Take a little time each week to update your website. Your brand will thank you for it.
In a previous blog post, What is a Brand and How to Define Yours, we described how a brand is not about what you say.
It’s about what you do.
A brand is a verb.
That means your website is your brand.
Instead of getting into copywriting errors that may be hurting your website (how to write a website was covered in our post How to Write Website Copy That Turns Visitors Into Customers), this post deals with technical errors.
But they’re super simple technical errors that even a copywriter could fix.
5 Fixes to Improve Your Website and Your Brand.
1. Update the Copyright Date
Most people may not even see the copyright date in your footer. But if they do – and if it’s out of date – you’re sending a message to site visitors, aka prospects. The message screams:
WE DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL!
Everything you do reflects your brand. Fix this one and prospects will know that details matter to you.
2. Write New Blog Posts
If you want to be considered a thought leader in your industry, your site needs fresh content. Period. Nothing says, “We don’t have new ideas to offer our clients” more emphatically than a post from 2017 as your most recent piece of content. The quick fix is to simply delete your blog. Your other option is to start posting consistent content. This will not only support your position as a thought leader. It will also help your site’s SEO. As Hubspot puts it:
Blogging helps boost SEO quality by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customers' questions.
3. Fix Broken Links
Let’s say you have an up-to-date blog filled with awesome, thought-leading content. That’s great. Even better: Make sure all of the links are working.
Like old copyright dates, broken links reflect poorly on your brand’s attention to detail. They also lead to a bad user experience (the dreaded HTTP 404 message). A bad user experience can, in turn, hurt your site’s SEO.
How bad are broken links? A recent poll found that broken links are the single most annoying part of a user’s website experience.
4. Include Only Relevant Social Links
Having links to your social platforms on your website is fantastic. It helps you to connect more deeply with visitors, prospects and clients. But are you active on all of the social sites you’re linking to (we’re looking at you, Google+)?
Like outdated blog posts, social platforms with only old posts do nothing to enhance your brand. The message you’re communicating: We don’t care.
And if you are active, be sure to engage with your audience. Quickly. According to Hootsuite:
Fifty-three percent of you asking a company a question on Twitter expect a response within an hour. For a complaint, that number jumps to 72 percent of you.
5. Delete Unused WordPress Plug-ins
Keeping unused plug-ins simply adds junk to your database. The more junk, the slower your website. Why is this important? The short answer: Google doesn’t like it. According to Moz:
Google has indicated site speed (and as a result, page speed) is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages.
Your Website is Your Brand’s First Impression
Keeping your website current is one of those tasks that’s easy to put off – especially when you’re busy taking care of clients.
But ignoring it hurts your brand.
Not only from a general reputation standpoint. But also from a practical, making-money standpoint: 81% of people perform some type of online research before making a large purchase.
Take a little time each week to update your website. Your brand will thank you for it.
Need more time to update your website? Let Copy Rocket take one thing off your plate by handling your copywriting. Contact us today.
Photo by Dana Vollenweider on Unsplash