Your 2020 Website Checklist – Make a Great First Impression
It is the beginning of a new year. Now is a great time to take stock of your online marketing, especially, your website. For the prospective client or customer, your website not only represents your business, it IS your business. Whether you are a health and wellness professional with a physical office, a well-known brand, or an entrepreneur working from home, your website is a significant part of your identity. Prospective clients will absolutely use it to decide whether or not to contact you.
You need your website to make the best first impression possible. Following is a checklist to help you do just that!
Is your website text still current?
If you’ve added a service or product that is critical to your business, you’ll want a separate page for it on your website. A separate page makes it easier for both people and search engines to find it. On the same note, if you’ve stopped offering a service or product, you will want to remove it. There are few things more frustrating to a potential client than discovering that a business no longer offers what its website says it does.
Golden Gate Bridge and Starfish from Marshall Beach
Is your website text clear and easy to read?
The trend in website text today is toward having less content that is super easy to skim and scan. How does your website stack up? Does your text need to be trimmed? Could it use clear subheadings to help people find exactly what they are looking for?
Do your website images need to be updated?
If your clients can’t recognize you from your website, it’s time to get a new professional photo of yourself. If you have added new services or products, you will need new images there as well
Are you showing up in online searches? Does your SEO need to be refreshed?
Having a beautifully designed website with thoughtfully crafted language will do your business little good, if online searchers can’t find it. Try doing some searches for the name of your business and the services or products you offer, but not on a computer that you have ever logged onto – Google will personalize your results, so you won’t get a true picture of where you stand. If getting found online is important to your business, hire an SEO specialist who can help you succeed.
Is your website secure?
To help users browse the web safely, Google wants all websites to be encrypted, even websites that do not collect passwords or credit cards. If your website is not encrypted, visitors are confronted with a prominent “Not Secure” message. Having an unencrypted website will affect the credibility of your website and business!
Does your website have any technical issues?
Technical issues, like broken links to external websites or your own website pages, can be frustrating for your readers. Your website may have other technical issues as well, such as slow loading speed. According to Google itself, 53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Google provides a tool called PageSpeed Insights, where you can check your website speed on both mobile devices and desktops. It may be time to contact your web developer for a technical tune-up.
Does your website work on mobile phones?
If your website isn’t easy to view and use on a smart phone, you can expect to receive fewer and fewer inquiries. If you don’t like what you see when you look at your website on a mobile phone, contact your web developer.
Is your About page personal
Online visitors want to know more about YOU than ever before – not only how your business got started, but also why you do what you do. What you are passionate about. What kind of an individual or company you are. Does your About page tell them enough about you?
Did you move?
This last item may seem really obvious, but business owners sometimes forget to update their website contact pages when they change locations. Similarly, your Google My Business page needs to be updated, as well as elsewhere you appear online. A great way to do this smoothly is to start with your website and Google My Business page, and then use a directory updating service like Moz Local to get everything else synced up.
I wish you abundant business success from your website in the coming year. If you or someone you know can use concrete tips on how to get more business from your website, I offer a free 30-minute consultation. Please get in touch!
Carolyn Kohler is an SEO writer who specializes in helping businesses get found online. Her company is Website Wordsmith, and she is located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
