THE RURBAN FRINGE

8 Tips to Update Your Website

Posted on | March 11, 2010 | No Comments

With warmer weather on its way, it’s time to think about spring cleaning … including your online presence.  Just like your home, your organizational or community website also needs periodic ‘cleaning up’ to ensure it looks fresh, remains up-to-date, and stays relevant.

  1. Freshen Up Your Colours – If you have a branded colour palette, are you using it?  If not, dig out your branded colours and use them or visit a site such as Colour Lovers for colour ideas and combinations.  Clever use of colour goes a long way to improving user experience; use colour to guide visitors to your most important information. 
  2. Update Your Content - If you haven’t updated your content since you built your site, it’s time.  Click through your own site pretending to be a member of each of your target audiences … or ask a colleague to do the same thing.  Count the number of clicks it takes a user to get to the recommended content.  Most likely, there are areas that could be edited, making your site more user-friendly.  If any core information, products or services have changed, then you should definitely update the content to reflect your evolving identity. 
  3. Check for Consistency – Go through your entire site and look for consistency with fonts, font treatments, colours, paragraph spacing, sizing, naming, use of graphics, placement of graphics, etc.  This one simple step will improve the readability and increase return visits to your website.
  4. Calls to Action – Revisit (or create) objectives for your website … is it to build a subscriber list?  Make sales?  Ask for donations?  Refer people to certain information?  Ensure whatever it is you want your visitor to do is easily visible and accessible … preferably from your home page.  Direct visitors to your contact page, Frequently Asked Questions, shopping page, etc. in one click or less. 
  5. Let’s Get Social - If you are online elsewhere and don’t have links to your other social networks (i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), it’s time to add them!  Not only will they add interest to your site, they will also allow visitors to connect with you through the other platforms you – and they – are using.
  6. Consider Blogging – Google and other search engines love fresh content … and blogging is one way to continually add information that will get you noticed online.  If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, blogging is one way to add value to your services, and most blogs can be set-up for free or added to an existing site for minimal cost. 
  7. Add Photos – Photos are a real way to connect your visitors to what you are sharing online.   Add pictures of your team, your customers, partners, products, etc.  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
  8. Survey Your Audience - Surveys are a quick and easy way for visitors to interact with your site, while also letting you gather information about their interests.  Create a survey about a topic of interest to help people learn.  PollDaddy is a well-known site.

Lastly, put someone in charge of your website so that it is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.  Think of it like this … the web works in dog years; one year online is like seven years offline.  Things change fast on the internet and ignoring changes and new technologies for too long can leave you behind.

Best wishes in your online clean-up!

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