I’m a big fan of looking at a website as a living, breathing being.
Your website is never really “done”.
It can feel that way when you go through the initial design or a redesign, but even then it’s good to look at the site as being a work in progress.
The New Year is a good time to look at how your business has changed in the last year and see if you can properly reflect those changes on your website.
Here are some ways you can update and improve your website for the New Year.
1. Homepage Sub-Heading
This is a big one I always like to think about. Even on a new website I think it’s overlooked, but very important.
On your homepage you have your logo or text for your business name.
Then what do you have underneath?
Usually it’s good to have as sub-heading that describes, as simply, but clearly as possible, what you do.
For example:
Sarah Lynn Design
I design websites that…
Then Sarah goes into a few things that websites do for clients.
Your main product might not have changed in the last year, but maybe you’ve developed a new way to quickly communicate what you do.
If that’s the case then update this sub-heading.
2. Remove Distractions (Like Social Buttons)
It’s easy for distractions to creep into websites. The tendency, in general, is to add to a website, but rarely do we compensate and take things away.
So it’s good in the New Year to look for things that should be removed from your website that are no longer relevant.
One big one that I see all the time (including on my own website in the past) is social media. Let’s say that when you launched the site that you thought you would use Twitter all the time. Now you never use it, but that Twitter button saying “follow us” is still in your footer.
Just get rid of it.
But it’s not just social media buttons. There are other things that could be removed on most websites.
3. About Page
New employees join the team. Some team members leave.
It’s good to go through your About page and see what needs to be updated. The team often changes year to year. Even the description of your company might need some updating.
And if you have a history section you might want to add some of the big events that happened in the last year.
4. New Products (Old Products)
This one is pretty obvious and many businesses do it as it happens, but others kind of forget about it because they’re so busy.
Now is a good time to look at your products or services page and see if you need to remove old things and add new things.
Obviously you want visitors to know the latest offerings you have. You don’t want them to get interested in something you don’t even offer anymore. That’s not a good first impression.
5. Photography
Photography is a big part of many business websites. It’s especially important for websites like restaurants, hotels, travel and more.
Even if you don’t think that photography is important it probably is. Even things like photos on the About page of people and things like that.
Not all the photos will go out of date in a year, but you might be surprised.
Scroll through your website and pay attention to each of the photos. See if something looks outdated and get someone on taking an update.
It can really freshen things up on your site and make it look current.
6. Hosting
How fast does your site load?
If it’s even a little slow then it’s time to upgrade. Page speed is more important than ever. Google has been pushing the importance of page speed for several years. It’s really important to Google because they see how people respond to fast websites.
Hosting is a big key, but this article also has some great insights for speeding things up.
7. CMS
How long have you been on your current CMS?
This is the content management system you use to change the content on your site. Things like text, photos and other elements on the site.
Many businesses are using out of date systems. Maybe it’s an older version of WordPress that needs updating. Maybe it’s even a unique system that your website company created on their own.
Whatever the case, now is a good time to see if there is a better version you can use to make using your site easier and faster.
8. Colors
Things like buttons, footers, headers and all kinds of things could use a little tweaking with color. Maybe even certain fonts like titles, headings, descriptions, quotes, etc.
Sometimes a color that looked good a year ago maybe will look good in a different color this year. You don’t have to change color for the sake of change, but see if there is something better. Now is a great time to kind of mess with things to see if you can make improvements.
9. Navigation
Look at your main navigation. How does it reflect your current sales process?
Maybe it makes more sense to have have your About page as the first item instead of your Services page. Or maybe it should be the other way around.
Maybe the Case Studies page should have more priority. Maybe something should be moved from the header to the footer because it’s not really that important.
Look at the items in your navigation areas. See what should be rearranged or even removed or possibly added.
10. Case Studies
And speaking of case studies, now is the time to look at updating your case studies. Maybe you do this throughout the year, but even if that’s the case it’s a good time to see what needs to be updated. Maybe it’s time to remove some or maybe you have some that you haven’t had a chance to add.
Conclusion
The New Year is a great time to update your website. Take some time on your schedule to really go through all the items on this list. And maybe you’ll have some other ideas for making updates. Whatever the case, go through the exercise of analyzing your website and make the changes you see necessary. It’ll lead to better conversion in the New Year.
