person writing new years resolution list

New Year, New You

How is your New Year’s resolution going? Are you maybe feeling a little guilty? It’s ok. Resolutions can be a great way to make positive changes, but they frequently last about as long as it takes to put away your holiday decorations. Sticking with resolutions is always harder than making resolutions. In my experience, the changes don’t stick for two main reasons: the resolutions are set on a whim, and they’re too extreme. But, here’s the thing: resolutions don’t have to be spur-of-the-moment grand gestures. Smaller, targeted changes can make a big difference over a year.

One example of small efforts that create big results: auditing your website. Now, notice I didn’t say “completely revamp your website and redo your entire social media strategy while you’re at it.” That’s an example of a grand gesture that is almost certainly doomed to failure. Auditing your website is easy, and can help you develop a plan for how to improve your online presence in the new year. Think of it as taking a walk through your website, fixing small problems, and recording the larger changes you might like to make. At the very least, you should:

  1. Look at Every Page – When was the last time you really examined your About page? Was it the same day your current site went live? You’re not alone. Most of us don’t look at our own site all that often. After all, we mostly know what our companies do. But, if you haven’t looked at them in a while, there may be issues you just haven’t noticed yet. Perhaps an update made some text strange, or an image is out of place. Maybe you just don’t love the content anymore and want to make some small changes. These are all easy changes, but you won’t even know to make them if you don’t look at your site. So set aside an hour or so, and get to reading,
  2.  Check your links – Broken links can have a hugely negative impact on how your site performs. Chances are good that you designed your content in a way that makes sure site users visit multiple pages. If those links are broken, the whole system stops working. Plus, broken links can look unprofessional. While you’re looking at every page on your site, click on all those links. Hopefully, they all work great. But, if they don’t, they’ll be easy to fix and will immediately improve your site’s performance. 
  3. Update your copyright and security certificate – Like the other tasks on this list, updating your site’s copyright and security certificate can be very straightforward. In fact, it can be as simple as looking at each item, seeing that they are current, and moving on with your day. The copyright date is typically in your website’s footer section and the security certificate is identified by a “lock” in the browser by your domain. If they are out of date, you’ll want to fix them quickly. An outdated copyright or security certificate makes your website less trustworthy – or in the case of an outdated security certificate, rather scary – to potential customers.
  4. Evaluate your SEO – SEO best practices change throughout the year. Hopefully, you’ve been making minor changes in response. If you haven’t, however, this is a good time to create a triaged list of what needs updating. Unlike the other items on this list, implementing SEO changes may not be a quick process, and you might need to outsource some of them to an expert. But, identifying what details need updating is the first step towards ensuring your site’s SEO is achieving its goals.

If you examine your site but think it would benefit from another set of eyes, get in touch. Our web strategy experts are here to help evaluate your website and develop a plan to ensure your current site is putting its best foot forward.