Online Spring Cleaning

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Guest Contributor: Wallrich
Wallrich Creative Communications
Branding, Advertising & Marketing Specialists

Flowers are blooming. Allergies are flaring. Summer’s nearly here. It’s time to give that website of yours a little spring cleaning.

Say what? Yep, websites need cleaning too. When’s the last time you gave your website a white-glove inspection? Chances are that dusty news, broken links and wrinkled inaccuracies await your discovery. That means new visitors are stumbling upon them too, if they can find your site at all. Search engines tend to overlook the stale stuff—they love fresh content—so if you haven’t updated your site in years, your spring cleaning should improve your ranking, too.

It’s time to show off a sparkling website and get noticed. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you’re clicking through.

  • Is your “10 years of experience” claim now five years old? (Consider changing it to a “since 2001” claim for that evergreen look.)
  • Is your headshot from the 90s, too? You may prefer the look of the younger you, but the current you looks more experienced.
  • Is all your Contact Us section still pointing in the right direction? Have you moved, opened any new locations or added any phone numbers?
  • Have you ever actually tested all the links to make sure they still work?
  • Are you featuring ex-employees and ignoring new ones?
  • What news should you be sharing? Made any headlines lately? Scored any big wins guaranteed to impress your audience?
  • Have you changed or expanded your products or service line?
  • Have you developed any new promotions, brochures, datasheets or one-pagers worth sharing?
  • How about adding new case studies, work samples or testimonials? (Yes, they’re a pain to put together, but they also bring in the business.)
  • Have you noted your new Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account? (Don’t forget to spring clean those pages when you’re done with your website.)
  • Do you have a blog? If so, was the last entry was during the Bush administration? (An active blog gives search engines a rich content stream to broadcast, and gives clients and potential clients a reason to come back again and again.)
  • Have you started an e-newsletter campaign? It’s a great outreach tool that will reach more people if you add a subscribe button to your site.
  • Is your site missing title tags? Those are the phrases at the top of your browser that tells your visitors (and perhaps more importantly, search engines) what each page is about. Add them—and be specific. Generic phrases like “Home” don’t help much.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get scrubbing!

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