When you’re busy running all the other parts of your business, website maintenance can often be found towards the bottom of the to-do list (a.k.a. the “When I Get To It” section). Site testing sounds like a technical task for an IT professional, but it’s a big part of keeping your website working on your behalf and much easier to DIY than it seems. Here are five things you can check in ten minutes to ensure your online presence is up to scratch!
1. Are your contact details clearly visible on your home page?
Make it easy for potential clients to get in touch by displaying your phone number and email address prominently on the first page of your site. This also guarantees a great first impression with visitors who are time-poor or viewing on a mobile device.
2. Do the social media buttons on your website link to the right pages?
This is important to check if you’ve recently closed an account or set up a new profile with a different username. It’s also a good idea to remove links to profiles that aren’t being actively maintained – no one wants to find themselves in an out-of-date or broken corner of the internet!
3. Does the pitch on your website match the pitch on your social media accounts?
It’s not uncommon for your product offerings to change as your business grows and the industry evolves, which means the way you talk about your business is likely to change as well. Take a few minutes to review your pitch on your Home and About pages to make sure it represents your current business focus. You want a consistent message about who you are and what you do across all of your marketing channels.
4. Is your contact form working correctly?
Send a test email through your online contact form so you can be confident your messages are being delivered correctly. Updates to your website theme, plugins or email provider can sometimes cause unexpected issues.
5. Does your copyright statement at the bottom of your website show the current year?
This is an easy one to forget as we cross over into each new calendar year – fortunately, it’s also fairly easy to update! It may seem like a tiny detail, but it serves as an indicator for potential clients on whether a business is active and the information on the website is current.