When last have you REALLY looked at your website? Have you recently tried to navigate the menu, find information or send a ‘contact us’ e-mail? Having a website with inappropriate content, outdated information, broken links /menu options or stale humour just does not cut it anymore.
Maintaining your website must be a crucial part of your online strategy. Here’s a suggested to-d0 list to update and zhoosh-up your site and make it all the more alluring for your visitors:
- Make a list of your top keywords.
Top words or phrases that describe what you do. Specifically if possible. If you understand how to categorize your business, it will be much easier to group and explain it to others. Here’s some help if you’re interested (post is a somewhat older but offers good content).
- Read through all the pages.
Does the content still make sense? Is it relevant (i.e. has it been updated recently to reflect current industry news, your own product and service improvements etc.)?
Do you use your keywords to describe your business and your service / product? Try to steer clear of flowery descriptions that never use your keywords. How on earth will Google now to look for you if you don’t at least give it a hint?
Are the pages interesting, engaging and appealing? Will readers enjoy the time they spend on your site? It is always a good idea to spend time planning the content of your site. Repeating the same stale information over-and-over again from page-to-page and year-to-year will encourage your would-be visitors to look for other websites!
- Look at the pictures.
Do they make sense? Do you use pictures of your products or your staff members? Will people now more about your business, your values or your brand personality by looking at the pictures on your site? If you answered Yes – good for you! If No – it’s probably time to dig through the photo libraries and pictures folder!
It is also a good idea to rename the pictures on your site to reflect it’s content. Numbers (from a SEO and content perspective) aren’t great. Use descriptive titles AND make sure that you add descriptions (image ALT Tags) to all the images on the site. Good for search engines. Good for you.
- Links to other sites
I have written an entire post on back links before if you want to know more. Suffice to say that you should probably think of:
- Adding your social media feeds or icons to your site
- Linking your blog to your business site
- Linking your website to your social media profiles
- Mention your website whenever (appropriately!) possible
It is also an excellent idea to get other people to review your site. Ask them to comment specifically on user-friendliness, enjoyment, appeal and of course value-of-content. Now, it’s time for you to start making some changes to your website.
Diva, over and out.
Officially {on} Adrinalin 