Here are a few reasons why maintaining your website is important:

# Attracting the search engines – Search engines are important to the livelihood of your online business, but they don’t like “dead” websites. Websites which have been left static without updates or fresh content are a no-no in the online world. Another thing search engines don’t like is broken links.

As you build your web pages it’s easy to miss broken links. A good strategy is to double check every link you add to your website. Inevitably you may miss some or some may become broken with time (as web addresses change and so on). Regular maintenance and “check-ups” for your website will help you spot these broken links and keep your customers and search engines happy in the process.

# Updating information may increase your sales – Regularly looking over your website will also help you make changes and adjustments as necessary. For example, you may have started promoting what was a great product two years ago but now that product may be outdated and not so great anymore. By updating your website you may find products and promotions which are a better match for your visitors. This means more money in your pocket and more satisfied visitors.

Look through your old web pages to see if there are any promotions which can be updated or given a little extra “oomph.” Times change and on the internet time moves at a faster speed – keeping up with the times is important and you can do this by simply looking over your pages and tweaking as you go along.

# Keeping track of your stats is important – Another part of your basic web maintenance is keeping on top of all your visitor statistics. It makes sense to regularly go through your website and check how many visitors you have on a monthly basis, where they’re coming from, how they’re finding you, what pages they’re accessing and so on.

A running log of these statistics will help you quickly identify any potential problems such as loss of traffic or reduced income from sources such as Google AdSense and so on.

Regular web maintenance for your website is important. It can help you keep up with changing times, help to attract more visitors and ultimately make you more sales. If you find this task difficult to squeeze in, try scheduling it in for a set time each month or every few weeks. It shouldn’t take long and the time investment may make all the difference to your business. And finally, if you don’t have time to do the web maintenance yourself you can always think about hiring an assistant to help you with this task.

What is an interactive website?

Simply put, it’s a website which lets its visitors interact within the community, rather than just a static website which doesn’t offer the opportunity for feedback or interaction from the visitor. There are no specific rules or interactive models to include in your website, and you’ll need to test different approaches to see which work best for your business. To get you started, here are a few tried and tested interactive methods that may be right for you.

#1 – A community forum. A forum isn’t difficult to add to your website. There are many webmasters and virtual assistants that can help you with this task. Once you have your forum in place, it’s the place where people can connect and add comments to your website.

A forum not only builds a community feeling but may also help your website rankings within the search engines. Search engines love fresh, updated, original content and a forum helps you achieve this.

However, it’s worth noting that forums can be difficult to get off the ground, and maintaining them does take time and effort. Many forums get plagued by spammers so it’s good to have a set plan in place for dealing with this before starting. You’ll need to put time into deleting “spammy” messages, dealing with member issues, and generally monitoring the happenings of the forum.

But don’t let that put you off; an active forum is a fantastic addition to your website. Just go into it knowing the pros and cons of having one.

#2 – Add a blog. A blog is another fantastic addition to your website. Search engines love blogs because they can be a source of fresh, updated content. A blog is also a great place for your visitors to leave comments and interact with you on a personal level.

To really make a blog interactive, add a dash of personalization to it. You don’t want the blog to read simply like a web page or article. This is the place where you can let your personality shine through and show a little more of your “personal” side.

#3 – Twitter and Facebook. These two seem to go hand in hand and both are great tools for building a loyal following of friends and fans on the internet. Similar to a blog, Twitter and Facebook entries can be a little more personal.

But don’t forget to add business posts to your personal side as well if your end goal is to increase your business. An important point to note is that your personal information will be on display for all to see. Before posting, always ensure that you're happy for any current or potential customer to view your posts.

Add your Twitter and Facebook information to your web pages to make it easy for your visitors to find you.

#4 – Start a newsletter. If you haven’t done so, this is one of the best interactive tools for your business. Not only does a newsletter allow you to freely communicate with your visitors and potential customers over and over again, but it’s also a great way to receive feedback for your business.

If you monitor your emails on a regular basis and put a system for replying to them in place, then your visitors will feel that there is a “real” person behind the website and this will help them feel more integrated with your business.

#5 – Add a poll. Adding a poll to your web pages or newsletter is a great way for customers and visitors to voice their opinion. It’s also a fantastic way for you to do market research. Regular polls will not only help your visitors feel their voice is heard and that they are part of your website, but will also help you gather important information to potentially help you improve your website and marketing.