Spring Cleaning Checklist: How to Refresh Your Business Website This Year

How to Refresh Your Business Website This Year

Did you know that 39 percent of internet users will click away from a website if the pictures take too long to load? Did you understand that the same is true if the website loads too slowly?

If your website has been running more slowly than you'd like, it might be the perfect time for spring cleaning.

You can do many things to improve your website, boost user experience, and increase your sales -- what could be better?

Read on to learn some tips to help you refresh and revamp your business website just in time for spring.

Test for Speed and Functionality 

As you saw from the statistics mentioned above, site speed is crucial to the success of your website and your business in general. One of the first things you should do when spring cleaning your website is to test your site's speed and functionality. Be sure to test the checkout function on your site, too (if applicable). 

That way, some of the issues keeping people from completing their orders, you can fix them immediately. From my experience, sometimes all problems can be solved by choosing a fast and quality hosting provider.

Assess Your SEO Strategy 

According to this blog, spring is also the perfect time to assess your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy.

The loading speed of your website can significantly impact how easy it is for people to find your website online.

There are other steps you can take to improve your SEO, though. For example, look more closely at your keywords and link-building strategy. 

Check Your Links 

Speaking of links, you should look carefully at all the links on your site now, too.

Check your links and fix any that are broken -- nobody wants to click on a link and have it take them nowhere, right?

Be sure to eliminate old links and replace them with newer, more relevant information.

Get Rid of Outdated Content 

While you're eliminating outdated links, now is an excellent time to eradicate obsolete content.

Some of your blog posts might not be relevant anymore or contain information about products you no longer sell or services you no longer offer.

Make sure to leave them up there so they can confuse people visiting your site for the first time.

Be sure to revamp old content, too. Update the calls to action or add additional research to make posts more relevant and valuable to your visitors.

Clean Up Your CMS 

In addition to cleaning up your content, why not clean up your CMS, too?

Do you have lots of half-written blog posts taking up space in your CMS? Delete them. Then, hit the "permanently delete" button in the trash folder.

This can help your site run more efficiently. It also makes internal linking easier since your team members will be able to find the blog posts they need more quickly.

Review Your Images 

It's good to evaluate your content when you're spring-cleaning your website. It's also good to look at your site's images.

Get rid of old or outdated images (holiday pictures, pictures of products you no longer offer, etc.). You should get rid of images that are off-brand, too.

While at it, look at the alt text for these images. Ensure the alt text contains the keywords you hope to rank for -- this is great for your site's SEO!

Update Content Tags 

In addition to updating alt text, edit content tags for different pages and blog posts.

Are there tags or categories that aren't relevant any longer? Do they need to be reorganized so people can find them more easily?

There are more fun chores to do, but it's essential for the usability of your website.

Update Copyright and Time References 

This won't really influence the performance of your website, but it will show users that you're posting up-to-date information.

Many people must remember to do this, especially when there are so many other seemingly more important things to do to clean up your website. It only takes a minute to do, and it will boost your business's credibility.

Look for Consistency 

All the content on your website should be consistent. Ensure you're using the same tone and tense in all your blog posts and on each website page.

This enhances your business's professionalism and credibility. It also helps people learn what to expect from you and your brand.

Evaluate Navigation and Hierarchy 

While looking at your website's functionality, it's a good idea to look at the navigation and website design hierarchy, too. These things can significantly impact your branding and your conversion rate.

Is it easy for people to get around and find what they need? Is your site organized in a way that directs people to your product or service pages (or wherever else you want them to go?)

If you're not satisfied with these aspects of your website, wait to fix them now.

Test on Various Devices 

Finally, be sure to test your website on various devices (desktop and mobile).

This will help you ensure that people can access your website no matter where or what device they're using.

While you're at it, it's also a good idea to test your website on various browsers. 

Need More Help with Your Business Website? 

As you can see, you can do plenty of things to clean up and refresh your business website.

Put these tips into practice, and you'll have a much easier time revamping your website and ensuring it runs as efficiently as possible for your users.

Do you need more help with improving your business website? If so, we've got many other articles on our site that can help.

Start by checking out this article today to learn simple web design tricks every business owner needs to know.