How to Perform an Annual Checkup on Your Website

 

Giving your website an annual checkup is an excellent idea, just as you would with your cars servicing. Setting aside time each year to concentrate on the important components of your website can help in many ways, from increasing its performance and speed to making it more appealing to users and consumers. Here are seven actions we advise taking as part of a yearly website audit.

1 - Verifying the facts

Businesses provide a lot of information about themselves on their websites, but some of it will evolve over time. Visitors will therefore view outdated and incorrect information. In a yearly checkup, updating any information that is out of date should be one of your top priorities. The titles and responsibilities of your employees, the services and goods you provide, you’re pricing, and your T&Cs are all things to double-check many business listings.

2 - Relevant content

Checking to verify if your pages and posts are still relevant to your target audience is another worthwhile content-related assessment. It can be beneficial to adapt the material so that it still has current relevance if your target audience's interests and behaviour have changed or if they have changed altogether. To accomplish this, think about how your target market has evolved in the past year and look for ways to adapt the information you offer to any changes.

3 - Think about switching your theme

A theme change can be time-consuming, thus it should not be handled lightly. However, if your website's appearance and design are beginning to feel stale, it could give visitors a bad impression of your business and turn them away. Even if your goods or services are excellent, many visitors may leave a website they find outdated or unattractive within a few seconds of entering, which can cost you revenue.

4 - Follow tips from your top rivals

Whatever industry you're in, there will be rival businesses whose websites are worth checking out, especially those that consistently appear at the top of search engine results. You can get a decent idea of what the top-ranking sites do that you don't by examining their designs, layouts, features, and content. This might assist you in making a list of improvements to make to your own website in order to help it meet the same standards.

It is feasible to delve a little bit deeper using analytical tools in addition to just browsing the website. These can reveal which of your rivals get the most traffic as well as the keywords they employ to do so. Knowing those keywords may enable you to employ them to improve your own ranking and draw in more clients business listings.

5 - Examine your security

Cybercrime is on the rise, and falling victim to it might have disastrous consequences for your company. A crucial component of your annual check-up is determining whether your security is appropriate for the situation. Make sure your web host protects your website against viruses and intrusion; need strong passwords; and think about adopting two-factor authentication. Additionally, you should verify the validity of your SSL certificate, filter emails for spam, phishing, and malware, and set up automated software updates. You can also employ strong security solutions like Pitchman, which can automate updates and patching while containing risks, if you have a CMS website, such as one powered by WordPress.

6 - Check that your website is easily accessible

People use a variety of browsers in addition to a variety of devices to access the internet. You should test how your website functions and appears on as many of these as you can each year. This includes examining how Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari look on laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Keep in mind that a portion of your visitors will use each of these platforms and browsers, and if your website doesn't function properly on any of them, you could lose a portion of your visitor base and revenues.

Check the navigation and display, then test logins, pop-ups, forms, buttons, and the checkout to ensure they work as they should free business listings.

7 - Examine your hosting

Your website's success depends heavily on the caliber of your web hosting. A competent host makes sure your website runs quickly, is safe, and is always online while also offering round-the-clock technical support in case you encounter issues and need help fixing them. It could be time to look for a new host if your current one isn't meeting these basic requirements.

The suitability of the hosting option for your website is another factor to take into account. Your current bundle might not offer all the resources your website requires to operate at its peak performance if you have a lot more online content or are receiving a lot more traffic. If so, you might wish to upgrade to a stronger option, such as a VPS, dedicated server, or cloud.