. With this simple procedure, I ensure that my Inbox get emptied and my tasks are always booked.

Obviously, day one of becoming an Inbox Ninja is not going to be fun, especially if you have a large backlog of unanswered or unsorted emails. Bite the bullet, clear yourself some time in your schedule and get to work on that Inbox. In a few short days, just by following the five simple rules above, you will be reaping the benefits with more time to spend on other important tasks within your business.

Do you want to be an Inbox Ninja with a professional email account for your small business? Get in touch with us at Tropical Coast Web Design for a free quote today.

If you’ve recently launched a new website, getting it noticed by Google is critical to driving traffic and growing your online presence.

Google is the most popular search engine, and ranking well in its search results can make a significant impact on your website’s success.

Here are five tips to help you get your new site noticed by Google.

#1 – Create a site map

In short, a site map makes your website more accessible for the GoogleBots that “crawl” the web. A small file that sits on your server, the map informs search engines which pages are available for crawling and provides them with a simple “roadmap” of how the pages are structured.

To make a site map for your WordPress site, download and install the Google XML Sitemap plugin. Once installed, the plugin will automatically create a site map that is readily available to any bots from any search engine – with no more input required from you.

#2 – Use an SEO* plugin

Another tip for those website owners using the WordPress framework is to download and install either the All-in-One SEO or Yoast SEO plugins. These plugins are designed specifically to set up your website for search engines.

They allow you to tweak the keywords, titles and content of your site and, most importantly, the plugins will let you know where your site needs attention in regard to SEO. They also help with linkages between your site and your social media presences (Facebook, etc.)

* Search Engine Optimisation

#3 – Sign up with Google Search Console

Having your site registered with Google Search Console is a must. Not only do the SEO plugins above insist on it, registration is also the fastest way to get Google to notice your site!

The Console helps website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google Search results. With the provided tools, a site owner can also request the re-indexing of new or updated content as the site grows – keeping their Google listing fresh and up to date!

#4 – Create inbound and outbound links

One of the simplest ways to win favour with Google is to have your website address shared and displayed on established websites. These older sites are already listed with Google and as the GoogleBots regularly visit them, they will pick up the new site address when they next sweep through. This prompts Google to “check out” the new site.

In return, the new site should link back to the established website. This is known as a reciprocal link.

#5 – Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free online service offered by Google that gives you insights into how site visitors find and use your website. It allows you to track many important statistics and, being from the search giant themselves, it can help pinpoint where your site is successful in terms of search rankings and where it isn’t.

Using the data provided from Google Analytics, you will be able to target your site visitors with what they want, evaluate the traffic flowing through your website and identify which content is most popular with visitors. You will also be able to view the bounce rate of your site to see if what you are offering is keeping your site visitors interested.

This is all valuable that you can use to make adjustments and climb the all-important search rankings.

Ultimately, it is Google that determines when and where your site will appear in search results. The five tips above will give you back some of the control and allow you to “tinker” with the SEO options for your site. With time, patience and many minor adjustments, you should gradually start to see improvements in your rankings as your site starts “clawing” its way onto page one of search results – which is the ultimate goal.

In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for any business or individual.

Your website is often the first point of contact between you and your potential customers, making it an essential tool for building brand awareness, establishing credibility, and driving revenue. While there are numerous online platforms that enable you to build a website yourself, it’s always advisable to use the services of a professional website developer.

Here’s the top five reasons for using a professional website developer:

Expertise and Experience:

Professional web developers have the expertise and experience to create a high-quality website. They have the technical knowledge and skills necessary to design, develop, and maintain a website that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. They stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and best practices, ensuring that your website is optimized for search engines, user-friendly, and visually appealing.

Customization:

One of the significant benefits of using a professional web developer is the ability to customize your website to suit your specific needs. Unlike pre-built website templates that offer limited customization options, a professional web developer can build a website that reflects your brand identity and offers unique features and functionality tailored to your business requirements.

Time and Cost-Efficient:

While building a website yourself may seem like a cost-effective option, it can often end up being more expensive in the long run. Professional web developers can deliver a high-quality website within a reasonable timeframe, saving you time and allowing you to focus on other areas of your business. They also have the tools and resources to identify and fix any issues that may arise during the development process, ensuring that your website is optimized for performance and functionality.

Ongoing Support and Maintenance:

Your website requires ongoing support and maintenance to ensure it remains up-to-date and relevant. Professional web developers provide ongoing support and maintenance services, ensuring that your website is secure, optimized, and running smoothly. They can also make necessary updates and changes to your website to keep up with the latest trends and best practices.

Improved User Experience:

A professional website developer can design a website that offers a great user experience. They can ensure that your website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and provides relevant and engaging content that meets the needs of your audience. A well-designed website can improve engagement, increase customer satisfaction, and drive conversions.

Using a professional website developer is a wise investment for any business or individual looking to establish a strong online presence. They provide the expertise, customization, time and cost-efficiency, ongoing support and maintenance, and improved user experience necessary to create a high-quality website that drives revenue, builds brand awareness, and establishes credibility.

Website security is an essential aspect of any online presence, whether it’s a personal blog or a large e-commerce site.

With the ever-increasing number of cyberattacks, it’s crucial to implement proper security measures to protect your website from potential threats. In this blog, we’ll discuss the basics of website security and the steps you can take to keep your website safe.

Why is website security important?

Your website is often the first point of contact between your business and potential customers. It’s also a gateway for hackers who may try to gain access to your site to steal sensitive information, inject malware, or deface your website. A security breach can damage your reputation, cause financial loss, and even result in legal issues. Therefore, it’s crucial to take website security seriously and implement the necessary measures to protect your online presence.

Common threats to website security

Hackers use various methods to exploit vulnerabilities in your website’s security. Some of the most common threats include:

1. Malware: Malware is a type of software that is designed to damage, disrupt, or control computer systems. Hackers can use malware to gain access to your website, steal data, or infect your visitors’ devices.
2. Brute-force attacks: Brute-force attacks are a common way for hackers to gain access to websites by guessing usernames and passwords.
3. Cross-site scripting (XSS): XSS attacks involve injecting malicious code into your website to steal information or take control of your visitors’ devices.
4. SQL injection: SQL injection attacks are designed to exploit vulnerabilities in your website’s database by injecting malicious code into the SQL query.
5. DDoS attacks: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks involve flooding your website with traffic to overwhelm your server and make your website inaccessible.

How to improve website security

1. Use a secure platform: Ensure that your website is built on a secure platform that is regularly updated to address security vulnerabilities. For example, platforms like WordPress and Joomla regularly release security patches to fix known issues.
2. Use strong passwords: Use complex passwords that include a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. Avoid using common passwords like “123456” or “password,” as they are easy to guess.
3. Use SSL: Use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt data transmitted between your website and your visitors’ devices. SSL ensures that sensitive information, such as credit card details, is transmitted securely.
4. Regularly update software: Keep your website’s software up-to-date, including any plugins or add-ons. Outdated software can have security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers.
5. Back up your website: Regularly backup your website, so you can quickly restore it in case of a security breach.
6. Limit access: Limit access to your website’s admin panel and use two-factor authentication to ensure that only authorized users can make changes to your website.
7. Use a web application firewall: A web application firewall (WAF) can protect your website from attacks by filtering out malicious traffic.

Conclusion

Website security is critical to protect your online presence and your visitors’ data. By implementing the measures outlined above, you can improve your website’s security and reduce the risk of a security breach. Remember, website security is an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring and updates to stay ahead of potential threats.

Straight up, I need to be upfront with you about the topic of this week’s blog.

Nothing you do today will be immediately effective in turns of search engine response. The three tips below will undoubtedly improve the SEO performance of your website but the effects won’t be seen until the search engine minions (known as bots) crawl through your site again and react to the juicy goodness we are about to leave for them. Once they have had a taste of them, they will report back to their home base – “This site deserves more respect!”

To get that respect, it’s not overly hard to take action.

The tips below don’t require you to be a rocket scientist (or even a web developer), but they will make a difference to the “findability” of your site.

Make sure your page is loading at full speed.

Without going into too much detail, page loading speed has always been important to Google. The faster a page loads for them, the happier they are with your site. And the happier Google are with your site, the higher ranking they will give you. Can’t get any simpler than that!

From a marketing standpoint, a fast-loading page is always a good idea anyway. With advent of faster internet, people just don’t have the patience to stick around anymore. Research has shown that if the content isn’t starting to be delivered within two seconds, visitors will click that back button and go somewhere else.

Tools to help with your page speed:

• In-depth analysis of the speed of your pages can be done at GT Metrix.
• If your site is built on the WordPress framework, installing the Lite Speed Cache is a great way to increase site speed.

Make sure all your content is optimised for SEO

This is a topic that I could write about all day. There are so many elements to SEO optimisation and I continuously come back to them in these posts. But in the interest of keeping things to the point, I can’t break it down any better than this brilliant checklist from Salesforce.

Tools to help with optimising your content for SEO:

• WordPress users can’t go past All-In-One SEO or Yoast SEO.
• Not a tool as such but use a company that specialises in SEO optimisation to help get your content hitting those elements every time.

Make it easy to share your content.

If you think you are making great content and want people to share it, make sure that you make as easy as possible to do so. The geeks over at Google love their social media and it goes to reason that that a strong social media presence now correlates with good rankings in Google’s index.

Tools to help share your content through Social Media:

• The Digg Digg plug-in for WordPress places a floating bar next to your content with every social media option you could ask for.
• Hootsuite is a brilliant way to post onto and keep track of all your social media from one dashboard.

If you implement the tools and tips above but you’re still hungry for more SEO action, check out Google’s own informative site on exactly how they use their secret algorithm to rank your page. For real beginners, Blank Point also has a great site with the “ins and outs” of SEO broken down into layman’s terms.

There’s no time like the present to get in there and give that site of yours an SEO boost. Go and grab that market share that you know it deserves!

In small towns, such as those in regional North Queensland, small business owners have relied for years on local customers for their income. And this has worked just fine for the most part as these businesses have built up loyal trade and trust with good service.

But times have changed. Businesses right through to the early 90’s never had to compete against anything like the internet and the changes it has brought. Nowadays, a huge amount of business is conducted online and, as a small business owner, you are no longer just competing against other local businesses. In fact, for most professional services and especially those selling products, there is no concept of a local business anymore.

Whether you like it or not, you are a state-wide, national or even an international business. Your customers are very aware that if they don’t receive the service they expect to get along with the product they want AND at a price that they like, they are going online to get it somewhere else!

So if your business is unwilling to get online to be competitive in 2023, then you are going to lose a huge chunk of your potential market.

Here’s five good reasons why getting a website is essential to the evolution of a modern small business.

#1 – A website is available to your customers 24/7

With online trading, a customer can choose when they are going to visit you. They are no longer dependant on when you open your physical store. A website allows a business owner to keep products and services moving all day, every day. A mobile-responsive site takes this to the next level with customers accessing businesses on-the-go with tablets and smartphones.

#2 – Your website opens you up to the international marketplace.

A website means that you don’t have to just sell your products and services to locals in your immediate area. If you have a great product and it is easily found online (with search engine optimisation), you are able to sell to anyone, anywhere in the world. You are no longer geographically locked in.
If someone two thousand kilometres away wants your products – with a website, they can get them.

#3 – Window Shopping has evolved too.

Walking down the main street in your town or city is no longer the only way to go window shopping (though some may disagree). Online, your potential customers are always looking and planning where they are going to make their next purchases. They are comparing prices, checking out services and calculating delivery costs. Even if they may not be making an immediate purchase, when they do, those online businesses who have made an impact on their searches will definitely come to the forefront.

#4. Online, you can build your position as a Key Person of Influence in your industry.

Your website and your online presence have become key factors when customers are searching for a new business to deal with. A strong presence is a terrific way to demonstrate that you are a modern business with its finger on the pulse of your industry. Customers testimonials are also a great way of showing your prospects that you are capable of delivering the products and services that your offer. Social Media interaction (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) will help to build a community of loyal followers that your business can use to develop, research and sell new products. Each one of these components is essential to build your authority as a KPI (Key Person of Influence).

#5 – On the internet, size does not matter.

A website is a great leveller. Whether you’re a one-man show or a 20,000-employee corporate giant; if you offer prompt and friendly service backed up by a quality product, you can compete head-to-head with the “big guys”. On the other hand, if you don’t have a website, you’ll be losing business to other companies that do.

Despite all the reasons that are spruiked daily about the benefits of an online business, it is estimated that more than half (52%) of Australian small business owners do not have a website. This is astounding considering that 82% of small business owners get new business through referrals. If you don’t have a website, how do these referrals find out more about you?

If you want to evolve your small business and access a greater share of your industry’s market, get in touch with Tropical Coast Web Design today and we will examine an online strategy that will work for you.

If you have been following my blogs, you would have heard me say (dozens of times) that Search Engines love fresh content.

Even more importantly, so do your site visitors. Nothing entices a visitor to return to a website than the knowledge that each time they return, they will find something new to read or explore.

As a website owner, the downside of this expectation of new content is that it can be very time consuming to create that content. You do have a business to run and if you spent all your time creating “free” content to entice people to your site, then the business is obviously going to suffer. What can be done? In this blog, we will discuss how you can create the illusion of new content to keep those clients coming back until you can get new content online. Please remember that some of the solutions shown are not suitable for a long-term replacement for actual new content – so keep the hate-mail to a minimum please….

1. RSS / News Feeds

RSS feeds have been used for a number of years to allow the automatic syndication of content across many websites. You have probably seen the RSS Feed button at the bottom of news stories and blogs but have been unsure how to use it effectively.

Basically, a publisher (blog owner, news organisation, etc) will allow you to display their content for free – pretty good huh? It will be automatically attributed to its parent site however it will be displayed within the framework of your site. All you need to do is copy the provided code onto your site (or your web designer can do it for you). You can also grab a number of RSS feeds from a variety of sources.

This is a fantastic way to get quality information on a regular basis delivered automatically to your website. Make sure that the content feeds that you subscribe to are relevant to your core business. One note: a danger with automatically displaying content is that you don’t have any control over what is displayed. Make sure you keep an eye on the content to ensure the integrity that you try to convey with your business is maintained.

2. Facebook / Instagram Feed

Use a plugin to set up your website so that any updates that you make via your company’s Facebook or Instagram account are automatically displayed on the site. This will save you time. If you post information, a status update, or a link once, you shouldn’t have to repeat the process for each medium. If your site is based on WordPress, there are a multitude of plugins that will (if setup correctly by your designer) display the updates as an integrated part of the web page.

You can also grab social media feeds from other sources such as employees, suppliers, and partners.

Automatic content doesn’t get any easier.

3. Random Post Displays

This is another one that can be set up very easily with the use of WordPress plugins. Use the multitude of older blog posts that you have in the archives of your website to your advantage.

Through the use of a randomiser that selects a blog post at random, you can display a different post each time a visitor lands on your front page. Make sure that you allow the date to be omitted so that visitors don’t get confused.

Some may look upon this as a form of cheating however if you have quality posts in your blog, you might inadvertently uncover some gold for your clients without any effort at all.

4. Slideshows

For a pictorial type of “fresh” content, set up a slideshow on your site that randomly selects images from the gallery to display. You can do this either as a continuous slideshow or simply display a key image on your front page whenever a visitor arrives.

To ensure that visitors have less chance of seeing the same “random” image repeatedly, make sure that your image gallery has a wide selection of piccies to choose from.

5. Ghost Writers/Blog Guests

My final tip involves employing a “ghost” writer or guest for your blog. This tip is the only one that we are talking about today that has content created specifically for your website but comes with one inherent danger – whoever you employ to write for your site, be aware that they are not intimately connected to your business like you are. They don’t have the same passion that you have, and this may be evident in some of the pieces that they write. Be very careful about using this last tip as, if it is not monitored carefully, it could “blow up” in your face.

There you have it, five tips to get fresh content displayed on your site without creating the content yourself. Please remember that these are only stop-gap measures that you should only use when you cannot find the time to get new content out there on a regular basis. Do not, whatever you do, set up these systems as a permanent measure. Your site visitors will eventually notice.