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One of our remits as your trusted digital agency is making sure your online presence stays fresh and your conversions high. With that in mind, and the season of thorough cleaning upon us, we delved into the annual digital spring clean and put together a checklist you can follow to make sure your website doesn’t sink in a state of hibernation.

RUN SOME BASIC MAINTENANCE CHECKS

Just like any physical domain, your online domain needs regular maintenance checks. Between the passage of time and the growth of your website, there are a number of little bugs which could slip between the cracks without you noticing. Here’s a couple of basic checks you should run:

Fix broken links

Due to the dynamic nature of the web, slugs can change and your site is bound to transform, which could cause links to stop working. While this might not seem like such a big deal at first, broken links can affect both the user experience and Google’s evaluation of your domain, so you should make sure to stay on top of these.

(If your website is too big for running a manual check or Chrome’s Check My Links extension, try using a professional tool such as Semrush)

Check up on your media

Similarly to links, your website’s media needs regular checking for any malfunctions. It’s not uncommon for images to get accidentally deleted from the media library, especially if you’ve had your website remade. Or, if you are pulling through visuals or video from web sources, these could break due to forces outside your control. Keep an eye on your media to make sure everything is looking its best.

Remove duplicate content

One pitfall to avoid so you don’t get punished by Google’s algorithms is making sure there aren’t any pages on your website featuring duplicate content. Removing these is an easy way to boost your SEO ranking, thus being seen by more people organically and ideally generating more conversions.

Proofread content

Another simple way to cover the basics when it comes to keeping your website looking professional is making sure all the content – both in terms of blogs and site-wide – has been reviewed for typos and errors. That way you’ll be ensuring you’re not undermining your credibility and trustworthiness.

FRESHEN UP YOUR INFORMATION

Similarly to many household items, information often has an expiration date. Whether it’s simply a case of the information no longer being correct, or it’s just sounding a bit old-fashioned a few years on, there’s nothing like updating it to keep your website from seeming neglected.

Team page

Most healthy businesses have a certain level of team alterations – make sure your team page reflects your company’s growth by featuring all new team members. Likewise, if a member of staff has left the business, update the page so they are no longer on there.

Contact details

Have you recently moved office? Or even better, expanded your presence? Make sure any changes to your contact information are reflected on the relevant areas of your website promptly so you don’t lose out on any potential customers.

Social media posts

This is a recurring element which we keep coming back to each year, which further highlights how key it is for your online performance. Regular updates across your social media platforms is crucial to building brand awareness and staying connected with your audiences.

More on that – make sure the content you share is relevant to your followers, and aim to respond quickly to customers who get in touch through social.

Content generation

Just like with social media, regular updates on-site are also a must for maintaining your image as a relevant voice in your industry. We recommend producing at least 2 pieces of quality, relevant content every month, and making sure your blog posts are written by an authoritative source for maximum impact.

Streamline your conversions

Since taking users on a journey through the site and leading them to a conversion is the main focus of all digital efforts, refurbishing the online experience you offer is a great way to generate a seamless experience for customers, thus boosting your enquiries.

Spruce up your design

The constant evolution of digital trends means there is always new features you could be incorporating into your website’s UX. What we’re advising here is not a complete redesign every other month, but rather cosmetic changes in keeping with the latest in design which will keep your site looking sharp and modern.

Stay SEO savvy

SEO is another element of your website which could fall victim to neglect after the initial setup. But as your business grows and evolves, your SEO should grow with it to make sure your website remains relevant by Google’s standards and performs consistently well in organic search.

Set some time aside regularly to go over your search analytics and use the data collected to optimise your URLs, meta titles (the maximum length of which was recently increased from 160 to 300 characters, so revisiting these is definitely in order!), H tags and content. Or, if you haven’t got the time or expertise to deal with the technical aspects of SEO, outsource to a dedicated SEO service provider.

Make the most of mobile

With users increasingly using their smart devices as a preferred method for accessing the web, mobile optimisation is another must-do for your spring spruce checklist. Having a mobile responsive website makes it easier for users to view your site on mobile and tablet (which in turn leads to lower bounce rates and higher conversions). It also has a positive impact on your search rankings – Google’s algorithms detect mobile responsive sites and boost them higher up on the list of mobile searches.

Consider also your website’s load speed. Users tend to get frustrated with web pages and images that take too long to load, and navigate away. What’s more, your website speed affects your organic search ranking and the cost of your PPC campaigns. You can measure the speed of your website using one of the many free web tools available, such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Clear your CTAs

The best way to ensure it’s clear to users what they are supposed to do next once they’ve landed on your website is by signposting the next steps of their user journey with clear calls to action. Making your contact details clearly visible throughout the site, placing key information above the fold and providing a quick contact form are some of the simplest ways to increase conversions through UX alone.

Find out more ways to give your website a spring clean, or, if you would rather we gave you a hand, contact our team of experts using the form below. (See what we did there?)