6 Steps to Improve Your Website’s Effectiveness

Over the last 12 months many of our clients have spent some of their lockdown time improving their website. They’ve been making updates and improvements ready for when ‘normality’ returns and, in some cases adding extra features like eCommerce. With so many people predicting economic difficulties post-Covid, now is the ideal time to tighten up your marketing collateral ready for whatever comes next.

So, what should you do and how should you approach it? We’ve compiled six things you can do right now, and often for free. Let’s get started…

Google Analytics

Most websites have Google Analytical installed to keep track of visitors and their behaviour on their website. Before we make any changes to a website it’s important to understand where you’re starting from and where you need to go. We need to know what's working, what's isn't and what we need to improve on.

If you can’t remember your login for Google Analytics, then it’s often tied to your Google Account. If you still can't find it, your website developer can normally help you get access again if credentials can’t be found.

Page by Page Review

Grab that copy of your favourite note-taking software (or even a paper and pencil) and look through every one of your website pages. That includes all the boring ones like privacy policies etc. Note down anything that needs to be changed, deleted or added to. Businesses often change slowly and without major fuss, so it's easy for your website content to get out of sync with what you’re really doing these days.

If the business you’re doing isn't what you’d really like to be doing maybe now is a great time to refocus your website and try to gain the new business you’d really like?

Start Small and Work Upwards

Pick one page of your website per day and work on that until it’s right. Start with the lesser pages and work your way up to the home page. Then, by the time you start on your home page, you’ll be much clearer as to what is really needed and be clearer on what each part of the home page should lead to. It makes sense to tackle things this way around so that you’re on top (web editing) form when you're sorting out your most important page.

At the bottom of each page make sure there’s a clear call-to-action for the visitor, so they know what to do or where to go next.

Freshen Up Images

Images do a lot of the ‘heavy-lifting’ when It comes to impressing visitors and are really powerful when used to subtly underline your messages. If you have case-studies, make sure they are full of great looking pictures of your work and don't forget to talk to your team and grab any ‘on the job’ pictures they might have taken on their phones to help illustrate your process.

If you're really short of quality images don't be tempted to ‘borrow’ them from other websites or from a Google Image search. Use a properly licenced free image library like Pixabay.com.

Get Someone to Check What You’ve Done

None of us are perfect! Get someone you trust to take a look through your changes to make sure everything you’ve done is correct and will makes sense to visitors.

There are three types of people you should ask to check your website:

  1. An ‘expert’ in what you do will be able to check you're being factually correct and up-to-date in what you write.
  2. A spelling and grammar ninja (even if you think you’re one yourself) will be able to double-check your text is correct in language terms.
  3. Finally, find a friendly potential customer who can check how effective your website is in communicating your message in customer-appropriate terms.

Sync Your Socials

When you're trying to manage multiple marketing channels keeping them in sync can be a headache. Now is a good time to take a look across your Facebook page, Tweeter feed, Instagram and any other feeds you might maintain to make sure the branding, contact details, ‘About Us’ text etc are all ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ as your website. If there have been changes to phone numbers, emails or opening hours now is the time to check those too.

Book a Date to Revisit Your Analytics

Yes, we know this make seven steps, but we thought you deserved a free one for getting this far!

Get a date in your diary to look again at your analytics and see if the changes you made have delivered the improvements you were looking for. Look at traffic for sure, but also look deeper at dwell-time, click-throughs (from one page to another) and for visits to important pages like your contact page!

And finally…

If you get stuck, don't be afraid to get in touch with us, we're here to help!

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