How to update your website for 2023 and stay ahead of the curve
When it comes to website performance and customer acquisition, a lot of attention goes towards delivering fresh content as often as possible, disregarding a lot of old, but valuable content that could benefit from an update to boost interest. The same can be said for web design and CTA’s. By giving these elements a little attention every year, you will remind your audience that you are still working to keep them and signal to potential clients that you’ve got your finger on the pulse.
Updating your website for 2023 is a great approach as we push through an incredible transitional period of what it is to have a digital presence. These changes are already impacting our search engine with recent updates from Google, Instagram giving more attention to video based content, which has completely ripped the rug from under a lot of creators and LinkedIn shifting from being the hub of networking to sales and hiring opportunities. It’s a great lesson that there is no space for permanence online, so doing what you can as a business to stay ahead of the curve is important.
Here are 6 ways to update your website ahead of 2023:
Clean out dodgy links
Although Google does a great job at ignoring bad links, there is a limit to how far they will go before your website gets penalised.
If you’ve never evaluated bad links, here are three examples to keep an eye on:
Business Directory
Blog Comments/Discussion Forums
Press Release Platforms
Of course, if you need to use these it’s best practice to keep it at a healthy limit. For years a lot of bad linking practices were used to increase website presence in the search engine, but these are now much easier to spot and tackle, so give some attention to these if you haven’t already.
It’s also great practice to go through your public web pages and test all of your links, to be certain that they are not broken and still lead to the intended location. Check out all backlinks too, assess whether they are still linking to the correct pages on your website, so you don’t miss out on potential traffic.
Refresh content and images
Take a look at your current content and evaluate whether it’s still appealing to your users. Update any old information that gets viewed a lot, such as your contacts page, homepage, careers page, etc. Double check your images to make sure that they are loading properly and at the right speed. You can check on your page speed and overall website performance with Google Console.
As you refresh your content, give close attention to all your CTA’s (call to actions) to make sure they are still clear and direct. If your website has a blog this is a great time to review your articles to either update them to reflect your current knowledge, turn some into infographics or even collate them into an ebook.
As you go through your articles, check to see what pieces are performing well and what ones aren’t. You could then repurpose your least viewed posts and use them as social media content, such as Twitter threads or update them with new images and republish. Your viewers may even respond better to a new title – so be creative with this and the old will become a piece for the future.
Consider an e-book
E-books have been around for a very long time, but they are still a valuable marketing strategy to build your mailing list or position yourself as an expert.
Do you know what your users need help with? Pinpoint their pain areas and use that to create an e-Book they would like to download. It may take a few weeks to get it right, but once you do, it will be an investment worth sharing. Create a CTA on your landing page to encourage users to download your e-Book in exchange for their contact information.
Check out and add a new social media platforms
Social media platforms are forever changing, but one thing you will know for sure is that your audience will be spending time on one or more of them. Often, we may think it’s where we decide to be present that matters, but actually we need to go where they already are. Of course, overtime you can invite your audience to join you on a platform of your choosing, as we’ve seen with a lot of YouTube Creators inviting their audience to join them on Patreon.
Adding an extra platform doesn’t necessarily mean more work, all you would need to do is repurpose the content you’ve already created to suit the new platform you’ve chosen. For instance, you can turn a blog post like the one you’re currently reading into a TikTok, by summarising the tips you’ve just read.
Are your forms working properly?
Test your forms to make sure that they are working by signing up to your own newsletter, client enquiry form, download your e-book, etc.
Click on all your social media links and reconnect to your website if necessary – you may even want to check your comments section while doing this.
Check user experience and refresh your website design
Do some research and find out what’s new in the design world – changing with the times is just as important as producing good content. Users enjoy reading good content on a website that alters to suit their needs.
If your website isn’t already designed to respond to various screen sizes, this may be a good time to look into getting this done. Research has shown that more than 60% of all search engine enquiries are done on a mobile device, so if you haven’t already optimised your website for mobile viewing or Google AMP, now is a good time to do this. You don’t need to redesign your entire website, just look at it from your users’ point of view and adjust for an even greater experience.
There was a time when business specialists advised that website performance trumped web design, but now this is very far from the truth. With so many making the transition from bricks and mortar to digital, websites are now more important than ever. At times, it is the first thing your customers see before they decide to spend money on your goods or services. So even though you’re already making a profit from your site, don’t neglect it – always keep a keen eye on providing quality and value to your customers.
