Having a website is really important but do you know why? (Like really, ask yourself, “why DO I have a website?” 🤔)

Do you know the endless capabilities your website has? Do you tap into the powerful potential your website has to to help you make more money and attract dream clients?

Or if you were to be really honest, having a website just something you’ve been told to have? Another tick off the checklist of running a business?

If you have a website for the sake of it, you’re probably:

– Letting it sit there and go stale. You don’t add to it over time but ‘set and forget’.

– Getting a small amount of leads and/or sales – or maybe even none at all. But you’d certainly love more.

– Not advertising your business as much as you like because you’re too embarrassed to send anyone back to your site.

Here’s the thing. A website isn’t a case of ‘build it and they will come”.

You need to be actively advertising and sending people to your site in order for it to get traffic.

Once you’ve got traffic, your site needs to look good and work well. Any errors or confusing layouts will have people clicking off before you can say “bye”!

It’s also a dynamic entity (just like your business). As you adapt, change and grow, your website needs to be updated accordingly so that it’s always representing your businesses as authentically as possible. If it’s not, you’ll always have those “please don’t judge me by my website” feels!

Once your website is in good shape, you need to update as you go but what I see business owners doing is they ‘set and forget’. But before they know it, 2 years have gone past and their website is horrifically out of date.

Then they have to fork out £1000s in one go just to get it revamped or spend the next 2 months frantically adding new content or tweaking, just to get it into good standing again.

So make sure you put time aside to prioritise your website. Keep it up-to-date and running alongside your business smoothly. And if you have happened to let it go stale, read on for 4 ways to breathe new life into your dusty ol’ website…

Review your content

Chances are, there’s shit on there you don’t even do anymore! Like old services you don’t provide or a target audience you know longer cater to. Maybe your brand’s moved on and your graphics are outdated.

Go through your website’s content and take stock. What can you keep, what needs to be updated and what needs to be throw away.

Testimonials

Take a look at the testimonials you have on your site. Are they up-to-date? Are they best reflecting the most current image of your business that you want to portray? Do you have any that need to be added?

Having reviews on your website is a great way to boost conversions so dot these around your site if you don’t have any at all!

Update CTAs

A “CTA” is a button that prompts action from the person visiting your site. Think “Sign up”, “book a call” and “buy now”.

It’s good to review these periodically to make sure you’re getting your site visitors to take the actions you want them to take. Maybe you’ve now got a booking app and you need to change “Get in touch” to “Book a call”.

Fix errors

The internet evolves, browsers change to become compliant, security patches are added. If your site’s been neglected for some time then chances are there may be a few errors on account of outdated code and software.

It’s important to make sure everything under the hood is running smoothly to avoid these errors cropping up and scaring away potential customers.

Update plugins and WordPress version if you’re site’s on WordPress. Check for broken links (using this tool https://www.deadlinkchecker.com/) and get a developer in if you’re experiencing any errors on the site that you just can’t seem to fix. Don’t waste time agonising over these if you’re struggling to fix them when a developer can get them sorted in minutes.

Is your website dead and gone?

Some times, you can breathe new life into a website to get it up to scratch. But sometimes, no matter how much tweaking and updating you do, you’re not seeing results.

So if you’re done trying to revive a site that’s defiantly dead, request a quote for an upgrade.