 |
| How to Refresh Your Business Website This Year |
If your website has been running a little more slowly than you'd like, it might be the perfect time for some spring cleaning.
There are lots of things you can do to improve your website, boost user experience, and increase your sales -- what could be better?
Read on to learn some tips that will 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 ought to 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, there are issues that could be keeping people from completing their orders, you can fix it right away. As from my own 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 the perfect time to assess your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy, too.The loading speed of your website can have a huge impact on 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, you may also want to look more closely at the keywords you're using and your link-building strategy.
Check Your Links
Speaking of links, you should look carefully at all the links on your site at this time, 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 get rid of old links, too, and replace them with newer, more relevant information.
Get Rid of Outdated Content
While you're getting rid of outdated links, now is a good time to get rid of outdated content as well.Some of your blog posts might not be relevant anymore, or they might contain information about products that you no longer sell or services you no longer offer.
Don't leave them up there so they can confuse people who are visiting your site for the first time.
Be sure to revamp old content, too. Update the calls to action or add in 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 members of your team will be able to find blog posts that 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 take a look at the images on your site.Get rid of images that are old or outdated (holiday pictures, pictures of products you no longer offer, etc.). You should get rid of images that are off-brand, too.
While you're at it, take a look at the alt text for these images as well. Make sure 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, take time to update content tags for different pages and blog posts, too.Are there tags or categories that aren't relevant any longer? Do they need to be reorganized so that people can find them more easily?
This definitely isn't the most fun chore to do, but it's very important 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.Lots of people forget 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, though, and it will boost your business's credibility.
Look for Consistency
All the content on your website should be consistent. Make sure you're using the same tone and tense in all your blog posts and on each page of your website.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 you're looking at the functionality of your website, it's a good idea to look at the navigation and website design hierarchy, too. These things can have a huge impact on 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, why not fix them now?
Test on Various Devices
Finally, be ensure to test your website on a variety of devices (desktop and mobile).This will help you ensure that people can access your website no matter where they are or what kind of device they're using.
While you're at it, it's a good idea to test your website on various browsers, too.
Need More Help with Your Business Website?
As you can see, there are plenty of things you can do 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 lots of other articles on our site that can help.
Start by checking out this article today to learn some simple web design tricks that every business owner needs to know.
