subject: Spring Clean Your Website [print this page] Why not give your tired old website a spring clean? Your website is the 'shop window' for your business and as such, needs to make a good impression. Like a bricks and mortar counterpart; if it contains out of date items, has a confusing layout or fails to catch your eye then you will give it a miss. The same applies to your website.
So why not enlist the services of a professional web design agency who will conduct an 'MOT' of your current site. They will review all aspects, making suggestions for improvements as they do so.
Spring clean to improve search engine rankings
Making a few adjustments to your site, for example, new content will boost your rankings. Plus the search engines love clean, error free websites.
Change for the better
Go through all the pages, checking for 404 errors, broken links and old content. Review spelling, grammar and punctuation as well. Check the date of any articles/blog posts and replace these with new versions where appropriate.
If you are selling products then ensure that these are accompanied by correct, up to date information. Replace any pixelated graphics or fuzzy photos with crisp, clean high quality images.
Element reshuffle
Make a few changes to the layout or navigation but ensure that these are still usable and accessible. If, for example, you have a button which asks visitors to sign up for a newsletter then move these to a new place on the page.
But don't forget to test this. Do this with any changes you make in order to determine visitor response. Carry out A/B testing or multivariate testing on a few selected pages such as this to see the effect this has on conversion rates.
Other tips for spring cleaning your site
These include:
- Review the site map to see if it is accurate and relevant especially if you have recently changed the content. - Add a News section - if you don't already have one on the site. - Have a look at your web analytics data to see what works and what doesn't. - Include social media, e.g. Twitter feed if you don't already do so. Also include links to a Facebook page.
Do you have a mobile version of your site and/or a mobile app? If not then address this sooner rather than later as increasing numbers of people are accessing websites via their smartphones.
