For many entrepreneurs, business often is a bit slower during the summer months. Depending on the sector you work in, the summer is often a time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather. Now that you are less busy with your customers, you have the time to take stock of the first half of the year and start making plans for September and the run-up to the holidays. The perfect moment to also take a close look at your website.
 

This practical checklist helps you to get your site back in top condition for the new season:

1. Check your site for outdated content

When did you last read through all the content on your own website? It is quite possible that some things have changed in your business in the meantime. Check if the content of your pages is still accurate. Have new services or products been added, or did you drop a product from your offer? Is the information on the Homepage still correct or did anything change in the contact information or your opening times? Make sure the texts and images are still relevant and representative of your company.

2. Check your content for old images

You can give your site a quick makeover by replacing the old images with new ones. Post new photos of your company, activities, or a new headshot of yourself. The images must, of course, be of high quality and preferably taken by a professional.
Your regular visitors will immediately notice that there is something new on the site. Moreover, it also gives the search engines a signal that your website is still up-to-date, which benefits your ranking.

3. Freshen up old blog posts

If you have some more time at hand, take a look at your old blog posts. Your blog holds a wealth of valuable information, but perhaps your older articles are no longer up to date. Check whether the content of your blog posts is still accurate, add new information, and post the revised material on your social media channels.

4. Add new reviews

Raving reviews from happy customers are the best proof of the quality of your services and products. Lingering potential customers are influenced by the positive experiences of others who preceded them. Actively ask customers to write a review to post on your website. Reviews that are published on social media, booking sites or other platforms can also be carried over to your own site.

5. Check if all the links are still working

Broken links on your site, or external links to websites that no longer exist at all, make a poor impression on your visitors and on the search engines. Therefore, check if all the links on your site still work regularly. If you have a small website, you can go through all the pages one by one and click on each link to see if the destination is still correct and relevant. For larger sites, a broken link checker plugin comes in real handy. These plugins automatically check your website for internal and external broken links and missing images.

6. Check the contact forms

Fill out the contact forms on your site and send yourself a test message to see if everything still works the way it should. Even though your e-mail address is also listed on your website, you might miss out on new leads if the contact form doesn’t work correctly.

7. Check your Google Analytics statistics

We often look no further on Google Analytics then the number of visitors we daily have on our site. But Google Analytics can tell you much more about your visitors. For example, check the location of your visitors in the past 6 months, how they ended up on your site, how long they stayed and which pages they visited the most. Does your Reservations or Services page receive a lot of traffic but you receive very few information requests? A layout change of the page might make it easier for visitors to contact you.

If you have any questions about managing your website, I will gladly help and assist you. The first discovery call is completely free of charge or write me a message to get started.