website words the A to Z of maintaining a great website

The A to Z of Maintaining a Great Website

Does your business have a website? Most do, but the question often is, are you maintaining it the way you should? Here are some ideas on the A to Z of maintaining a great website.

A is for attitude, which means that it is vitally important that you have the right attitude about creating a website in the first place. Is it because you believe it’s what a business should do or you view it as a way to highlight your products or services, make a sale, or bring in new customers?

B is for branding. Your website represents your brand, which means that it should accurately reflect your business as a whole. For example, make sure that you use the same colors, fonts, and themes on your website as you do on your social media channels and other marketing collateral.

Photo: patpitchaya for Getty Images Pro.

C is for content strategy. Do you have a plan to add content to your site on a regular basis? If not, you should. Google loves websites that are updated regularly. The recent “May 2020 Core Update” rolled out by Google was a pretty substantial one, affecting global websites in many different categories. If you checked your site’s analytics, you would have noticed either a positive or negative impact on your website. If your traffic increased, that’s great. If it didn’t, it means there’s more work to do.

D is for design. Most businesses should hire a web designer to do the job. If budget is an issue, you could create a website using the drag-and-drop templates that are provided by the likes of Weebly, GoDaddy, and WIX. If you hire a professional, be sure that he or she knows how to create search-engine-friendly websites that can be easily crawled by Google and other search companies and that they know how to create a good content design strategy, where pages and other content are easily found.

E is for easy navigation. Don’t make your clients and potential customers search for essential information. And don’t crowd a website with too much information or fancy bells and whistles either. Most people spend very little time on websites unless they find something that is useful to them.

F is for free offers. One great way to get customers to your email list is to offer something invaluable and free. You will get a better conversion if you include something such as an e-book or a free product giveaway.

G is for grammar. One thing that will turn people off is sloppy writing and bad grammar. Even if you don’t use a professional copywriter, run your content through spellcheck or use Grammarly.

H is for HTTPS. It is important that your site’s website address begins with HTTPS, which is the secure version of HTTP. Visitors to a site with HTTP could see a warning message saying that such sites are vulnerable to cyberattacks and that any personal information is not secure.

I is for ingenuity. Be bold with your website if you can. Most often, that can be achieved by hiring the right team consisting of a web designer and copywriter. If your site is old, you might need to think of a redesign. Most websites today are built to be responsive and mobile-friendly, in addition to having a fast load time, a critical component in attracting visitors. The popular web design strategies right now include bold colors, large typography, and compelling visuals, important if you are selling products.

J is for jumpstarting your business by having a great website. The first thing you need to do is choose an appropriate domain name, whether that’s your business name or something else that is memorable and reflects what you do.

Photo: makromedya for Getty Images.

K is for keywords. If you are interested in search engine optimization, you should recognize the importance of keywords that are relevant to your business. If you have a bakery, for example, the primary keywords for your website should be chosen with a local spin in mind. For example, you might want to incorporate longtail key phrases such as local bakery in XXXXXX (whatever community your business is located in), as well as other words like local bakery shop, Italian bakery specializing in cakes, pastry shop, and more.

L is for load time. Like I’ve said before, page load time is extremely important if you want to keep potential customers on your site. There are many reasons why your website may be slow to load. They include images that are not optimized, JavaScript issues, too much Flash content, as well as pages not being cached on a regular basis. A tool like the WP Rocket plugin and others can help with this issue.

M is for marketing your website. There is no use having a website if you don’t market it. If you have a blog on your site, you should promote it on your social media channels. Every time you communicate with clients and prospective customers, be sure to include your website address in your email signature. In addition, create a Google My Business account to further market your site.

N is for navigation. Be sure to create a navigation menu that is user friendly. You want people to stay awhile to explore your site. If it is difficult to navigate, they will “bounce.” This means that they will only look at a single page rather than continuing to explore other pages on your site.

O is for outlook. You must have a positive outlook when it comes to the notion that your website can drive customers to your business. But it can’t do it alone. You must work on it by implementing some of the strategies above.

P is for plugins. Over the life of your site, you’ll no doubt end up using several plugins to improve its functionality. While your web designer will implement some of them, it’s good to be knowledgeable about others, especially if you are maintaining your site after it has been designed.

Q is for quality. Above all, you should have a quality website that includes accurate information, updated content, and appealing images, all factors in attracting customers to your site and subsequently, making sales.

R is for resolution. This refers primarily to images on your site. While I mentioned above that you should optimize all images, i.e. making them a smaller size so that they don’t impede the page loading time, it is important that those images are high quality.

Photo: PLG for Getty Images Pro.

S is for SEO. As mentioned previously, SEO, otherwise known as search engine optimization, is hugely important for any website’s searchability and visibility. It is important to invest in SEO either by hiring a web designer with knowledge of SEO or a content marketer who has expertise in this area of digital marketing.

T is for traffic. Increasing traffic to your website goes hand-in-hand with SEO. If you are continually updating your website, Google will reward you with increased traffic.

U is for usability. Create a site that is easy to navigate, where people can find whatever information they are looking for, with images that are attractive and with other interactive elements that will ensure  it is the go-to website in your industry.

V is for valuable content. It’s not enough to put out any old content. You should instead create valuable content that is better than that of your competitors, content that is so good, your website visitors won’t want to go anywhere else for the same information.

W is for website hosting. Make sure you choose a quality hosting company. I recommend Bluehost, which I’ve been using for many years. The company’s customer service is, in my opinion, second-to-none.

Y is for You. Only you, the owner of your business, can decide what kind of website best represents your brand.

Z is for zero disadvantages to creating a website. If managed properly, your website can become a marketing and sales machine for your business.

How is your website doing in terms of the metrics above? Let me know in the comments below.

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