Do you ever look at your own website?
If you’re running a company, there are often many things on your daily To-Do list, improve any website you manage is probably at the bottom of it. Below are a few steps that, if you can manage, will make a huge difference to how your website runs and how often new calls are coming in.
First things first: Do a little assessing
We highly recommend that you go into you the back end of you website weekly (okay…at least monthly) and make sure there is nothing broken. No broken links, all your plugins are up to date. In addition, make a list of the following:
- Are all the photos tagged with alt tags?
- Is all of your content is up to date?
- Is your team member page up to date?
- Do you have any new services or changes that need to be made?
- Have your hours changed?
Keeping track of these needs and taking the time to make those updates improves your Google ranking. This is essential! The more frequently you update your website, the higher your website will appear on Google search results.
Next, let’s get into the nitty-gritty
How are those visuals?
Besides regular back end updates, another way to increase the quality of your website as a marketing tool is to make sure your website upholds and maintains your brand image. Does the content sound like you? Do the images and graphics look like you? Your entire website is the first line of connection to your clients, make it a good one!
What about that software?
Do yourself a favor and update your website software and security updates as often as possible. To make sure you don’t accidentally break your website, make a backup of your site before doing updates. Small updates are fine to do yourself, but with major updates, you might want to call in the professionals in order to keep the integrity of the site running smoothly.
Web Content used to improve any website?
Creating new content for your site doesn’t have to mean changing the words on your existing pages. The easiest way to consistently add new content to your website is by adding blog posts, Press Releases, or events.
Lastly, how’s your SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, basically means how you ensure that your website will show up on the first page of Google search results. A website with really strong SEO will display higher in Google search results than a website that has a poor SEO ranking. If you’ve done the above, you’re already on your way to improving you SEO and it helps to improve any website. Here are a few last items you might want to consider if you have extra time:
- Perform a Visitor Experience review. This is where you actually click through your website as if you were a visitor. Is it clear how to get from one place to another? Can you get to your products/contact us form in two clicks or less? Make notes of how this goes and use those notes to improve your content.
- Run a Google Analytics report and review it to see how you are doing. Are you increasing clicks to your site? Decreasing? Are your visitors staying longer or are they leaving under a minute (if they are leaving maybe you need some more compelling content on your site)!
Now that you’re a web maintenance professional, carry on! These tasks, while often time-intensive, make a huge difference. A website can be a phenomenal marketing tool, but only if it’s working properly. Need a little extra help? Holler at us!
