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Apr
18
2011
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Posted 2 years 34 days ago ago by John Clark  1 Comments
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0 Wows
The Huns are Coming! Really?
When was the last time you did a serious review and update for your business' website? I mean seriously. When I visit a lot of websites I'm convinced they won't be updating their site again until the Huns invade Italy again. Maybe that's their trigger. Hopefully that's not you because your business will suffer silently from that lack of action.
Besides, site reviews are not like bamboo shoots under the finger nails. They can be invigorating, breathing new life into an aging adult. I've never seen a website injected with water from the fountain of youth. The information grows stale, the methods become old hat and the look may become boring compared to the competition's new website.
We love to sit down with our clients at least once a year and do a head to toe analysis to set thing up for the new year. Here are 3 main areas you should examine to begin with.
1. New Technology Advances
Every month we see wonderful new things that we can plug into your website to make it even more user friendly. For example see the "EZ Contact Us" button to the right? We used it at the top of this page to encourage contacts. Try it at the top and see what happens. Adds a little "cool" factor to your offering.
There are always new advances in slide show methods, video displays and pod casting. It keeps getting easier to do more. Notice the menu bar at the bottom of this page? Play with it and see what all is there. We can help you with any of that a more.
Finally, going mobile with your website is going to grow from the "it's already here" phase. If your site uses Flash for slide shows or animations then you are missing a large part of the mobile market on iPads and iPhones. Those devices can't play flash. As a result you really should be replacing your flash with jquery coding. If you notice our home page as a sliding banner that used to be done in Flash, we've converted it to jquery so Apple products can see it.
Another mobile adjustment should be your menu system. If people are on a mobile device they may not be able to navigate your drop down menus. Make it mobile friendly with a menu system that they can navigate.
2. Look and Feel
Sites I was once proud of when I built them 2 years ago look very stale to me today. It could be that way for your visitors as well. Website 'look and feel' evolves. You are competing against the expectations that have been raised by Amazon, Apple and other nationally known sites. You might not be in competition with them on your products, but you are competing with the bar they have raised for customer expectation.
I come across sites daily that I feel like I have stepped into a time machine and dialed it back to 1999. Clumsy layout, broken links and out dated content. Give it a modern look and feel and your customers will love you for making their navigation easier.
3. Keyword Analysis
We need to examine your historical traffic patterns and see in detail where your visitors are coming from and how they are finding you. We should examine if the keywords we were going for to begin with are bearing fruit. Did you know that Google changes their algorithm for rankings about 100 times a year? They do an average of 3 major changes each year. These changes can really wreck havoc on your website's rankings.
In addition, your competition is probably not sitting back and letting you have their front page results place unchallenged. Their web design team is probably gunning for that spot thereby booting someone else off. To stay high in rankings means you have to stay at it and head of your competition.
A solid annual review can help you stay current. In addition it will help inject a new sense of excitement in your visitors to see your business moving ahead and staying on the cutting edge of technology.
I haven't even touched on Social Media, email marketing, banner advertising, moving into video, adding blogs and... well, you get the point. Neither have I heard from the Huns lately so maybe you should just get at it anyway.
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