**It’s that time of year again: time to get the feather duster out, throw open your windows, and clean behind the sofa. Yes; April is the month for the annual spring clean.**
But it’s not just your home that could do with a bit of TLC at this time of year.
Now is a great time to give your business website and marketing plan a refresh, and make sure that it is working as well as it should. We’re all guilty of saying “I’ll fix that tomorrow” to the smallest of issues; but these can all be impacting on your websites performance – and ultimately your sales.
That’s why today – with the sun *finally *shining in Britain – we’re sharing with you our secrets for how to spring clean your website in 7 easy steps:
1. Run a website health check
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1-xenu.jpg alt: Example of a Xenu link check)
The first step in spring cleaning your website is running a website health check.
In our (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/new-year-website-checklist/ text: New Year checklist), we told you to check your copyright information and make sure there were no broken links on your website. Did you?
Even if you checked this back in January, three months have passed and things have changed. Run a Xenu check on your website and promptly fix any 404 errors. You should also take the time to check your site map, and resubmit it to (link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ text: Google Webmaster Tools) if you’ve made any considerable changes.
The final part of your spring clean health check should be checking that your website is (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/digital/mobile-responsive/ text: responsive).
This means making sure it displays correctly on all screen sizes and mobile devices, and run (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/cross-browser-testing/ text: cross browser testing) to ensure your website displays and functions correctly on all web browsers. These checks shouldn’t take too long, but are vital to your website spring clean.
2. Audit your home page
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2-home-page.jpg alt: Superdream home page)
When was the last time you looked at your home page from an outsider’s point of view?
Websites can quickly lose their impact, and calls-to-action can get lost amongst your content and imagery. Take the time to audit your home page as a customer:
– What does it tell prospects about your business?
– Does it clearly outline your products and services?
– Is it memorable?
Make sure your home page is all about user experience, with clear and concise calls-to-action. When auditing your home page, identify the primary objective of your website. Are you looking to drive sales, boost email sign-ups, or something else?
Once you have a clear idea in mind, amend your calls-to-action to focus on this.
Remember; your goals may have changed since your first built your website. This element of your spring clean can help you get things back into perspective and ensure your website is working for you.
3. Freshen up your design
Things move fast online. Much like the catwalk fashions, things come in and out of date quicker than you can say ‘HTML5’.
With this in mind then, it is important that you take the time during your website spring clean to freshen up your websites design. Before you panic and think this will be a costly venture, don’t. More often than not, it’s not always essential to completely change the whole design of your site.
Sometimes, a few tweaks to the navigation, a change in your background colour, and a general dusting off of the cobwebs is all it takes.
Before you make any changes to your website live, be sure to check out our (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/the-ultimate-website-redesign-checklist/ text: ultimate website redesign checklist) to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
4. Refresh your content
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/4-content.jpg alt: Regular content updates on our blog)
After your design, the next thing to liven up in your spring clean is your website’s content.
As we mentioned before, the primary goal of your website may have changed and things will have certainly moved on since you last looked over your on page copy. Take the time now, to re-read your content and make sure it reflects your current brand values:
– Are your keywords up-to-date and is your (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/2013-seo-strategy/ text: 2013 SEO strategy) working as well as it should?
– Does the content reflect your brand positioning?
– Is it clear what you do, and what you can offer your customers?
Before you sit down and make the relevant changes, be sure to check out our blog post on (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/writing-quality-content/ text: writing quality content)
5. Recycle and repurpose old content
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/5-repurpose.jpg alt: Superdream’s content marketing)
Every good marketer knows that content is the reigning King in 2013. If you want to spring clean your website and make your marketing work for you, you need to be repurposing some of your past content.
We know how quickly things change in marketing, and how quickly blog posts can become outdated. But that doesn’t mean they’re no longer useful.
By recycling and repurposing your old content into something shiny and new, you can liven up your website and boost the ROI of your marketing campaign. All you need is a killer content marketing plan; check out (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/content-marketing-plan/ text: this post) for some top tips.
Some great ways you can recycle and repurpose content include:
– Turning a ‘how to’ post into an infographic
– Making a video based on a past tutorial
– Create ebooks or whitepapers to share your knowledge…
– …and submit these to directories
– Run a social media series using data secured from a survey
– Post out links to your favourite pieces of content on social media
We pride ourselves on being a digital agency that practices what it preaches. That’s why we have created some great (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/digital-whitepapers/ text: digital whitepapers) to share our expertise.
6. Google yourself
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/6-google.jpg alt: Google SERP for Superdream)
When was the last time you searched for your company online?
Not for vanity reasons, but to see where you’re ranking in the search engines. You might *think *that your website’s marketing is working for you, but you could be in for a nasty surprise.
Use this time to make sure that your current SEO keywords, including those with a (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/local-search-for-business/ text: regional qualifier), are working to their full potential. If you feel like your online marketing campaign could do with a dusting off; now is the time for action.
To boost your website traffic right away, you could run a targeted (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/advertising/online-advertising/pay-per-click-advertising-ppc/ text: PPC campaign). Alongside this, you should review your current (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/digital/search-engine-optimisation-seo/ text: SEO) strategy. This is the best way to organically boost your websites rankings, whilst generating immediate results.
7. Analyse your analytics
(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/7-analytics.jpg alt: Analytics comparison)
Our final easy step to complete your website spring clean, is reviewing your analytics.
A (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/digital/website-analytics/ text: website’s analytics )can be really revealing; especially when you compare them year-on-year. Take the time to look at how your website was performing this time last year compared to now.
Has your traffic increased? Are you making more sales? Or have you actually lost some ground in the last 12 months?
By analysing your analytics, you will be able to take actionable steps towards improving your websites visibility and functionality. Again, this is a simple task but one that can really put the spring back in your website’s step.
If you think your website could do with a spring clean and you’re not sure where to start; we can help.
Our expert creative, marketing and web development teams are on hand to help you get the most out of your website. (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/contact/ text: Contact us) today, and see how powerful your website can really be.