AMJ WEB SOLUTIONS - December 20, 2023
As we move towards the new year and start to plan our business goals for 2023, it is essential to give our websites some housekeeping. After all, our digital presence is one of the primary ways we promote our business. Websites play a significant role in our digital marketing strategy. The website must reflect the best of our brand. We'll share some tips with you that we are utilizing as well. These tips will help to improve your website for 2023 and beyond.
Let's get started
- Perform A Website Audit
- Review Your Website's Analytics
- Revamp The Look And Feel
- Update The Site's Content
Perform A Website Audit
The first step is to conduct a website audit. A website audit is a thorough review of your website. It provides a report of the areas of the site that needs improvement. These areas of improvement include the site's performance and any issues with the website's content, design, and SEO ranking. By following the report, your website will perform at its best. HubSpot has created a website audit tool for free. This tool grades your website on its performance, SEO, mobile experience, and more in seconds. The website grader then returns a report with suggestions to fix the issues. Visit https://website.grader.com/ to conduct a review of your website.
Another audit you can conduct uses a human. I call this a human audit. It's when you ask an impartial person to visit the website and report their experience. This audit allows you to gauge how humans interact with the website from a human perspective. After the person finishes their review, ask them these series of questions. What was your experience navigating around the website? Was it easy or hard to get to where you wanted to go? When reading and viewing the content, did it give you a sense of my brand's message? When you clicked on links, did they return a 404 message?
Once the audits are completed, begin planning and implementing ways you can improve the items brought to your attention.
Review Your Website's Analytics
The second step is to review your website's analytics. This is the collection, reporting, and analysis of data created by user visits. Plus, their interaction with the website. Most website-building platforms, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Shopify, etc., except WordPress, have analytic tools. For those using WordPress, you download the Google Site Kit plugin. This will allow you to connect to Google Analytics via your website. After setup, it will display the data your review.
To sustain an effective digital presence, continuously review your website's analytics. This data can give you insights needed to enhance the user experience on your site. Analytics offers a variety of information, ranging from general website activity to more precise metrics that reveal how visitors are accessing the site. It will also include if they are viewing the site on a desktop or mobile device.
Revamp The Look And Feel
The third step is to revamp the look and feel. Having a website that looks modern and kept with trends is essential. Users engage more with these types of websites. Older websites are generally hard to navigate and slow. It’s vital to review the design of your website every few years to ensure it looks and functions as expected. If a few years have elapsed since you last updated the design of your website, now is the time to make some changes. Consider updating the look and feel of your website. This includes the layout, the color scheme, and the fonts used. Any colors and fonts you update should be cohesive and account for accessibility.
Web accessibility is the action of making your website usable for all visitors. Most websites lack functionality and design to account for people with disabilities. This inhibits them from getting an optimal experience. One web accessibility practice is to avoid using light backgrounds with light fonts and vice versa. While certain color combinations may appear attractive, others may not see them. Many individuals struggle to read bright fonts on light backgrounds and dark fonts on dark backgrounds. Another web accessibility best practice is to add font sizes that are easy to read. Small font sizes can be hard to see for some. To learn more about web accessibility best practices, visit https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/.
Update The Website Content
The fourth step in preparing your website for 2023 is updating and optimizing your website’s content. Optimizing content for search engines is critical. However, providing visitors with the most recent and reliable information is just as important. To give your visitors the best experience, you should regularly update your website's content. This includes adding new text, optimized images, new testimonials, or any other content that applies to the current state of the business. While you alter the content, remember to add or review any keywords. Keywords belong in titles, paragraphs, meta titles, and meta descriptions. Also, check images to see if they have alt text and are correctly named. Finally, remove any broken links (clicked-on links that return a 404 error message) and images that no longer serve your target audience. A commitment to the upkeep of the content shows visitors that you care and are attentive to their experience. As a result, you will drive more traffic to your site and build a larger customer base, helping to grow your business.
In conclusion, website owners should always be mindful that they are adequately reaching their target audience. It is critical to frequently audit, update, review, analytics, and the SEO ranking for your website. Committing to following these procedures will improve your digital presence. Your website can be a great return on investment for 2023 and beyond.
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