Nearly everything in existence requires some form of maintenance or other and websites are no different. Keeping your website up to date is an important part of SEO and vital if your website is to work to its maximum potential.
If your website isn’t performing as it should then it may be time for an audit. Most web designers offer a website auditing service and some of the main areas they will look at are; content, graphics, keywords, usability and calls to action.
Content
Old and outdated content is perhaps one of the main offenders and often leads to a slow death for websites because eventually search engines won’t bother to crawl a site and it ends up getting left behind and forgotten.
Graphics
Graphics are an often overlooked but important element of a website with many never having being replaced despite any other changes to a site that may have taken place over time.
Keywords
Keywords and search phrases are the search engines’ friends but only in the right density and position within the website copy. Too many or too few are as bad as each other so balance is extremely important.
Usability
With no shortage of choice on the web, good usability is a must to keep visitors on your site. If they encounter any difficulties finding information or navigating the site itself they will simply leave and look elsewhere.
Calls to Action
Strong and persuasive calls to action should drive visitors to the final stage of the buying process – the checkout! If yours aren’t doing this to at least an acceptable level then it’s time to change them.
A website audit will actually cover far more than has been mentioned here and probably throw up some eye-opening results into the bargain, but the thing to remember is that whatever is found to be wrong with your site is totally fixable – all you have to do is listen to your web designer.
Until next time.
