5 free tips to refresh your website

Why is it important to update your website?

Stop neglecting your website. Updating it is not only crucial, but it also comes with immense benefits. And the best part? It doesn't have to cost you a penny.

Your website is the showcase for your brand, so investing in it is essential. Not only will regular updates improve your SEO, but they will also ensure your content and offerings remain relevant. With a few simple tweaks, you can breathe new life into your website and reap the rewards.

When was the last time you thoroughly reviewed every page of your website? I guarantee you'll uncover numerous areas in need of updates. Don't shy away from showcasing your business achievements either. Share your client wins, awards, and accreditations proudly. It's time to let your accomplishments shine.

Updating your website is also an opportunity to align your brand with its current evolution. As your business naturally grows and changes, so should your visual style and tone of voice. From language adjustments to the colour scheme, minor modifications can make a major impact.

To get you started, here's a checklist of five key areas to overhaul:

1. Update your images

With so many high quality free image libraries available, there are no excuses for not refreshing your imagery.

Try and select photographs which are in keeping with your brand and use the same visual style so they look like they all belong together. This could be in terms of colours, the composition or the styling.

2. Add or update your blog

A blog on your website will not only help with your SEO, but it should drive traffic to your website. Providing the content is relevant and well written, it can help you come across as an expert in your field. Plus, it is a way to provide added value to your customers in the form of advice and free tips.

Once you've built up a large number of blogs, you'll need to rethink about categorising them to make them more 'searchable'. You can also revisit old blogs and update them. You may have heard the term 'evergreen content'. This refers to content which doesn't have a shelf life and can be repurposed. It is a good idea to invest in creating evergreen content which you'll be able to reuse a few times.

3. Update your ‘about us’ and ‘products and services’

It is well worth updating your main sections a few times a year. These are the sections that easily become out of date and probably are the most visited. You can see what are the most popular pages from looking at your Google Analytics.

How old is the picture of you or the team? Try and ensure it is current and reflects your business in the right way. It if isn't take a new picture at home, but ensure you use a neutral background and you're wearing colours which are complimentary to your brand colours.

The products and services section is one of the most important sections on your website. Ensure you are putting more of a spotlight on your hero products and remove any products or services which are not relevant or popular.

4. Improve the call to actions

Call to actions are a critical part of the customer journey and buying process. Ensure you have enough call to actions on your website and they are prominent and appear in the right place. Try and make these as specific as possible. For example 'contact us' is quite vague. Would you rather people phone you or do you want them to sign up to a newsletter. Go back to what your objectives are.

If you don't have any call to actions throughout your site, then start to introduce them. You could also test different call to actions, and see what works best. Remember providing you've set up Google Analytics, you can track user behaviour on your site.

5. Add customer reviews

We all know how hard and sacred a glowing review is from a customer. So make sure you use it on your website and feature a good range of reviews.

Customer reviews should be used across the user journey to help reinforce your brand. They can also help plug 'low content' pages to help with your SEO.

All systems go

Don't delay any longer. Make updating your website a priority and experience the extensive benefits it brings. It's time to invest in a stellar online presence that truly represents your brand. It is recommended you rebuild your site every three to four years.

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