Here are 10 things to check now to make sure your website is working for you.

1. Is your core content up to date?

Review your Home, About, Services, Bio and similar pages for inaccurate or missing information. Have you recently launched or dropped services or prioritized certain types of clients? Are there time-related references that should be updated, such as your years in business or mentions of “recent” activities that are old? Are you using dated terminology or images? Have you included recent achievements, speaking engagements, certifications or media mentions? Your website should reflect the best and most current you.

2. When did you last add a blog post, article or news item?

If you have a blog or page with news or publications, it needs to have recent content. Your last blog, article or news item shouldn’t be from years ago. It sends the wrong message. You want to demonstrate that you’re active, well-informed and regularly share your expertise.

3. Do you highlight recent client successes or testimonials?

People trust what others say about you more than what you say about yourself. If your success stories are clearly old or you don’t have testimonials, you’re missing an opportunity to build credibility.

4. Is your website mobile-friendly?

More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. Pull up your website on your phone. Is it easy to navigate? Does the layout adjust properly for smaller screens? If not, it’s time for an upgrade.

5. How quickly does your site load?

Visitors won’t wait more than a few seconds for your site to load before they leave. Google will also factor in site speed when determining which websites to show at the top of search results, with faster sites more likely to rank higher. Test your website speed using these tools.

6. Do you have any broken links, malfunctioning forms or integrations or outdated downloads?

Click through your main pages and check for links that lead to nowhere, features that don’t work or old downloadable PDFs. These create frustration and suggest you’re neglecting your site.

7. Are you using clear calls to action (CTAs)?

Every page of your site should help guide the visitor to the next step, whether that’s contacting you, linking to more information, signing up for something (webinar, newsletter, etc.) or scheduling a consultation. Make sure your CTAs are clear, relevant and easily seen.

8. Does the design still represent your brand?

Design trends evolve. Even small tweaks like updating colors, photos or font choices can give your site a modern feel. Look at the websites of some of your competitors. If your website feels dated or doesn’t match your current brand identity, it might be time for a refresh.

9. Do you have analytics set up (and are you checking them)?

Your website can tell you a lot about what’s working and what’s not. Tools like Google Analytics or your website’s built-in stats can show you where visitors come from, which pages they spend the most time on and where they drop off. Regularly reviewing this data helps you make smarter decisions about updates and improvements.

10. Is your site secure and maintained?

If you use WordPress or another content management system, regular updates to the platform, plugins and themes are essential for security. An unmaintained site is a liability and could be vulnerable to hacking.

A website that looks professional, functions smoothly and reflects your current business builds trust and drives growth. By reviewing these 10 areas regularly, you ensure your digital presence stays aligned with your business goals and your clients’ expectations.

Need help evaluating your site? Contact us for a consultation. We can assess your site to determine whether it’s working for you.

Content Updates

Content is how visitors will evaluate your experience, understand your approach and decide whether they like and trust you enough to take the next step. As such, the frequency of your content updates should reflect the nature of your services and how you want to be perceived by your target audience. For example:

1. Thought leadership. If you want to position yourself as a go-to resource in your field, you must stay up to date in your field and provide clients/prospects with practical insights on new developments and trends.
2. Blogging. To build credibility and trust, you want to regularly provide clients/prospects with relevant information that will help them understand and improve their situation. Blogging also keeps you top of mind with contacts and improves your site’s search engine rankings.
3. Service offerings. Any time you introduce a new service or modify an existing one, you should revise your website’s service pages accordingly.
4. Bios. For professional service firms, bio pages are often the most visited page of a website after the home page. That’s because visitors often come to the site to research a specific professional. Accordingly, it’s critical to keep bios up to date highlighting current experience and activities.
5. Client success stories. Regularly update your success stories and client testimonials to reflect your latest achievements and client feedback.

Design Updates

An outdated website design is kind of like walking into an outdated office. It raises the question of how successful you are if you haven’t modernized. Website design trends evolve, and a contemporary design can help project professionalism, competence and success. Changes can fall into 2 categories:

1. Strategic redesigns. You should consider a major design overhaul every few years, or when your firm undergoes significant branding changes, such as a name change or major expansion of the business.
2. Subtle enhancements. Minor design adjustments, like updating color schemes or images, can be made more frequently. These changes can freshen the look of your site without requiring a significant investment.

Note that you don’t need to be constantly following the latest trends but do always consider the image you want to project to clients/prospects.

Functionality Updates

Professional service sites usually don’t have complicated e-commerce functionality. However, there are significant user issues that you want to avoid including slow loading pages, broken links, malware and other concerns. Updating your site can help ensure you don’t have problems with your site and you project the right image to visitors. Consider these steps:

1. Regular maintenance. A WordPress site (the most common website platform) consists of the core engine, a visual theme and plugins for added functionality. All of them issue periodic upgrades which either improve functionality, address bugs or patch security vulnerabilities. As a result, monthly or quarterly updates may be needed and you should have a webmaster who handles these for you.
2. Mobile optimization. Your website must be responsive and easily navigable on various devices, including smartphones, tablets and desktops. You should regularly test your site’s responsiveness to ensure users get the best results.
3. Enhanced features. If your firm introduces new tools or features on the site, they must integrate seamlessly with your website’s existing framework. It is critical to research compatibility across your site’s components, identify any security vulnerabilities and conduct rigorous testing before deployment to minimize problems.

Conclusion

Regular updates to your website help demonstrate that your firm is current, knowledgeable and invested in providing site visitors with the best possible information and experience on your site. It can also improve search engine visibility and set your firm apart from competitors.

Thanks to Linda McCormack, Pixellence for sharing her insights on website design and functionality.

If you need help with your website, contact us for a free consultation.

1. Update your contact list. People change jobs regularly or information is entered incorrectly and we never notice. If your data is wrong, it’s useless because your marketing won’t reach those individuals. Interns can take care of tasks like researching bounced emails and gaps in your data. They can also compare your social media and email contacts to find individuals that are missing from either list.

2. Create and send an email newsletter. A great way to stay top of mind with contacts is to send out an email newsletter every month. An intern may be able to help with creating an email template if you don’t have one, gathering materials that could be included in the newsletter, formatting the newsletter, and/or sending the finished product to your contacts and then reporting the results to you.

3. Post to social media. An intern shouldn’t decide what should be posted on your behalf but may offer suggestions. In addition, they can assist with the mechanics of scheduling posts, finding accompanying images, recording video, designing ads and monitoring and reporting on the results of your social media marketing.

4. Send social media invitations. If you’re not good about sending invitations to new connections, an intern may help. Further, an intern can assist with inviting your personal contacts to follow your business page on social media. In most cases, you want to have a separate presence for your business, but it means making an extra effort to get people to follow your business rather than your personal page.

5. Identify speaking and writing opportunities. It’s time-consuming to pitch yourself as a speaker or get an article published. An intern can research organizations and publications where you may want to appear; find out the requirements; and prepare, send and follow up on your proposals.

6. Write/proofread marketing copy. It can be useful to have a fresh perspective on the promotional materials you prepare. If your intern is a good writer, have them draft copy, provide feedback on your materials or proofread.

7. Get reviews from happy clients and referral sources. Reviews carry a lot of weight. Even when prospects have been referred to you, they will still google you and check reviews. If you don’t regularly ask for reviews, have an intern help send out requests for a review on Google and/or your social media pages.

8. Run marketing reports. Marketing involves significant trial and error. An intern can run social media, email, phone, google website and advertising reports to help determine what activities and campaigns are working better than others so you can make adjustments.

9. Design marketing materials. If you are fortunate to have an intern with graphic art and design abilities, make effective use of it. They can help spruce up your ads, flyers, invitations, PowerPoint presentations, social media posts, blog posts, website and other materials.

10. Update your website. It’s easy to forget to update your website, but it looks bad when a prospect visits the site and sees that all the “News” and activities are a few years old. Interns can review the site and add information on anything that has occurred in the intervening period, such as articles, speaking engagements, press, awards, community involvement, etc. In addition, the copyright information on the site should be updated.

This is not a complete list but provides suggestions for how you can leverage your marketing intern to promote your firm. Remember to give your intern adequate training and supervision so you both get substantial value out of this experience.

If you need assistance with your marketing, including training interns or other staff, contact us. We offer social media and email marketing training as well as writing and consulting services.

Owned media. This refers to marketing channels you own or control, such as your website, email, and social media. It also includes events, webinars, videos, podcasts, or publications that you host or create. Since you decide what you are promoting and when and how it appears, it is a waste not to take full advantage of owned media. Yet I regularly see professionals who forget to use these channels.

Tips:

• Promote your activities on all marketing channels you control. For example, if you speak at a conference, include it on your website, social media, and email.
• Pay attention to how your message is presented. Update the design and copy on your website and in your email template. Write compelling headlines and intro text on social media and add images to posts.
• Test different marketing tactics/strategies to improve results. Vary email subject lines, social media text, design and images, and the day/time when you send out promotions.

These activities will not cost additional money but can have a significant impact on results.

Earned media. When someone voluntarily mentions you, it carries more weight than what you say about yourself. As a result, earned media is highly coveted and the most difficult to get. Examples of earned media include client reviews, awards, press coverage, backlinks, and invitations to speak and write for third parties. Public relations firms are paid well to help their clients. However, professionals can do a decent job themselves if they are willing to put the time in.

Tips:

• Ask clients, vendors, and contacts to give you reviews on Google, social media, and other relevant websites.
• Reach out to organizations where you are either a member or have good relationships with those in charge about opportunities to write or speak.
• Let your contacts know you are looking to write or speak and ask them if you can guest blog on their websites (and offer to reciprocate).
• Follow relevant organizations and reporters on social media to learn what issues they cover so you can develop a relationship with them, offer assistance and make appropriate pitches to them.
• Sign up for HARO (Help-a-Reporter-Out) which publishes requests by journalists/editors for people who can help them with a story they are working on.
• Research awards that you can apply for to boost your visibility and credibility.
• Share your good publicity on your website, social media, and email.

These efforts take time, but they add up. As a result, once you have established credibility and have garnered some earned media, you will find that new opportunities will come to you.

Paid channels. Ads, sponsored content, event sponsorships, pay per click advertising, and paid social media can be helpful, but expensive. However, advertising today is very sophisticated allowing you to carefully select the audience you want to target and track results in detail.

Tips:

• Don’t engage in one off advertising. It’s expensive and unlikely to bring results.
• If you want to advertise, you need to commit to doing it for at least a few months to gauge results.
• Be clear on what you want to accomplish and carefully review your metrics. Clicks to your site and phone calls are great if your goal is visibility, but if you are looking for good leads, you need to pay close attention to who you are attracting.
• Test different ads, keywords, etc. to improve results.

Which marketing channels are missing from your toolbox? If you’d like help with your marketing, contact us for consultation.