It’s complicated!
Two words that could describe my current living situation, as my 25th Wedding Anniversary approaches tomorrow. I live in Ohio, my husband lives in our “marriage house” in New Jersey, and I run two face painting businesses, one in NJ and one in Cleveland, out of an office in an apartment in Avon Lake OH.
But in this case, the famous phrase that Facebook uses to establish “relationship status” is describing not my personal relationships, but the state of affairs I uncovered when drafting a webinar on “Spring Cleaning Your Website”.
I know a little about SEO, and I know that changes to your web site, either big or small will increase your visibility on the interwebs. That’s why a blog is so important for marketing in today’s word of mouth world. Frequently adding a blog post will increase your ranking. Do you have a blog? Well if you don’t let me just tell you….never mind, that is a whole other topic.
Back on track!
Lo and behold, while looking for examples of BAD websites, I didn’t need to look very far to find out that a lead page on my website still held the headline “New for 2016.” Eek. As I investigated each page, I discovered more and more faux pas (faux passes…faux passees…what is the plural…).
Understand that my original intent was to share what I do, so you can do it too!
But then I got caught in this “Do as I say, not as I do” scenario, in other words: The Parent Trap. I quickly realized that if I used myself as the example, you all would be doing a shoddy job of website updating. My website is only about 5 years old, and was built on WordPress so that I could make changes and upload new pages by myself. Photos, and blog posts, and fun testimonials from my clients are all things I add, approximately once a month…GO ME! But as for the basic pages that clients use to find out who we are and what we do? I hadn’t taken a look at them a long, long time.
So I wiped my brow and settled down to research what I should have been doing all this time. The outcome of my hard labor was a LIVE webinar, and you can purchase the replay here, if you want to see what I presented. Your purchase will also include the slides as a download.
Or you can just read on and get a handy dandy bulleted list of the 15 Steps to Spring Cleaning Your Website.
Your website is the heart and soul of your marketing efforts. It needs to be current, and show your true authentic self with today’s services, photos, contact information and frequently asked questions. It needs to represent you when you are not there…at the point in time when your customer is seeking information to SOLVE their problem.
What’s their problem? They need artistry and entertainment for a party, a corporate gig, a fair/festival, or they need artistic support for an event they are attending. Regardless of whether you provide face painting, tattoos, balloons, decor, or makeup and special effects, your web site should be an extension of you! It should be the little person sitting on your customer’s shoulder navigating them through the decision-making process, and leading them to a booking. Or (almost as good) leading them to contact you for further clarification that you are the right fit for them!
15 Steps to Spring Cleaning Your Website
- Software and plugins are up to date
- Review analytics for issues
- Check for broken links
- Update copyrights
- Proofread each page
- Audit your content
- Manage your data capture, so you know who is visiting
- Contact information is up to date
- Test functionality (links, surveys, video playbacks)
- Update prices and services
- Update your bio, story and photos
- Look at our “news” and make sure it is current and in season
- Internal links to old blog pages if relevant
- Renew your domain name or set to auto-renew
- Make sure that the path for the client is laid out clearly…and easy!
What is the goal for your website? What do you want the visitor to do? Does your website lay out the steps for them to complete in an easy-to-follow fashion? is there a strong call to action so they can book or get more information?
If not…FIX THAT FIRST!l
Marketing in today’s information-rich society is not about having the fanciest bells and whistles on your website. Clean and crisp might be more appealing to your Ideal Customer, depending on your company. Just make sure that your website today is the best you can make it today! And if you don’t have a website…plan to get one, since it identifies you as someone who is serious about your business.
In other words, a professional.
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