When was the last time you updated your small business website? This week? this month? this year? If it wasn’t this week, it’s been too long and it’s time to give your website a little attention.

Every small business website needs attention in five distinct areas:

1. Is your website working properly? Check to be sure that all your pages load and that your links send visitors to the pages you intended. If you link to Flickr images or YouTube videos, realize that these media may be removed at any time and without warning, leaving you with broken links.
2. How’s your website design? Does it need to be refreshed? Most websites begin to show their age after about two years. This doesn’t automatically mean that a complete redesign is necessary. Many times a simple change to one or two elements on your site is enough to give it a fresh, new look.
3. When was your last content update? By ‘content,’ I’m referring to high quality information shared through blog posts, articles, FAQ’s, video or audio messages. If you’re an artist, when was your last image shared with your viewers?
4. Frequent content updates are important for three reasons:
   • It gives your viewers a reason to return to and engage with you on your website.
   • Frequently updated content is indexed more often by Google, meaning that it helps you attain better placement on the search engine results page.
   • It makes it easier for your customers and other website visitors to refer you.
5. Can your updated content be easily shared? Links are the currency of today’s online marketplace. Make it easy for your viewers to share a link to your content with their friends and neighbors. This can be as simple as adding a ’share this’ plugin to your blog or a Facebook badge to any page of your website.
6. Is your site secure? Websites can be hacked and links inserted that will direct your viewers to unsavory sites. This topic deserves an entire post of its own, but for now, I’ll direct your attention to an excellent resource: the Securi blog, where you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about threats and solutions to your website’s security.

Related Off-Site Article: Google indexing and high quality content

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Recently we shared a client’s Web site makeover, and suggested you step back to look at your Web site with fresh eyes. If you did that and realized your site is looking a bit dated, what’s the first step toward a redesign?

It may surprise you to learn that the first steps to creating your new design have nothing to do with the look of your site. That’s right, although it’s the first thing we see, it’s actually a secondary consideration. So, what should we consider?

1. How’s your current site working for you? Is your information presented in a way that’s easy to find? What’s the purpose of your current site?
2. Which pages on your current site receive the most traffic? Why? Are these the pages that you want to receive the most traffic?
3. Are you happy with your search engine ranking?
4. What size browsers do most of your visitors use? (from Google Analytics)
5. What’s the purpose of your current site?

Now let’s begin talking about your new site:

1. What new information (content) will be added to your site? Do you need or anticipate needing e-commerce capabilities? Will your new site’s purpose remain the same? Describe your target customer / viewer.
2. How frequently do you plan to update your new site? Do you want to maintain your own Web site or have the developer perform all updates? Depending on the answer to these last questions, we’ll direct you toward either a static HTML Web site or a content management system (CMS). We use, love, and recommend WordPress for clients who want to update their sites themselves.
3. With those questions out of the way, we can now plan the basic architecture of your site – what content can be re-used from your old site, what needs to be added and where, and how the navigation should work.
4. Finally, we arrive at the starting point for the actual design (the look and feel) of your site. Describe any ideas you have for your site’s design. Think about colors, images, and text, but also consider how video might fit into the mix and what elements would help your site be more socially interactive.

Overall, take the time to fully evaluate your current site and to carefully think through your new site’s architecture before beginning the design process. The end result will be a well-planned site that clearly communicates your message in a logical, useful format. Then turn your attention to its design to bring your content to life.

Part of our service offering is affordable business Web site design and hosting. The screen shots below show our most recent Web site makeover for our client, GrassWay Organics. This site is built on the WordPress blog platform and uses a customized premium theme. This is a combination public / membership site, meaning that several pages are only accessible through membership in their association.

Grassway Organics Before

Grassway Organics After

In the market for a Web site makeover? Contact us today for a free, no obligation Web site review.