4 quick wins to refresh your website

14th June, 2017

Websites are like hair

Image of a lady and a dog with big hair

Websites are a bit like hair (bear with me on this, I promise it’s going somewhere)

If you’re anything like me, you’re too busy to spend a huge amount of time thinking about your hair. Over the years, you’ll have tried on a few different styles for size but eventually you settle on something that suits you that’s easy to maintain and relatively in keeping with current trends. Sorted. You can forget about it for a bit and get on with thinking about something else.

Then, suddenly, you catch sight of yourself in a mirror and think, God, when did my fringe get that long / how did my roots get that visible / when did my Annie Lennox turn into Boris Johnson (delete as appropriate). Without you noticing, an image that once perfectly represented you has gradually fallen out of date and you are left with something that is no longer fit for purpose. Times have moved on and the requirements have changed.

This happens too with websites.

What worked for you ten years ago is going to be hideously out of date now. Technology has moved on, trends have moved on and it’s likely that your business has changed since then too. It’s very common for business owners and marketers to invest time in creating a perfectly functional website, but neglect to notice as it falls further and further into disrepair down the line, especially if they’re busy and focused on other tasks in the business.

The moment of realisation when you realise a big change is desperately required has serious implications. How many customers have been put off? Has that broken piece of functionality prevented people from getting in touch? How much business have I potentially lost out on?

The next instinctual step might be to seise the phone and immediately get a quote for sorting the whole mess out. It’s possible that you won’t be able to find £75 for a wash, cut and colour several thousand pounds to fix the issue straight away. These things need to be planned for and budgeted.

So what can be done in the meantime? Actually, plenty.

 

Here’s 4 quick wins to refresh your website:

1. Declutter

Having too much going on will often put people off - it’s visually confusing. Instead of having text and images and logos and links all jostling for attention, allow the content space to breathe by spreading it out and removing what’s not necessary. Top level pages are for delivering the key information and providing a sense of who you are - more detailed information can move into lower level pages if needs be.


2. Housekeeping

No one likes doing housework, but it has to be done. Book an afternoon out of your schedule and go through every page of your website having a good clean up as you go. The most important things to focus on are fixing any broken links, updating the information so it’s current and ensuring at the very least that people visiting your website know what you do and know how to get in touch. A thorough test of all forms and links will help you to make sure you haven’t missed anything crucial.


3. Fresh photography

A nice easy way of bringing a tired-looking page up to date is to add some new imagery. Big bold images help to deliver impact - especially on the Homepage and on key landing pages - but it’s very important that the photography is professional otherwise it can do more harm than good. Great low cost images for websites can be found on sites such as Shutterstock.


4. Consistency check 

If a website has been looked after by different people, glaring inconsistencies in style and tone can crop up which looks incredibly clumsy to a potential customer. It’s worth going through each page and making sure that headings, body text and links are all consistent with each other in terms of font, size, tone etc. A similar review of your page titles and meta descriptions is no bad thing either.

 

These four things can be completed by anyone who knows their way around a CMS and can be a good interim solution until you can get stuck into overhauling your website in a bigger way. Equally, if you’ve got a little bit of budget available and you think your website needs more than a mere spring clean, there’s steps we can take to help without rebuilding the site completely.

Give us a ring for some free advice on 01273 702525. As for what to do about your barnet, you’ll have to work that one out on your own. 

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