There are so many tasks that might seem unpleasant in the moment, but make you feel so much better afterward—working out, meal prepping, tracking expenses, cleaning your house, etc.
Engaging in activities that are good for you might not be as easy as pushing the laundry another week or letting the pollen dust pile up on your porch, but since when did the easy way get you anywhere great?
The same is true for your business.
As a business owner, there are likely tasks you have to do that you just don’t look forward to—tax day, filing receipts, auditing your tech stack, and even maintaining your website. But all of these tasks are critical to your business operations.
One task too many business owners push to the bottom of the list is updating their websites. You have so much to do on any given day, why spend time combing through webpages and code? Because your website is your business’s first impression, and you want to make that first (second, third, etc,) engagement as memorable as possible.
Your website isn’t a one-and-done project. It can and should remain current and up-to-date. How can you freshen up your website and make it sparkle this spring?
Below are a few ideas to clean up your website.
Conduct a content review
Content is an essential component of your website—it draws readers in, tells your story, and communicates your message. If it’s been a while since you’ve spent some time on your site, dedicate a few hours this month to reviewing it.
The words you choose to represent your brand should be intentional and might need refreshing as your business grows.
Ensure that your website properly communicates:
- Accurate business information
- Recent service offerings
- Updated team information
- New Resources
- Consistent Blogs
- Lead Generation Content
Is your about page stuck in the past? Can your art/photos be updated? Do you have some older blog posts that could benefit from recent information? Have your service offerings changed during the pandemic? Are you offering new free resources that your audience should know about?
You want your information to be as fresh as possible, not only for your readers but also for SEO. Sites that consistently publish new content and ensure all their information is up-to-date get a shiny gold star from search engines.
Find new internal link opportunities
Relevant internal links are crucial to your site’s health. Internal links keep visitors on your site longer and provide more opportunities to supply them with valuable content.
Updating old content is a great place to start. Say you have a post on RMDs with pre-SECURE Act rules and language. Take some time to update that post with the most current information, so readers can access it. This also opens up opportunities to include this post in an email campaign or social media rotation. Repurposing your content in intentional ways helps you make the most of every word!
The same would be true for company-specific blogs. Perhaps Walmart or Coke updated their retirement plans. If that company employs a good portion of your client-base, updated retirement information would be of great interest.
Your older blogs might also benefit from internal links to your more recent posts. If you have an evergreen blog about long-term goal planning and you recently published a piece on balancing short and long-term financial goals, that opens up a great linking opportunity.
While this process might be more time-consuming, it ensures that each piece of your content purposefully connects to the others—like a book you just can’t put down.
You also want to make sure that your blogs link to other pages on your site—services, contact, lead magnet, webinar— to keep your audience actively involved with your company.
Check your CTAs
Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to check-in with your CTAs. Ask yourself some questions.
- Do you have clear, actionable, and specific CTAs for every page of your website?
- Is the language persuasive and compelling?
- Does the action make sense?
- Are they easy to find, see, and interact with?
- Are your visitors clicking?
CTAs are critical for your conversion rates.
Proofread
Isn’t this why we have spellcheck? While it’s tempting to leave the letters to the spelling algorithms, sometimes pesky typos can sneak their way into your text. This can even happen on pages you’ve already proofed before.
Let this sentiment guide you, “to err is human; to edit divine.” Glance through your copy to ensure each word is spelled correctly and flows seamlessly from one section to the next. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation have a big impact on your reader’s experience and interpretation of your message.
You might realize that your missing comma alters the meaning of the sentence, for example. Let’s not forget how Alexander Hamilton’s comma in the middle of the phrase sent Angelica Schuyler’s heart fluttering all the way across the sea in London.
Dive into your analytics
You may find the ever-evolving nuances of the tax code endlessly fascinating but your audience really wants to know if they actually have enough money to retire or how to balance saving for retirement with their other financial and lifestyle goals.
How can you find out what your readers respond to you?
Look at which pages your users are viewing (and how long they stay) to better gauge the engagement-levels of a certain topic. This could inspire you to write a series on that topic or leverage it for your next email campaign or lead generation materials.
While diving into your analytics should be more than a yearly endeavor, now is a great time to pop into your analytics dashboard and look at traffic sources, bounce rates, conversion rates, and more.
Update all software and plugins
How many times has your computer prompted an update yet you always click “remind me later”? Probably more than you’d like to admit. Updates help keep your software running properly—the same is true for your website.
Here’s why you should keep your website software/plugins up-to-date.
- Better protection against security risk
- Improved functionality
- More sophisticated features
Do yourself (and your website) a favor by taking the time to install the latest version of everything. This task won’t take a ton of time but can do wonders for your overall security.
Check (and fix) broken links
Things break, even web links, so it’s essential to stay on top of this housekeeping task. Whether the URL changed or the page was taken down, broken links happen but it’s important to find and fix them.
Broken links cause frustration and disrupt the user experience. They also hurt your site’s SEO. You can use your Google Analytics to check for broken links. Try to stay on top of your links by checking every month or so to ensure everything is running smoothly and your users aren’t stuck with any 404 pages.
Review your site’s mobile capability
With over 60% of searches conducted from a mobile device, optimizing your site for small-screen visitors is a critical component of ongoing web maintenance. Be sure to ask (and answer) the following.
- How does your site function while browsing on a phone or tablet?
- Do the fonts, text, photos, and styling make sense?
- Do your banner or pop-up ads distract from the user-experience?
- Can you easily click between pages?
- Is the load-time reasonable?
Freshening your site’s mobile capabilities can do wonders for your overall engagement. Take time this spring to make intentional changes to optimize this viewing platform.
Consider the design
While you may have designed your site to feel evergreen, intentional design updates can drastically elevate the look of your site. Here are some small ways that design can make a big difference.
- Updated photos
- Modern script
- Better use of brand colors
If you’ve been hankering for a bigger redesign project, consider pulling in a professional design team to help you tell your story with the site design. A fresh redesign could help you with the following.
- Optimize your layout
- Tell your brand’s story
- Enhance the user experience
- Improve your on-page flow
- Tools and widgets that speak to your business
Enjoy your updated website
Once the hard work is complete, take a second to enjoy your shiny and sparkly new website. It’s great to see the changes in real-time and continue to monitor what works and what can be changed.
Regular website maintenance is essential for functionality and user experience. Take some time this spring to clean up your website and make an unforgettable first impression.
Want to talk through additional website updates for your site? Schedule a call with our team today!
