5) Keep your site updated. That involves making sure all links work, and changing things around every so often to keep your look updated and fresh.

There you go, five ways to improve your website. Excuse me, I have to go follow my own advice!

Another essential check - dead links. The web is a very fluid medium - sites arrive, move, and disappear regularly, and if your site has a link to one that has vanished or moved, your visitors get a "404 page not found" error message. Your reputation and business can suffer, not to mention your rankings with directories and search engines. I use Xenu's Link Sleuth, from http://completelyfreesoftware.com/ - reports are easy to understand, and can be saved to read off-line.

Finally, a task that is all too often forgotten, but which is absolutely essential, - backing up! If worst happens, you need to be able to create all or part of your web site quickly - and only way is to run regular backups. You can use Backup program that comes with Windows, but I find Swedish program MyOwnBackup much easier to use, and more flexible. Create different sets to back up your web site(s), important data, e-mail, or whatever you want to keep secure. You can create new archives or add new or changed files to a current archive, restore complete sets or individual files, zip archives, and span diskettes. The help includes *9 Steps to a Complete Backup* to guide beginners. Download from main site http://home4.swipnet.se/~w-42000/MOB/ (Sweden) or mirror site http://www.nt-eng.com/mob/ (USA).

Some of my favourite freeware sites: http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com/ http://www.webattack.com/ http://www.jumbo.com/ http://www.moochers.com/