The Best Intentions
I have to admit I started this post in January and it’s now almost April, and I still haven’t posted it! We always set the best intentions, but we get busy helping clients and doing things like… WORK! that get in the way of maintaining our own websites. This goes for ALL companies, including those of us that work online for a living. We get busy, we have customers coming in, so who cares if your site isn’t completely up to date, right? hmmmm. I cringe every time I don’t practice what I preach. I’m really great at updating others websites, my own… forget it. But, my question to you is… how many customers have you lost because of outdated information?
I’ve compiled a quick to do list for you to look at below.
Review your content:
Have content that is outdated? Get rid of it.
Time Sensitive? Get rid of it.
Holiday Message? Get rid of it.
Blog posts that mention specific events? Add a disclaimer or call to action like: “Want to hear about when we offer this again in 2015? Sign up for our newsletter” (and don’t forget to add a link to your newsletter sign-up!)
Team Page? Remove old team members, review bios for XX years of experience and update to reflect current experience.
Are your .pdfs current? Do you still have your summer shopping guide linked?
Update the nuts and bolts:
Update your copyright notice. (don’t know what this is??? Look down at the bottom of your site do you see @2014 or earlier? If so, you will want to update it to 2015. Although some visitors will never notice this date, by having an outdated copyright date it will look like your site hasn’t been updated in a while. In order to be trustworthy to your visitors you want to make sure it looks like you pay attention to the small details.)
Post a blog!
Check for links that no longer work. Other people may have taken down their pages you had linked to and now your links go nowhere.
Check your physical address, email address and phone/fax numbers. Are the all the same? (do you actually still have a fax??)
Test your forms and make sure they’re still working. What’s the point of having a contact form that doesn’t actually work?
I think that’ll be a good start for now. If you need help or want a second set of eyes to look over your site. Contact Us we would love to help you out.