Website Spring Cleaning Tips

Website Spring Cleaning Tips

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. ~Og Mandino

With winter waning and spring having sprung, it’s time for a little spring cleaning. Some people love the opportunity spring cleaning provides to organize and streamline, while others loathe the yearly ritual of tidying. But the end result is the same: a clean and functioning house. On the other side of things, neglecting important maintenance can have disastrous results. Your website works the same way. Regularly maintaining and updating it gives you the following benefits:

• Increase your audience access engagement. (Is your site optimized for all of those iphones and androids?)
• Attract new customers by adjusting to the changes in the search engine algorithms. (Have you been keeping up with the Penguins, Pandas, and Hummingbirds?)
• Renew the attention of existing customers by adding features that make your visitors want to come back for more. (Are you bookmark-able?)

Do You Really Have to Clean Your Room (Online)?

I know what you’re thinking. I just got my website updated … a few years ago. But smart marketers are constantly tweaking their sites. Ever wonder why Facebook rolls out a new look every year? These choices are based on user engagement data. However, we all intuitively know that people don’t like places that are messy. So, assess your:

• Appearance: You can’t look like you neglect your business in any way. Sure, it may seem superficial, but if your site looks old, people will pass you by.
• Competition: For a lot of people, a web search is the only research they do to make a consumer choice. Consider how you look against your primary business rivals.
• Functionality: Think of what you do when you go to a site that doesn’t load quickly or you can’t look at on your phone. Customers can be lost with one bad click.

So, you have to update, upgrade, and regularly maintain because the technology that supports your website is constantly changing. If you don’t change with it, you’ll be obsolete.

Remember Why You Have an Online Presence in the First Place

Sure, the digital landscape may have shifted dramatically since you first launched your website. But that doesn’t mean that your reasons for starting the site have changed. All of those things are still true: you still want to reach more customers and inform them about your business and services. Remember that as you embark on your website spring cleaning.

Your website is a marketing tool designed to represent your unique business. Updating your online presence will help you:

• Reach and engage consumers by staying current
• Improve the visibility and health of your website
• Reflect the changes in your business, the marketplace, and technology

What If You Don’t Upgrade that Junky Old Website?

Your website was probably state-of-the-art when it was developed. But the technology geniuses who are making it easy for you to scroll down your phone, hit a button to call your favorite pizza place, then hit another button to play flappy birds are actually trying to make your life easier. They weren’t thinking about making your website obsolete. But guess what? If you don’t update and dig in to do website maintenance, you’ll soon find out that neglect can bring damage to your bottom line.

Maybe you’re the kind that dreads spring cleaning the moment you say “Happy New Year!” Or maybe you’re the type that loves to get your Marie Kondo on and tidy to your heart’s content. I’m certainly the latter. If you’re the former, let me do the heavy lifting and clean out that old closet. When customers stop by your site for a visit, you’ll be glad you did.