Customers and search engines love fresh, updated information. Most people groan at the thought of having to work so hard at adding new content regularly, but it's really not as complicated as you think!

Weblogs or Blogs

Blogs exploded on the scene about a year ago with services like Moveable Type (http://www.movabletype.org/) and Blogger
(http://www.blogger.com/) making it incredibly easy for anyone to publish on the web. A blog is basically a series of posts that appear by date posted -- the oldest ones scroll off to an archive. Fundamentally, these are online journals. The setup for a blog is minimal and the interface is easy to learn -- it's as easy composing a word processing document and hitting save. BAM. You’re a web publisher!

Blogs are a hit with people who like keeping an online journal and these personal blogs are a huge part of the online community. But blogs aren't just for angst-ridden teens and conspiracy theorists; they can help your business too!

You can integrate blogs seamlessly into your site so they have the same look and feel as your site. You can use a blog to publish a running event calendar (http://www.webbwilder.com/blogs/theroad-v2/theroad.html) or comment on industry news developments (http://www.searchengineblog.com/). A blog can be strictly professional, announcing specials, daily interest rates, or new product info or it can be casual and create a personality for your company.

To use blogs efficiently to promote your business, think about what your customers want to know and focus the content on supplying that information.

Newsletter

For example, you can start a newsletter. Ask visitors to sign up for your newsletter (never send unsolicited e-mails) and set up a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly schedule to deliver your newsletter. Then stick with it!

Your newsletter could include product offerings and specials mixed in with useful product reviews, or it might be a recap of what's going on in your industry. If you aren't a writer, find articles customers would be interested in and that you can reprint. Make sure the newsletter has some value to the reader. Archive the newsletter on your site for additional content and make the archives available for browsing.

Most web hosts have some sort of mailing list capability, or you can compose and mail your newsletter in Outlook. There are many third-party mailing services that are ideal if you plan for a large list -- check out Constant Contact (http://addme.roving.com/).

Several blog programs include the ability for readers to comment on the thread. This lets general users create an account and post their comments to your blog. This is something to be careful of as you can get negative comments along with the positive.

Interactive Pages

A forum is an incredible tool for building content and a community. It's not a task to be undertaken lightly; it requires a lot of time and energy and some technical knowledge (or a tech budget!)

If your industry has a need, or your product has a loyal following, a forum is a great tool to build content while drawing like-minded individuals together. A forum is great for market research, technical support, building a fan base, trading ideas and knowledge, and many, many other benefits.

Forums work best when you start off with a core group of people willing to post -- no one wants to talk to an empty room! Try to get people from similar business or industry experts to post at your forum. It's exposure for them and helps to build a solid foundation for your information.

If you decide to start a forum, be sure to use one that is search-friendly, such as InvisionBoard
(http://www.invisionboard.com/) or phpbb (http://www.phpbb.com/), and set aside a good chunk of time to promote it and administer it.

Feedback & Reviews

Unsolicited feedback is a powerful tool! Let your customers tell other customers why they love you. It's much more compelling than your own claims, if handled correctly.

There are many ways to handle feedback -- the easiest way is to simply set up a form to allow customers to submit their feedback. You can then publish the ones you choose (with permission).

There are many scripts and other software solutions that will allow people to review your products or service online. This can be risky if you aren't willing to take the good with the bad! Used well, it's a powerful selling tool.

Often people can be enticed to write a review or testimonial for your site in return for a link back to their site. This helps them with link popularity but it helps your site as well it shows a real person wrote that review.

Ask The Expert

This is a great idea. Using forum software, users submit questions and someone at the company (the expert) answers them. The question and answer are both published on the site for users to read once the issue is answered. This is less time-intensive than a full-blown forum but a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of what customers want to know while still adding content on a regular basis.

Summary

I've often heard the argument, "My site doesn't need to be informational, I just sell things." That may be true. There are plenty of sites that are lean and mean and built to sell; these kinds of sites usually rely on things like PPC advertising and offline promotions for traffic. That's a viable business model and it works well.

But if you want to build loyalty and interest in your company, gain repeat business, and you want increased traffic from the "editorial" or free listings (http://www.rightclickwebs.com/seo/seo-analogy.php) in search engines, you have to offer more. If you create a plan for content that offers value and interest to customers, you can have a site that is built to sell AND drive repeat business.

About the author
Scottie Claiborne is the owner of Right Click Web Consulting (http://www.rightclickwebs.com) and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter (http://www.successful-sites.com). She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the Administrator of the High Rankings Forum (http://www.highrankings.com/forum) and a moderator at the Cre8asite Forums (http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/).