During Twixmas and in early January, many businesses find they experience a post Christmas lull for a short period. Rather than going into ‘standby’ mode during this period, it is in fact the perfect time to do a spring clean of your website.
With a spring clean, you can improve your website’s visibility, strengthen your reputation and put yourself in a strong position for when people are ready to shop or use your services again.
To help, we have put together our top tips on website spring cleaning. From easy steps to get going by yourself, to technically challenging steps, where we can help – let’s brush up your brand!
Starting small
Anyone can carry out these small and effective steps to improve user experience and maintain best practice when it comes to SEO, there’s no technical knowledge necessary:
Check your website links and sitemap work
It may seem obvious to check your website is actually working, especially if you know people have used it successfully over Christmas and transactions are working, but when was the last time you checked the non-essential links? These are the parts of a website that people may be browsing or visiting to do research. Simply removing any out-of-date content and re-organising current pages is a great start.
Check your website’s performance on mobile
It’s absolutely essential to make sure your website works well on mobile devices, especially during quiet periods, when some people will scroll for entertainment. Visit from your device and take some time to look around.
Update your email database
Time after time, email has proven to be one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. So it only makes sense to prioritise those on the receiving end of your emails by updating your email database. Take a good look at your contacts list and spruce it up. Delete inactive contacts for instance, and lower your send cost per email. Or if you haven’t segmented your main list of contacts yet, now is a great time to start. Start targeting your audiences and send each group relevant communication.
Deep cleaning
On to the technicalities of spring cleaning your website, for which, you may consider the help of a marketing team or website developer, like us. Spring cleaning the following can be extremely useful for building an online presence and a more effective user experience:
Check your SSL certificate
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the standard technology for keeping your internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data that is being sent between systems. It prevents criminals from reading or modifying any transferred information, including personal details. As a business, keeping your information and your clients information secure should be a priority.
Perform keyword and competitor analysis
Uncovering which keywords already rank well for your business, which keywords your largest competitors may dominate, and where you can see potential for improvements, can be a major driving force behind a content strategy going forward in the New Year ahead.
It’s important to evaluate any paid campaigns from the previous year to see which phrases were successful. Once you have established keywords, developing a marketing strategy is essential to improve their ranking positions.
Re-designing your website
Tidying up your website for another busy period is sensible maintenance, but a modern redesign can really help you stand out from the digital crowd. And if you’ve been thinking about doing a complete website overhaul, now is the time. You have the time and opportunity to think about all the finer details which are necessary for a restructure or perhaps a re-brand.
Naturally, we’re a tad biased when it comes to recommending a new website build, especially as we offer so many different options to suit your budget
So if you’d like to get in touch to discuss website design or any of the tips and tricks above, please do contact us for a free consultation.
