Is your website hurting your business instead of helping it? If you haven’t updated your website in a while, then it can be. A Stanford University study showed that 75% of users admit to making judgments about a company solely based on its website.
So how can you fix this? Websites are not something you can just set and then ignore them. You need to make sure your website is always updated and fresh for your customers.
10 Essential Website Updates for Small Businesses
- Refresh Website Content
- Check Mobile Responsiveness
- Review Security & SSL Certificate
- Test Site Speed & Performance
- Update Design Elements
- Review and Improve SEO
- Add Fresh Testimonials or Case Studies
- Audit Website Navigation
- Backup and Disaster Recovery Check
- Test Forms and Contact Options
Refresh Website Content
Review your website for content that may be outdated. If you are a brick-and-mortar store, are your hours correct? Has your address changed? Do you have a page that has your employees’ list, and if so, are they correct? Prices correct?
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than reaching out at a time when you are listed as being open and finding a closed sign. Or reaching out and asking for someone to only be told they no longer work there.
Go through each page of your site and make sure all of this information is correct.
Check Mobile Responsiveness
Most search engines, such as Google and Bing, put a higher priority now on how a website looks on a mobile device. Have you opened your site on your phone lately? If not, do so and see how it looks. You can also use a site like Quirktools and test your site on different mobile devices. Just because it looks good on your phone doesn’t mean it will on your customers’ phones.
If it doesn’t look good, then you need to review the design and make sure you correct any issues so Google and other search engines give it a good ranking.
Review Security & SSL Certificate
Another aspect that search engines look at when ranking a website is its security. You need an SSL certificate. This is what the internet will use to ensure visitors that the site they are visiting is actually the site they say it is. Most hosting companies provide a free certificate. If yours doesn’t, then they will offer one for a yearly fee. Either way, you need to make sure your site is secure. If your site doesn’t start with https and/or shows a warning when you visit it that it isn’t secure, then your visitors will not feel comfortable providing any information to you.
But an SSL certificate is not the only aspect of security you need to consider. If you are using some kind of CMS for your website, like WordPress, then you need to review all of the themes and plugins are up to date. If not, then malware can infect your site, and this will cause your site to either redirect to a spam site or try to infect your visitors with malware.
Test Site Speed & Performance
Another thing that can frustrate a visitor is load time. How many times have you gone to a website and it seems like it will never load? How long do you wait until saying forget this and go on to another site? Your visitors will do the same.
Sites like GTmetrix will give you a good idea of load time. If your load time isn’t where it should be, then reviewing the elements on the site, like images and unused plugins, and themes, can make a huge difference. Also, consider your hosting company. They are not all the same, and every plan they offer is not the same. Some of the lower-priced plans share resources with other websites, and this can impact your performance. Also, review and remove any unused plugins on the site. While not being used, their information is still in your database, and the site has to read through the database, which can slow things down.
Update Design Elements
How your site looks should always be considered as well. Do your colors match your branding? Does your content line up with your social media accounts? When was the last time your site was redesigned? An outdated design will not appeal to visitors, so they won’t stay on the site for long. Are fonts hard to read? Are any graphics confusing?
Review and Improve SEO
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is how search engines like Google and Bing find your site. They are elements in your website that the search engine robots scan for, and if these are missing or incorrect, then they won’t index your site correctly or at all. Are there any broken links, ie, links that go nowhere?
Every page and post should have descriptions, titles, and keywords associated with them for search engines to index. Plugins like Rank Math and Yoast help you insert the correct keywords and information for search engines to index. Also, make sure you promote yourself. If a post or page mentions something on your website, be sure to link to it. Also, link to outside websites as well if applicable. Search engines look for details like this.
Add Fresh Testimonials or Case Studies
If you have customers who promote you, be sure to ask them for some testimonials, and be sure to list these somewhere on your website. If you complete a project for a customer, be sure to write up a case study. Any website we launch here, we highlight in a case study. We also remember the early SEO tips and link back to that site. These testimonials and case studies help build trust and credibility with potential customers.
Audit Website Navigation
In line with the earlier tip on broken links, make sure your menu is accurate and easy to use. Make sure the pages it sends customers to are appropriate and reflect your current set of services. Have you recently added a new service or product? Does your menu reflect this change?
Backup and Disaster Recovery Check
Also, make sure you are running good backups for your website. Nothing can be worse than something going wrong and not being able to recover. Make sure you’re backing up on a regular schedule. That schedule will depend on what your site does. Is it an online store or a news site? Then every day if not a couple of times a day, is very important. You don’t want to lose a record or a sale or have to repeat something you posted because you didn’t have good backups. Also, make sure you test restoring a backup to ensure you are getting a good backup.
Test Forms and Contact Options
If you have contact forms on your website, make sure you test them every so often. Fill them out and make sure the information is going to the right people in your company and that they have the information provided. You don’t want a customer reaching out to you and never hearing anything back because you didn’t get the information. Also, are your phone numbers and address correct on your site?
Final Thoughts on 10 Essential Website Updates for Your Small Business
“Your website isn’t something you can just ‘set and forget.’ Just like your car needs an oil change, your site needs regular checkups to stay fast, secure, and customer-ready. And with Black Friday right around the corner, now is the perfect time to make sure everything is running smoothly. Don’t let an outdated site cost you sales during the busiest shopping season of the year — schedule your website checkup with Jordan Web Solutions today and be ready before the holiday rush.”
