Spring is just around the corner which means that it’s time for some annual cleaning. This year, include your website in the list of things to be handled during your spring purge. We all make periodic updates and additions to our websites but many people forget to back up and take a comprehensive look at what is being offered on this electronic, all-important, 24/7 brand billboard.
WHY YOU SHOULD DO IT
Aesthetics
Your website is often the first impression potential clients get from your brand. If the appearance of your site is outdated or it is poorly structured, people may transfer that impression to your business. Staying on top of design trends and integrating the aspects that make sense is an easy way to keep your website fresh and modern looking.
Some of the latest design options include parallax scrolling, which allows your site to feature a floating navigation bar, product zoom, hover effects, and interactive navigation. Visitors will notice the look and feel of a modernized site. Even something as simple as increasing the use of white space can improve the aesthetics of a more established website.
User Experience
Keeping your website fresh is more about keeping pace with changes in web standards than anything else. The consistency of content presentation across devices is essential so it is important to offer a site that is mobile friendly and has a responsive design. (A mobile-friendly website displays web pages exactly the same way regardless of the device being used. A responsive site works with the parameters of the device being used so often the navigation is condensed and some content is either hidden or optimized to present the site on the device.)
User behaviors are also changing. With the popularity of smartphones, the general public is much more in the habit of scrolling than they were when most people used desktops or laptops to access the Internet. This change in behavior allows for a different mindset in where on a web page important information is presented whether we are talking about actual content or the navigational tools.
Security
Keeping your site and your customers’ information safe is an absolute priority. One of the best ways to protect your website from hackers is to regularly install software updates. Regardless of the content management system or the hosting platform you use, you need to make sure that there is a consistent schedule of system and software updates. Many website platforms automatically provide those but be sure to check your update settings and options to ensure you are protected.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Optimization for search engines is a moving target as Google, Bing, and the other search engines are constantly updating their algorithms. Each time a new iteration comes out, your website may need some tweaks to make sure you are giving yourself the best opportunity to rank well in the search results. Whether you are unfamiliar with SEO best practices or need a refresher, we’d recommend the following:
Speed
Speaking of SEO, loading times of your web pages is part of the criteria search engines use to rank various websites. Sites that load quickly will rank higher in the results than those with slower loading times. Not only that, the general public is becoming more and more impatient in regards to the time it takes to begin interacting with a website. If they are unable to engage with your content in just a few seconds, they will readily move on to a website that is better optimized for speed.
These five reasons to refresh your website are certainly not all inclusive but they should provide enough inspiration for you to start asking what steps you should take to bring your website up to speed. Here are some suggestions:
WHAT TO DO
Confirm that everything is working properly
Perform A/B testing
Check analytics
Proofread all content
Create new content
Create a content calendar
Update keywords
Research your competition
Confirm that everything is working properly
Nothing will increase your bounce rates like broken links, buttons, or any other features that might not work the way you originally intended it to. Yes, this means going through your site, page by page, to check for missing text, poor-quality images, incorrect information, and themes or plugins that you need to update or fix. Every page needs to make an impression – for the right reasons.
Perform A/B testing
A/B testing will help you understand whether or not your site is performing as effectively as it can. If you are not familiar with A/B testing, it is simply the idea of creating two versions of a home page or call to action button (anything, really) and showing them to different segments of your target audience. You can set it up to randomly send visitors to one version or the other and then track and compare the engagement levels of the two.
Check analytics
Utilize the tools out there, like Google Analytics, to understand the overall performance of your website as well as the performance of individual aspects. You should be tracking which web pages have the highest engagement rates, which have unusually high bounce rates, where on your site people are spending the most time, and so on. For more information about website analytics, see these articles:
Which Analytics Can Help My Website?
Proofread all content
It is completely possible to read content five times, use spellcheck and Grammarly, and still have errors in your text. So, read it again with a set of fresh eyes. While you are going through the pages, check for any organizational, formatting, and style issues that need to be remedied. Visual consistency is key to presenting your brand in a professional manner.
Also, make sure that all of your content is up to date. Has any of your contact information changed? Have there been any staff changes? Are the services or products listed on your site accurate?
Create new content
New, high-quality content not only increases the engagement potential of your site, but it also helps with your search engine rankings. Rewrite your About page to reflect any big accomplishments in the past months. Incorporate a blog page or, if you already feature a blog, increase the number of articles you post in a month.
Supplement the text-based content with infographics, images, and videos. Highlight any new products or services you’ve added to your offerings. Update your frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to reflect the latest communications from your clients. If your website is not linked to your social media profiles, its time to make those connections. Most web platforms allow you to easily integrate social sharing buttons and your website will benefit from the traffic generated by your social media followers.
Do you feature customer testimonials on your site? How recent are they? Rotate your client reviews fairly regularly and do your best to keep them as recent as possible. Consider including a picture of the client, with his permission, of course. Or, post the testimonials in video format so potential clients are hearing first-hand from satisfied customers.
Create a content calendar
If you tend to post content to your website in an “as I have time” fashion, create a content calendar and commit to sticking with it. Your calendar can be all inclusive of social media posts, newsletters, blogs, and other website content. (Don’t forget to repurpose content across channels!) A calendar will allow you and your team to create a flow of content that focuses on topics important to your target audience and likely to increase engagement and conversion rates.
Update keywords
A proper smattering of keywords throughout your website and all of your web-based content, for that matter, should be a fundamental part of your marketing strategy. Keyword research was probably one of the tasks you undertook when you were first building your website. Because search volumes tend to change, it is possible that those initial keywords are no longer as effective at driving traffic to your website as they once were. You’ll also find that voice search technologies are changing the way we need to think about keywords and key phrases. (To learn more about voice search, READ HERE.)
As such, we’d recommend dedicating some time to evaluating the performance of your established keywords. If any are underperforming, search for more popular alternatives. Also, integrate more long-tail keywords to accommodate the shift to voice search and to capture more of your target audience. You can find a number of tools online to make this task easier. Google Keyword Planner, KWFinder, and Moz’s Keyword Explorer are a few we’d recommend you start with to learn more about the options available.
Check out your competition
Insights from your own website are important. When you combine those with insights from your competitors, you exponentially increase your knowledge and will find your online efforts better informed than ever. There are tools that will help you compare your site to others depending on the metrics you want to evaluate. BuzzSumo provides information about the most successful content for any topic or competitor. SimilarWeb breaks down information from 80 million websites and 3 million mobile apps into over 200 categories of data. Ahrefs offers tools that let you monitor your niche and research your competitors while working to grow your own search traffic. And those are just a small handful of the resources available.
Your website is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your reach, increase your brand awareness, and market your business. There is no need to completely overhaul your website, but a little updating of calls to action, content, and images will go a long way to keeping visitors on your site and increasing your conversion rates. A fresh, modern presentation of high-quality and engaging content is essential to best leverage the power of your website’s potential.
The experts at Strategy Driven Marketing have extensive experience implementing best practices for website design and development. We’ve worked with organizations of all sizes and across a variety of industries. Our team can help you offer a high-quality website that features all of the modern technology bells and whistles, boasts engaging content, and clearly communicates your brand’s value proposition. Contact us today to get started on that spring cleaning!
Cover photo by Murilo Folgosi from Pexels