Spring Cleaning on Your Website
With all the snow finally off the ground I’m turning the house upside down in the name of Spring cleaning. Chances are your website needs its own version of the annual cleaning tradition. Just like your house, whether you have one hour or ten you can see the benefits immediately.
Light Dusting
If you only have thirty minutes to spare, then spend it adding fresh content to your site. Site visitors and search engines both want to see new content on your site on a regular basis. The easiest method is to update the news section of your site. It can be a few sentences highlighting upcoming events, seasonal specials, or a recently completed project. Do you have a new staff member? Add a short bio to your site. Offering buy one get one free for Easter? Talk about it! Have you joined Twitter or Facebook? Add the link to your home page.
Deep Cleaning
If you have some more time to invest, the next step is to edit your existing text. Print off your home page and read the copy carefully. Is it accurate? Have your offerings changed? Is there a new product you want to highlight? Work through each of the main pages on your site and make sure all of the content is accurate and easy to understand. Ask a friend to read through the content and offer their suggestions. Sometimes a new set of eyes can offer a refreshing perspective. If you’ve updated collateral materials recently you may want to pull text from a brochure instead of reworking your website copy.
In just an hour or two you can clear out the dust bunnies and get your site ready for summer!
—Cindy Germann, project manager, Evolve Systems. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/cindygermann.