In 2020, a strong web presence is more important than ever. It’s the customer’s first impression of your brand in most cases and it can make or break that person choosing to work with your business. As we gear up for the holidays and the new year, it’s a good opportunity to look at your website and figure out what’s working and not working.
Here’s our guide to self-auditing your website.
Is the Website Design Working?
While it might seem like a little thing, website design is really important to having a successful online presence. If your site’s look hasn’t been updated since the early 2000s, people are probably less likely to trust your business as legitimate. Taking time to modernize your design can make your site more inviting and help convert that much more business.
Are Your Pop-ups Useful?
Do you have multiple pop-ups that compete for your website visitor’s attention? Are they coming up at the right time? While asking your website visitors to sign up for your newsletter is great, you probably don’t want that message to pop-up the second they hit your homepage. That can be annoying and off-putting.
Take note of how and where your pop-ups appear and if their messaging is helpful to customers.
Check Your Site Navigation
Is it easy for your customer to find what they are looking for when they hit your site or do they have to dig through numerous complicated menus? You want it to be simple for your customer to find what they are looking for. Go through your menus and navigation with a fine toothed comb or better yet, have a friend or colleague who isn’t familiar with the site go through it and give you feedback.
Is Your Site Mobile Friendly?
Over half of consumers are visiting websites on their mobile devices now and that number is only expected to grow. Visit your website on your phone to see if it is mobile optimized. Make sure the text is sized properly and the menus appear correctly. Check the page load time. All of these things can make a big difference.
Are You Using https?
If your URL does not have https:// or a lock symbol before the page address, you need to make some changes. Pages without the “s” at the end are not secure and this can impact your site ranking and, in some cases, even cause your website to be blocked by some providers. It’s a small step that is easy to take and will help make your site that much more secure.
Check for Keyword Optimization
Are your pages being found by the right people? Make sure that your pages have the right keywords in the titles, meta-descriptions and SEO descriptions. These make the pages rank higher on Google. They key is not packing your titles and pages with keywords but thinking about what people will search and making sure your pages have content that connects with those search terms. Keep the phrases as close to natural speech patterns as you can.
While it’s easy to do a website audit yourself, sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Especially when you are in the middle of the holiday rush. SimplyBuilt can help! We will run a full audit of your website and help bring it into the 21st century. Contact us today!
