Your website is the first thing customers get to see when they look you up on search engines. It’s your brand identity, which is why updating it with fresh content and performing regular maintenance checks is important to expand your online presence.
If your website is built with Squarespace, this may not be highy on your priority list as Squarespace does the work for you. If you have a wordpress however, this is suited for you.
Often when businesses first launch their websites, it’s a new and exciting experience. There’s a lot of engagement in the start-up process. As time goes by, other things start to take priority and slowly the website is left to fend for itself. Kind of like the valuable items you have stored up in your attic or garage, that you only remember to dust off every once in a while.
Making sure that your website is fully functional and optimized shows professionalism. It shows your clients that you care about your brand and the service or product you’re offering. Neglect it, and you will drive your customers in to the hands of your competitors.
Below are some useful tips to consider that will help keep product and service information on your website up to date. Keep your existing customers happy, boost your site’s SEO and help bring in new leads.
Key Tips for Maintaining Your Website
Refresh your content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Refreshing your content regularly will keep your site’s ranking up in search engines. Google, by far being the most popular search engine. Google uses algorithms to drive search engine results by sorting through billions of web pages to provide users with the most relevant information related to their search. As web content is constantly evolving, Google often changes its ranking systems to deliver best search results for its users. Therefore, having fresh relevant content and pages with good user experience will help keep your site’s ranking up.
To help track your website stats and performance, Google Analytics is a great plugin to integrate with your website.
Mobile responsiveness
It comes as no surprise that the majority of the global population now access online information directly from their mobile phones. Mobile phone usage continues to grow as smartphones become more and more popular. According to Statista, for the 2nd quarter of 2018 at least 52% of global web traffic originated from mobile devices. Also, data from Statista states the number of smartphone users worldwide is set to reach 2.7 billion by 2019. It goes without saying, having a mobile responsive website with content that’s easy to digest on a small screen will help you reach out to more customers.
Make sure your links are working correctly
Have you visited a website before and tried to click on a link that didn’t work? Annoying right? Broken links create bad user experience and will impact your site’s bounce rate. If you have a lot of content on your site with older posts, you may find that some external links may no longer be working.
I remember when I officially launched my site. I was so excited telling my friends and everyone I knew, that I had finally launched my site and was open for business. I made sure I checked everything was working correctly before I eagerly clicked ‘publish’. Well, within a few days of my site launch, my sister called me and informed me that a couple of my videos were not working! Turns out I had forgotten to replace the old video links on my website with the new ones, which I of course fixed immediately. Lesson learnt – always remember to check, double check, even triple check if you have to, to make sure everything’s fully functioning.
If you want to know how to fix broken links in WordPress, this article will show you how.
Check contact forms and opt-ins are error free
Check that your contact forms and opt-ins are working properly. This is important because these are platforms that help you generate new leads. Is your contact information up to date? Are your sign-up forms working correctly? Are your email campaigns reaching your subscribers? Your service and product price lists – how often are they updated?
Categorize your blog posts
I have come across a lot of websites with uncategorized posts, which sometimes makes it difficult for readers to find what they are looking for. I’ve been guilty of this myself – forgetting to file my posts under a specific category. But you live and you learn. WordPress will automatically file posts with an unspecified category into a default category called uncategorized.
When you have a variety of topics on your website, sorting your content under a specific category will make it easier for your users to find your posts. This is useful because the way you present yourself to your customers, says alot about your brand. Categorizing your content makes you look more engaged.
I show you how to categorize your blog posts and rename your categories in this post.
Update your plugins and themes regularly
Please, please, please do not ignore your plugin and theme updates. If you take a while without updating your plugins, your site will become a gateway for hackers. Unforeseen things can happen out of your control, therefore it’s important to update your security plugins regularly to make sure you’re using the latest version compatible with your WordPress site.
Perform regular back up checks in case any breakdowns or virus attacks were to occur. Monitor your website frequently and delete plugins you’re no longer using, delete outdated software and update your passwords every few months to keep the hackers as far away as possible.
Wordfence security is an excellent plugin to secure your website. It checks your files, themes and plugins for malware, checks bad URLs and SEO spam and known security vulnerabilities. To back up your website, UpdraftPlus or BackupWordPress are also good backup plugins to consider.
Your website is continuously working 24/7 for you to attract people’s attention to purchase your products and services. Therefore, creating great customer user experience is key. Pay a bit more attention to your website, check that it’s fully functional and user friendly for your visitors. By maintaining a clean and fresh website, you’ll continue to attract new customers, increase customer retention and boost your sales.
So, when was the last time you updated your website?
As always keep winning. Any questions, feel free to get in touch with me here.
