Not long ago, I wrote a piece about avoiding blogging burnout and offered ideas about where to find topics to write about. One of the suggestions I used comes from David Spark, who suggests looking at your Inbox for inspiration. What are clients asking about? If one is wondering about why Google is going on and on about Pigeon or Panda or Penguin, chances are others are, too.
(If Google ever comes up with an algorithm for website appearance, I suggest they call it Poodle to honor their alliteration sensibilities.)
Right now, what I see in my Inbox are lots of ideas about getting websites and social media content ready for the holidays. Subject lines like “Tune Up Your Website,” “Speed Up Your Site For The Black Friday” are already being used. Since most of my clients’ businesses are not seasonal, this may be a good time to share some more general website housekeeping ideas I’ve come across the past month or so. These may come in handy now if you are preparing for the holiday season, or later, if like my accountant clients, you’re doing this kind of stuff now because your busy season starts after the first of the year.
Is Your Website Up To Speed?
Speed doesn't kill on the Internet, unless there isn't enough of it. Websites that take too long to load lose visitors, even those who are motivated to find out if they can get help with an audit, get representation for that DUI, or those looking to see if they can insure their new startup.
Your Google Analytics page can give you some clues about whether something on your site is turning off visitors. Look for the bounce rate, which measures how often people leave your landing or home page without visiting any other pages on your website. Slow downloads may be the reason. Here’s a good article on bounce rates and why they are worth watching.
You can check your site speed on Pingdom; if it takes more than three or four seconds, it might be time to talk to your webhost about what can be done to increase the speed.
How long is too long? According to KISSMetrics, website pages that take 10 seconds to load have already lost about 40% of their prospective visitors. For people who use a smartphone or tablet, the timeframe is even shorter.
Freshen Up Your Content
Revisit the content you've had up the past couple of years and archive anything older and no longer relevant. Most people conducting research on the web won’t use anything older than one year, and two years is about the oldest acceptable as a resource.
Update the blogs that remain if there is new information to add. For example, if you blogged about a particular bill in the legislature, or an experimental treatment that interests your patients or their families, add an addendum or postscript. Your readers will appreciate the effort, particularly those who have added your blog to their RSS feed.
While you’re looking at your content, check the links to make sure they are still live. If you link to other blogs, chances are that they have been retired, too.
Check Your Social Media Sites
Does your website have icons and links to all your social media? Do those links work? There’s nothing worse than visiting a website, clicking on the LinkedIn icon hoping to visit a Company Page, and getting an error message. Make sure this doesn’t happen to any of your website visitors. And, make sure that when they do visit you on social media, those sites are up to date and contain current relevant information.
Finally, take a look at how your business appears on the major search engines. If you’ve moved and/or changed your phone number, or adjusted your hours, this may not be reflected. If you haven’t already claimed your listing, go ahead and do so. This way, only you or someone you authorize can update these listings. You might also want to check to see how your website looks when viewed on a smartphone and on a tablet. More people than not are visiting your site from their mobile device, so it better be responsive.
Put these tips in place now and ring in a website worry-free 2015!
Do you have something to add to this post? Please share it in the comments.
Image by William Warby, flickr Creative Commons
