I’ve updated my website on more than one occasion. As my business grows and changes I make improvements to my website, whether that is adding a new page, updating a blog post, revising my services page, or adding another way to contact me.
When I meet someone new or come across a new business, I almost always check out their website and scroll through a few of their pages. Some websites I come across don’t view well on devices other than a computer, some pages have outdated announcements scrolling across the top from months ago. It’s good practice to go through your website from time to time and make updates or adjustments.
Here are some things to watch out for on your own website:
Is Your Website Responsive?
Have you viewed your website on your phone or tablet? If your website doesn’t adjust to a smaller display screen your website isn’t responsive. Having a responsive website these days is an absolute necessity. More than half of the visitors to your site will do so on a phone – make sure your site looks good and is easy to read.
Take some time and review your web pages to make sure they adjust to the different sized displays. Is the text easy to read on each device? How about the images and spacing?
When I took the time to review my website on a mobile device the text and images on my site mostly stayed the same. But I took the opportunity to review every single page – including all my past blog posts. I love reviewing websites, so you can imagine how happy I was to give myself the gift of doing it for my own website!
It was a good reminder too, of things that can go wrong and/or need updating on a website over time.
Check Your Links
Make sure none of your links are broken. If you’ve created new blog posts can you incorporate these new blog post links to old posts?
If you are sending someone off your website (e.g., to a book you mention), make sure that when a link takes somebody off your site, that it “opens a new tab” in the browser. That way your website visitor can easily click back to your site and keep looking around. Making this happen is just a simple setting when creating the link.
Read Every Page
Yes, read every single page on your site. Does it represent you? Is your message clear? Could someone reading your site understand why they would want to work with you? Is your email and/or phone number on your contact page?
It’s good to read every blog post too. You need to check for font discrepancies, spacing issues, links that are different colors than your website palette. Some blog posts may need to be taken down because they no longer make sense. It will take some time, but it will be worth feeling confident that every page looks consistent.
SEO and Categories
While you are reviewing your blog posts you could also review SEO and categories for each post. Have you categorized your blog posts? Do you have new categories that might fit an old post? Review your SEO to make sure your blog post is keyword optimized.
Search Feature
If your website has a lot of content, make sure you have a search feature to make it easy for users to search and find topics that are relevant to them.
Get Great Graphics
Take a close look at the graphics on your website. Is your logo pixelated (fuzzy)? Do you have images with a white background instead of transparent on pages that have a colored background? How old is your headshot? Are you using bland stock photography? Time to upgrade if any of this is you.
Review Your Dashboard
Take a peek at the back-end of your website (or get a qualified professional to do it with you). Are there plugins that you aren’t using that might be slowing things down? Is your website running on the latest version of WordPress (or whatever you run your website on)? Keep your website running smoothly by paying attention to these important details.
Remember that for many people, your website is the first place where they will form an impression of you and your business. Take steps now to make sure the impression is a good one!