Website Development Is An Ongoing Process.
By Rik Tairea

Did you know that the Groundzero website has been online since 2001. It started off very small with not much content, and I didn't spend one cent on it through the use of free hosting, free url redirection and other free services.

I had no idea it would still be around today.

I say this because the first few months were lacking in the results department, especially traffic wise. I also put up a few banners thinking to myself that I was going to make the big bucks - Holy Moly was I wrong!

Through trial and error, reading as much info as possible on anything related to creating, maintaining and promoting websites and, implementing plans that actually worked, I feel that I've finally got Groundzero to a place where I think produces the results I've been striving for.

Something I just realized a couple months ago (at the time of writing this article) is that the continuing development of a website is an ongoing process.

Take Groundzero for example, if you take a look at the website now compared to how it was back in April 21st 2001 (the official birthday of Groundzero) you would see two completely different sites.

I'm taking a wild guess but if memory serves me right there were only about 3 sections (this included a links page) and about 10-15 pages of content (I'm probably being a little generous with that number) and a very different design. Compare it to today's website with 10 sections (with various sub sections), a few hundred pages of content, a (former) newsletter and a completely different design.

Now it's obvious that I didn't add all that stuff to the website in one go and I should also state that sections, pages and/or services were also removed from the site.

Things like guestbooks and polls that didn't really serve much purpose other than making the site look amateur were removed (not that I think that Groundzero is the most professional website out there, like you I've seen better).

Thanks to this continuing evolution, traffic has increased along with revenue. Why? Because I've added content that people are looking for (and removed stuff they didn't want) combined with the process of optimizing pages for search engines to get free traffic.

Take a look at the revamped books section at Groundzero (which has since been removed), a couple of weeks ago (at the time of writing this article) it had only 1 page and 3 books on it but now it has 25 books each with a page that has essential info about said book.

My point?

The site is a few years old but and I'm still adding to and modifying it.

The reason?

It keeps things fresh by having content that's relevant and in demand.

Here's a simple formula for websites :

create - promote - maintain - develop - promote - maintain - develop - promote - maintain - develop - promote - maintain - develop - promote - maintain - develop - promote - maintain

Without even realizing it I've been following this formula for the last few years (not only with Groundzero but with other sites I've created). It's a good formula because it works, it proves that website development is an ongoing process, and a worthwhile one at that.

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The above article was written solely for Groundzero and may not be reproduced in anyway on print or other media. This article was written by the webmaster, creator and owner of this site.
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