Over the weekend I received a frantic email from a prospective client asking for some help with a website emergency. It seems that her Word Press website was no longer available and was showing the dreaded message “Fatal Error”.

The website had been developed several years ago and apparently no one had ever updated Word Press itself, nor any of the plug ins that had been installed on the site. Not keeping your Word Press installation updated opens the site up to the potential for a security breach and conflicts with the plug ins. In this case, ignoring the need to monitor and update the site cost this business owner several stressful days and possible lost revenue.

Yet, when I suggest additional maintenance and support services to new clients, I frequently get the comment, “That’s too much money. Why would I need that anyway?” Well, no one likes to pay for insurance on their personal property, but you’re sure happy to have it when somethig bad happens. And, with all the wonderful benefits of a Word Press site, it is a constantly evolving platform. The benefit to this is that there are ongoing improvements to its usability and new features that can make your site even more powerful and effective. But, as Word Press evolves, the thousands of little specialized programs called plug ins may not keep pace. Ultimately a conflict can occur, when a old plug in doesn’t work under a new Word Press update or the site becomes so outdated that it is a target for hackers.

A properly maintained site means someone regularly checks your site, performs the process to deactivate all plug ins BEFORE the Word Press update, and then carefully reactivates the plug ins, one at a time, to test for any potential conflicts. They test the site and check for any “broken” links on your pages. And, most important of all, they install, schedule and monitor regular backups of both the database AND your content, so, if the worst happens, your site is back up within minutes instead of days.

So, when a web developer recommends a regular montly maintenance program, please think carefully before saying “no”. Because a few dollars per month can save you thousands of dollars in repair or lost revenue in the future.

The email came from an individual who identified herself as an “Internet marketing professional”. She said that my client’s site was not on the first page of Google for a particular keyword search and she could help as she and her partners own “1,000′s of sites” and were selling “high quality, one-way anchor links” through this network of sites. She bragged about how she could get them ranked #1 on Google for this particular keyword search.

OK, a couple of problems here. One, she was incorrect. For the keyword search she mentions, my client IS on the first page of Google, not the #1 result, but definitely on page one. Two, this client is a local nonprofit, so anyone searching for their services would most likely include the city or county in the search. So, for their keywords and the location, they are #3 on the first page.

And, most importantly, what this person was offering is known as “link farming”. This is where someone develops multiple sites for the sole purpose of selling links to another website, with the intent of driving a high volume of inbound traffic and manipulate the search engine results. You see, search engines take into account the volume of traffic sent to a website from other, high quality, legitimate websites. Now, here are the keys: “High quality” and “legitimate”. A link from the Wall Street Journal to your site would no doubt generate high volume and it would be coming from a legitimate, well known website. Even a link from another small nonprofit or business would count, as long as it was clear that there was a legitimate connection between the two entities.

Here’s the plain truth: Search engines, especially Google, do not take kindly to people who try to manipulate their results through these types of tricks. They consider this type of activity spamming and have taken aggressive steps to penalize the link farm sites. As a result, your site can also be blacklisted by the search engines for your participation in this type of “link building”.

Remember that link building IS an excellent activity to increase your search engine results, but do it with legitimate websites that have a direct connection with your type of organization and maintain high quality content themselves.

I recently read an article about having three words to define the New Year to set the tone and establish a goal for your life. I have decided that my three words for 2011 will be Focus, Balance and Fun!

Why those three words? Well, quite frankly, those describe three things that have been lacking in my life for the past several months. Once I decided to make substantial changes in my business, I have found myself working waaay too hard, giving up doing the things that I enjoy (and those that are good for me!) and overall just not always having a good time. And, the sad thing is, I started a lot of projects, but didn’t really feel as though I got a lot accomplished. And the worst part was, I found that I became so busy that I didn’t make the time for exercising (which has always been important to me), and I started to have trouble sleeping. I also spent so much time working I found myself working on my laptop after dinner, instead of spending time with my husband.

The final straw was that I caught a really bad cold, and I hadn’t been sick for at least 2 years! My body had finally rebelled and said “Enough!”. This was a wake up call for me.

So what do my magic words mean to me?

Focus – I started a lot of projects this year that I never finished. So my goal is to set meaningful goals with action steps and focus on completing things. Maybe less will be planned, but certainly more things will actually completed.

Balance – All work and no play makes Deanna a dull girl. It also makes her overweight, cranky and sleep deprived. I will get back into working out, especially my Pilates practice.

Fun – It’s pretty sad when you look back at your week or month and can’t really think of an example of times of pure fun. So, it’s maybe a stretch to me to say “If it isn’t fun, it doesn’t get done”, but there has to be a lot more fun in my life ( see above: Balance). So that’s my goal!

What are your three words for 2011? What advice do you have for me to help achieve Focus, Balance and Fun?