Online Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Website
By Ramon Ray, editor, Smart Hustle Magazine
Each spring, homeowners gather their cleaning supplies, open all their windows, and spend hours thoroughly cleaning each room of their homes. This top-to-bottom clean can keep dust and grime from building up on surfaces that are neglected during regular cleanings.
Spring cleaning isn’t just for the home anymore. Business owners can apply these spring cleaning concepts to their websites and social media platforms in order to declutter and freshen up their online presence. Here are a few things you should include in your online spring cleaning.
Website Aesthetics
Try to take an objective look at your website, both on mobile devices and desktop screens. Look at each page as customers would see it, checking that there is plenty of white space and the font is easily readable. Also, make sure your menus make it easy to navigate, even for someone who arrives seeking basic information such as product prices. Review your analytics to determine the search terms bringing customers to you and make sure that information is easy to find from your landing page.
SEO Checkup
This is also a great time to review your search-engine rankings and make sure you’re still performing well for your business name, business type by geography, and other specifics. If you find the competition ranks above you when customers search for information on the products or services you’re selling, it’s time to revamp your content to make it more search-engine friendly. This could include rewriting the text on your landing page, adding a new page for each area you service, creating blog posts, or increasing inbound links by guest posting on external sites.
Update Content
In addition to the search-engine friendliness of your sites, you should also take a look at any information that might be outdated. This includes your bio, product photos, accomplishments, and any awards your business has received. This may also be a great time to contact a professional photographer about updating your own photo, especially if your existing photo is no longer an accurate depiction of how you look. Also, check your social media profiles to make sure the information is current.
Review Checkout
If your checkout process hasn’t been updated in a while, there may be easier ways for customers to buy from your site. You could add mobile pay, for instance, or add PayPal as a payment option. If you have a high rate of shopping cart abandonment, review these tips and make sure your checkout process isn’t scaring customers away. This may be a good time to add a wish list feature to your site, letting customers save items they aren’t quite ready to purchase.
If you haven’t reviewed your online presence in the past year, spring is the perfect time to conduct a thorough audit. Analyze what is working and what isn’t and make adjustments accordingly. Your business will benefit from increased conversion rates, making your team’s jobs easier.
About the author: Ramon Ray has been educating business owners and entrepreneurs for over 20 years. Whether speaking on stage, interviewing celebrity entrepreneurs being interviewed by a journalist, Ramon is always excited about small business success. Check him out at www.ramonray.com.