Beverlee Rasmussen CEC PCC This post is for all the small business owners out there who don’t consider themselves “techies” but know that a well-maintained website is a must-have for any business in 2021!
Chances are you’re wearing multiple hats. You are the business owner and product designer… and financial manager…and head of digital marketing! It’s exhausting.
With so much to do in your small business, website maintenance may be out of your comfort zone or off your radar. Here’s a simple list you can use to get started on website maintenance.
Text is visually easy to read
Does your text stand out from the background? Are your fonts simple and clear? Does your website look like a “wall of text”?
Visitors tend to scan websites, not read them. At least not right away. Help your potential customers by having shorter paragraphs and sentences. Use bold text and headings for the most important information you want them to see right away.
Your contact information is easy to find
I suggest having your contact information on every page of your website. When customers are ready to purchase or take the next step with you, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to reach you.
All links are working
Where are your links heading to? Do they open in a new tab? If you’ve linked out to other websites, are they reputable sites? When you link to another site, it’s like giving that website a recommendation or up-vote.
Align your website with trustworthy sites and put your best foot forward for customers by having a clean site with working links.
Loads quickly
The faster your website is, the better it performs. A slow website may not be perceived by the human eye, but your computer can tell. You can check your website speed by putting your URL into Google Page Speed Insights. It will give you suggestions on what you can change on your site to make it faster!
Price is easy to find
When you hide the price of your products and services, your customers lose trust in your company. If you don’t want to display your prices outright, then include a way for consumers to get a price. Ex. A meeting or quote.
When you do your maintenance for your website, make sure your prices are accurate and up to date.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Although SEO is a little more complex than the rest of this list, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t mention it here.
SEO is important for your company’s digital presence because it determines the visibility of your website and content, and how well you rank on search engines such as Google and Bing.
For example, if you search “best restaurant near me” on Google, hundreds of results will appear. But to find what you are looking for, chances are you won’t look past the first 5 results, and definitely not past the first page.
You can use SEO to make sure your website ranks as high as possible towards the first page of search engines, which in turn increases the traffic to your website.
If you are just starting out and need a website, focus on building a clean site first. You can always come back and optimize for SEO when you are ready for more traffic to come to your site.
How does your website check out?
Your small business will benefit from regular website maintenance! Are you able to say your website has all of the above?
Until next time, enjoy your Entrepreneurial Journey!
