10 website Tips And Task You Can Do During Lockdown
So, we are over 2 weeks in since the recent lockdown was announced, how are we all doing? Are you bored? Or feeling unmotivated? This is why today I wanna chat on 10 website tips and tasks as I know that business can feel quiet. I also think even if business is, it's a perfect opportunity to work on your business to keep promoting.
Before we dive in however, I want to share a quote I heard recently that I thought explained the situation really well: “we’re all in the same storm, not the same boat”. Although we are all facing the same lockdown, our personal and work circumstances are all very different. Today I’m reaching out to those who are perhaps not working, or their business is not as busy as usual so they are looking for ways to spend their time productively.
When I launched the Greene Creatives website I said that it was a working progress, this is because I believe your website is never ‘perfect’. There is always something to do, be done on it, whether it is simple admin tasks or development work. Today I’ve put together a list of 10 website tips and tasks that you can work on during lockdown to help you feel like you can take back control for a bit and do something productive for your business.
Work On Your SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising your website content so that search engines like to show it in the top search results for certain keywords. There are lots of different ways in which you can improve your SEO. This article from marketing expert Neil Patel, is a great place to start for important SEO tips.
2. Check In With Your Analytics
Most website platforms will have a basic analytic feature that will allow you to see the volume of traffic your website is receiving and where it is coming from. Some website platforms even allow you to see the keyword searches your website appears in. Use this time to check in with this data and think how you can use the information in your marketing strategy. Put more focus on the social media channel that is bringing the most traffic, or add the keywords that your website shows up for into your content.
If you would like more information than your website platform is providing then it could be an idea to install Google Analytics onto your website.
3. Make Sure All Your Images Have ALT Text
This is related to SEO but it is one I think that is usually overlooked. You will be prompted when adding images to your website to add in ‘ALT text’, it means you should put in a brief description of what the image is. This allows search engines to know what is in the image and if it is relevant for any keyword searches.
4. Make Sure All External Links Open In A New Tab
If you have linked to any other websites on your website then it is good practice to make sure the link opens in a new tab. If you set it up to open in the same tab of your website, when the user clicks on this link they will leave your website and land where the link takes them. This is effectively like you chucking them off your website, people have short attention spans and if they were intending to browse other areas of your website they might get distracted from this when being pushed to the external link.
5. Check The User Experience
Out of my 10 top website tips this is one I love the most! Like all aspects of our business, because we work in it everyday we just assume it works and doesn’t need any improvement. This is why it is so important to always get an outsider perspective. Use this time to send your website to your friends or family who haven’t used it before and ask them what they think. Do they think it is easy to use? Does it make sense to them? Would they buy from it? Use their feedback to make strategic changes to your site.
6. Review Your Homepage
Your homepage should be simple. It should contain all the main information that is needed to get across quickly what your business does. Each section should also reflect part of your main menu. For example, if your menu structure is as follows:
Home
About
Services
FAQs
Contact
Then your homepage sections should follow this lead. After your main banner, would be a section for ‘About’ and then ‘Services’ and so on.
7. Make Sure It Is Up To Date
Information changes all the time, and although we remember to do a social media post about the update, sometimes updating it on our website slips to the bottom of our to-do list. Use this time to make sure everything on your website is relevant to your current offering. It could be that you are offering a new service to current clients, that could be expanded to new.
8. Add Any New Testimonials
We all know how valuable testimonials are to small businesses and it is important when we get them that we put them in pride of place on our website. If you have received any really good ones recently then use this time to add them to your site. It could be the move that convinces your next client to work with you.
9. Work On Your Abandon Cart Emails
Now tip number 9 out of my 10 website tips isn't for all, but if you’re an e-commerce business then have a look at your abandon cart recovery rate. How are the emails performing? Could they be improved? Review the emails and see if you can edit the language to be more inviting, or try to personalise them as this can help with conversion.
Bonus for the service based providers:
Now with the above if i could think of a way to flip this round for service based businesses, i would say one thing you can do in terms of your website, customer journey and emails, is automations. So often I see on sites a sign up to my newsletter but then when you do you get nothing. This person has signed up because they want to hear from you so why not work on a welcome journey that nurtures them along the way to your weekly or monthly email, whatever it may be.
10. Compare The Look Of Your Social Media And Website
I have found a few brands on social media, then I visit their website and think “am I in the right place?”. This is because their social media looked professional and inviting but when landing on their website it looked completely different. Look at your profiles and websites, do they look the same? Are you using the same imagery, fonts, colors? If not then you should start to put plans in place to tie the two together.
I hope these 10 website tips help you through the lockdown, but most importantly as a reminder on the things to check in with every once in a while.