(There are technical lists like this on the Internet for web developers, but we couldn’t find one for owner-operators who update their sites themselves. So, this is a non-technical checklist of stuff to consider updating a few times a year… starting now.)
I noticed it this morning on my phone… the first temperature dip into the thirties. Sure, fall may have started in September, but we don’t pay as much attention to calendars as we do the weather.
Which reminded me it was time to remind our clients to do some fall website cleaning. When was the last time you inventoried your website and made sure your content was fresh and appropriate?
If you’re a small company who hasn’t given much thought to your website since it was first built in 1997 or whenever, now’s a good time to freshen it up.
I know you’re busy, but this stuff matters, and you can use a change of seasons as your cue to remember to take a look.
- Is your content seasonally appropriate? For example, we represent several heating & air conditioning companies, and we’ll be telling them to make sure their air conditioner references are replaced with furnace and heat pump references. We’ll have them inventory their images to make sure they show wintry stuff instead of sweltery stuff.
- Check for outdated coupons, offers, and warranties.
- Check for pictures of employees that are no longer with your company.
- Add photos/bios of new employees.
- Have a blog? When was your last post? If you’re most recent post is more than a month old, either schedule several new ones or kill the blog until you have time to make it a priority (which you should totally do, by the way).
- Have a news or media section? See #4.
- Are your store/service hours listed? Will your hours change for holidays? Make a note NOW to update that on the appropriate day.
- Do you use contact forms on your site? When was the last time you updated to whom those get sent?
- Speaking of which, do former employees still have access to the back-end of your site? Time to delete old users and possibly change passwords.
- The same goes for your social media accounts. Check your admins.
- Is your phone number at the top-right of every page? This should be an easy fix and you should do it right away.
- A local company puts the picture of the person answering their phone on the contact page. I think that’s brilliant.
- Do all the links on your pages work? Check them.
- Do you have any images that are slow to load? Optimize them for your website. Speed rules the web.
- If you use pay-per-click advertising, have you checked to make sure your adwords are updated and relevant? Is it time for a fresh landing page or two?
- Make sure these critical questions are answered on your site.
- Check the mobile version of your site and make sure it formats appropriately and gives the info you want it to on the main page.
- Copyright date on the site is current.
- If you have social media buttons, make sure you’ve been social, or you just look bad. Make sure it’s simple for people to share your info on social media as well.
- Double-check phone, address and email for everyone with contact info listed.
- Freshen reviews, testimonials, and pull quotes. If you have them on your site, make sure the most recent one wasn’t from three years ago.
Larger companies have staffs that should be doing these things on a daily or weekly basis, but we know it’s harder for you when you wear so many hats.
You can save time by dividing up each main section of your site and assigning them to members of your staff. Have them go through each page looking for this checklist of things to update, delete, or improve.
Updating these things give you credibility… google will like your freshly- updated, properly- working, relevant content.
Not only that, but your website can be your very best salesperson giving their very best presentation on their very best day… all from the privacy, comfort and convenience of your prospective customer’s home.
It can also be a 24/7 world-class helpdesk team providing solutions and helpful response to people in need.
You wouldn’t leave your best salesperson or your response team ill-prepared, would you?
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