Is your website in need of a spring clean?

To ensure your online presence stays fresh and conversions remain high, the arrival of spring can provide you with the perfect time to delve into an annual digital spring clean. Below we have put together a checklist you can follow to ensure everything looks good, works effectively, and meets your business’ goals.

• Review your hosting plan. Is it meeting business and customer requirements? If you’ve seen web traffic grow over the years, it could be worth looking into upgrades that can enhance your site’s performance and stability. Keep a note of when your plan expires and consider your options, it could be time to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server.
• Review your domain name. Make a note of when your domain name expires and ensure you renew your registration before it’s too late.
• Update policies. Take a thorough look at your policy page, this is probably a page that you created back when your website first went live and then fell through the cracks. We’d strongly advise that your company’s current practices are accurately and clearly represented.
• Update copyright references. Keep an eye on the finer details, and double check that the copyright information presented in your website’s footer is kept up to date.
• Review your website’s security. When you receive notifications for new software or plugin updates, it’s easy to ignore them but these often address security vulnerabilities your site may have. Check for any updates and download the newest versions to ensure your website security is up-to-date, free from harmful viruses and protected from hackers.
• Fix broken links. We would strongly advise that you check for any broken links as they can affect both the user experience and Google’s evaluation of your domain. If your site is too big to do this annually it could be worth considering using a professional tool such as SEMrush.

Google Analytics is your best friend when it comes to seeing how your website is performing. Look to see if mobile users are converting at lower rates than desktop users. If mobile conversions are low, it could be worth reviewing your CTAs and forms. Check your page engagement rates. If there are low engagement rates, it could be worth reviewing your copy or design to see if there are any changes you can implement that will prevent users from moving away from your site.

By starting with your analytics you could save yourself a lot of time, and put processes in place that will help to keep conversions high.

When conducting a site-wide content audit, don’t forget to look at your media files. Make sure all your images and videos are present, whether they have been uploaded to your media library or embedded via a third party.

When it comes to the written word, it goes without saying that you should regularly check that your contact details are up-to-date. Give your website a thorough read, make sure it fits in line with your current branding and positioning and remove duplicate content. Giving your website content a little love, and making sure all of your services and products are correctly and clearly represented, is a sure way of preventing your website from looking neglected.

Key pages to update:

• Team page – look at your team images as well as the bios
• About Us page
• Contact page
• Services/Product pages

We’re not suggesting that your website needs to necessarily undergo a complete overhaul, but making small and regular changes in line with the latest trends can help to keep your site looking modern and effective at conversions.

We’d suggest that you ensure your contact details are clearly visible throughout the site, key information is placed above the fold and a quick contact form is provided. These are just a few simple ways to increase conversions through UX alone.

Not only should you be considering how your website looks on desktop, it is vital that it looks good on mobile too. With mobile use being at an all-time high, it’s imperative that you have a mobile-friendly website. We’d suggest that you take a look at your website on various handsets and browse each page to make sure you are encouraging customers to take the actions you want them to make.