I feel like a groundhog poking my head out looking for my shadow in search of a longer winter. I’ve had no less that four longtime clients reach out in the last week looking to do website refreshes.
Maybe you’ve been feeling the itch to freshen your site up too.
But before you throw the baby out with the bathwater (American idioms are strangely violent, aren’t they?) here are a few things to consider BEFORE you blow up your site and start cursing the pixels.
Do you really need a total gut job or will a quick facelift do for now?
You could be just bored with your look and need to “spice” things up a bit. Maybe swapping out some photos of you that were done this century could be all you need to freshen things up (hence why I’m doing my first photoshoot since 2019 next week – more BTS tips on how to plan your next photo shoot coming soon).
Is your website converting?
Most of us want to generate more leads and convert more visitors into buyers. But often we’re making the process harder than it needs to be – and we’re not clear about who we are and what we offer. Maybe spending a few hours clarifying your offerings and re-working the copy on your opt-in forms could be a quick fix.
I recently streamlined the copy on my own home page and moved my opt-in higher – and I’m already seeing a lift in conversions without redesigning my whole site.
Pro tip: separate your copy from your design. I like to put all my copy into a google doc and rewrite it before I head back to my website to tweak the design to fit the new copy. I never like to tell people they only have space for “this many words.” Effective copy is always more important than design!
Can people find what they need on your site?
There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to quickly find what you’re looking for (looking at you, City of Richmond tax portal). If users are finding it hard to use your site (especially on a mobile device), they’ll leave without taking action.
Pro tip: Your site should be speedy, intuitive and user-friendly. Consider adding a “getting started” or “how to work with me” page. I’m also a big fan of using high-contrast color notification bars that display at the top of a page to capture attention for time-sensitive offers or promotions.
How old is your current website?
There’s the design side and then there’s the tech side of things to consider. If your current site is more than 4-5 years old, it’s probably high time to reconsider the theme (and perhaps even the platform) you’re using.
WordPress (the platform I use for most of the sites I create) has seen tremendous shifts in the last few years – especially when it comes to full site editing tools. Older themes might not work with the new capabilities – meaning you won’t be able to take advantage of new features. The same runs true if you’re on a platform like Squarespace – if you’re using an older version, you won’t have access to a lot of the new features (and thus why you might not be able to implement certain tech things you see done in youtube tutorials).
Pro tip: A lot can change in a few years – are there features you’re missing on your current site that would help your business going forward?
Are you ready to get rid of your offerings?
Maybe you’re ready to ditch everything and sell something new. A quick fix could be to set old offers you don’t want to display to “draft” mode or to create a waitlist-only situation. I rarely fully delete old offers – instead, I’ll usually add a waitlist form. This allows me to keep a running interest list in case I want to offer the service or program again. One of my biggest web mistakes was deleting a high-performing page when I thought the offer was dead. Turns out the offer was in hibernation mode for 6 months. I had to re-create the page from scratch and lost valuable SEO juice from the downtime.
What’s your website timeline?
A full blown site renovation can take months to really plan and execute properly – especially if you’ve got a lot of legacy content to review or a lot of new content to create. If you’re going to be launching an offer in the very near future, it’s often smarter to work with the site you’ve currently got and make smart, strategic tweaks.
With some smart quick fixes you can extend the life of your current site without having to resort to bulldozing the place.
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