If you have extra time during lockdown, it’s a great chance to complete some tasks that you never get around to – a website review is a great example.
We all know how important our online presence is these days, so take an hour or so and give your website a full once-over.
Is the site working properly?
First things first, are your functions and forms working? Plug-in updates or changes in email addresses can send your form submissions into a black hole without anyone realising.
How does it load? Is it slow, are there images missing or broken widgets? Make sure your users are not getting frustrated or leaving with an unprofessional view of your business by getting the basics fixed.
Up-to-date, fresh content
Importantly, is the information on your site correct? You’d be surprised how many websites contain old promotions or out of date information, so make sure you update these oversights.
Take this opportunity to refresh some of the content, offers or images. Google loves to see fresh content when ranking your website in search results.
What is your objective?
What are the main actions that you want people to take? Do you want them to find specific info? Do you want them to call you or send an enquiry? Is it important that they find your physical location?
Make sure your menus and homepage design help people to find the most important information up front. If your business objectives have significantly changed, you might need to look at a homepage or full site redesign.
What makes you different?
One of the most important features in a saturated online marketplace is your brand’s point of difference. Why would a customer choose you over the competitor down the street?
This is actually something very important to articulate, it’s helpful for yourself, your staff and your customers. Make sure this is clearly presented across your brand, and especially on your website.
Quality over quantity
So many sites have an overabundance of content, but quantity won’t win against the sharp, quality content of competitors. A few well-written pages are worth their weight in gold, but so often the quality of content is overlooked.
Have a look at larger competitors and review their content to get an understanding of how your copy compares. It is definitely an area that is worth brining in some more expert help if words are not your forte – if cost is an issue, work through one page at a time.
Is your site secure?
So many websites are living on borrowed time, or worse, already been subject to hacking activity. People often hand off passwords to people all over the world in search of cheap website development, needless to say, this is pretty risky.
Aside from the issue of hacking, is your site properly maintained and updated? Do you have regular secure backups? Cheap hosting or development options sound attractive but are not worth the risk of losing your site or being blacklisted by Google.
If you’re not using reputable maintenance and security, please reconsider your hosting options as a priority.
Get a second opinion
Any review will benefit from more eyes, so ask some friends to take a look. Consider people who are completely outside your industry to see if things make sense to an outsider. It is quite likely that you or your staff might miss things because you are so familiar with the site and your company material.
Need to make major changes?
Get the critical things fixed as soon as possible, and make a plan to tackle the rest, either step by step or all in one hit.
Not sure if it’s worth investing in an old site? Again, fix the critical issues straight away and make plans and a rough timeframe for redevelopment and talk to us about a cost estimate.
Need help with hosting, maintenance or website design? We can offer expert IT services and a website built to meet your business objectives and budget.
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