Have you been neglecting your website lately?

Chances are if you do, you’re probably hurting your business more than you think.

With ever increasing mobile usage, the internet is the first port of call when people want to learn more about a business. It represents your brand online, and like a child, it requires regular care, maintenance, and attention.

This is why having a good website matters. You need get out there to gain your potential customers’ trust. You have to give it love and make sure it runs smoothly.

Here are 5 tips that will help you maintain your website and increase traffic:

1. Make it easy to use

People searching the web for information don’t read, they scan. They breeze through sites looking for something that meets their goal. The ability of your site to meet those goals quickly is crucial to long-term success. Ideally, you need to deliver three pieces of information in five seconds or less:

• Who are you?

• What product or service do you provide?

• Why should I care? what’s in it for me?

Simplicity is key. Keep information concise and scannable. Always focus on your user’s goals. What are your customers looking for and how can you help them find it?

2. Update Regularly

Updating your site with recent company events, promotions, or news will keep your site relevant.
If your latest blog post is dated a year or six months ago then the dust starts collecting. Maintain your website to stay relevant and look ‘open for business’.
If you’re too busy and can’t do updates on a daily basis, then you need to review your content strategy (Who is posting what and when) and maybe a maintenance plan. Talk to us if you need a hand.

3. Give it a Makeover

People judge a website in the first 5 seconds. Studies show websites that are simple and represent the expected look for a certain category are perceived as highly appealing.
People associate the quality of your product/service with how your site looks. They will quickly exit when they visit an outdated-looking or poorly formatted website.

Make your web design simple and familiar (follow conventions – e.g. people have a fixed idea what an e-commerce site should be like).

4. Review your content

Your content — in the form of blog posts, images, and videos — is your gateway to your potential customers. It should be reviewed at least once a year. This means somebody who understands each page needs to read it and check for errors or out of date information.

Is the content still relevant? Does it need to be amended? or removed? Is it in the correct section of your site?. These are just some of the questions you have to keep in mind when you have to maintain your website’s content.

5. SEO, optimise Your Website for Google

Help customers find your site by optimising it for search. That means providing the most relevant content that people are looking for.

Here are a couple of key things to work on:

• Keywords. These are the queries that your prospects would likely search for when looking your type of business. Start by coming up with the obvious ones and make a list. Once you have your keyword list determined, you need to make sure these terms exist throughout your site.

• Page copy. It should contain your keywords but be sure not to overdo it. Poor copy makes for a bad user experience and can actually hurt your site’s ranking. Google reads the text just like us humans do, so it’s more important that copy is readable and well-written.

If you have any questions or want to start a project, get in touch.