Today is the day. You are raising a glass in the boardroom. You thank all your peers for helping you with the grand launch of your new website. You are excited to see the sales go through the roof this year.
It is now the middle of Year 2. You sit back in your office chair. You wonder why your website is not performing as well as it did in the first year. You blame your IT department because you think they broke something. It has been a frustrating year.
After driving the same car for 3 years, you don’t expect it to operate the same way as it did on day 1, do you? Your website should be seen the same way. This is a common mistake made by many businesses in the digital space. Every month we come across several websites that have not been modified in years!
Like your car, regular maintenance is necessary to ensure that your website is performing at its peak.
Your website is not a destination; it is a journey.
The work is not finished the day you launch the website. As a matter of fact, your work has just started. Keep the website up-to-date in order to provide your visitors with the best user experience.
Here are 4 ways to keep your website performing at its best:
1 – Trust Your Analytics
Spend some time reviewing your analytics to learn how users are interacting with your website. Google Analytics provides incredible information about your visitors, where they spent most of their time, and even where they decided to leave your website.
This is golden information to help you determine your most popular pages and areas where improvements are necessary.
Make adjustments to your low performing pages by mirroring the success created by your top performing ones.
Remember, it is all about improving your customers’ experience.
2 – Ready, Fire, Aim
No, that is not a typo.
On the first day of launch, you are publically showcasing a website that you believe will succeed. You put in hours pinpointing the right Marketing strategy for your business.
Marketing is a science and an art. As discussed, use analytics to get the real facts about your visitors’ experience (the science). However, I also encourage you to take some chances and be creative (the art). Fire out some new strategies and then re-aim based on the results you see on Analytics.
3 – Listen To Your Customers
Every complaint about your website is an opportunity, and every compliment is a reminder
Take a bold note of their complaints. Did they find it difficult to locate a critical page on your website? Are the photos used on the website unappealing? Does certain buttons not work? These are golden nuggets to help you align the website to their expectations.
Your customers are the ones that will be using the website more than anyone else. Take their comments seriously and make them feel appreciated. Give your customer service the chance to shine!
4 – Feed Your Website
When someone visits your website on numerous occasions, and sees the exact same thing during every visit, they may consider that your website is out-dated or abandoned. For all they know, you have gone out of business!
Keep your website fresh by:
- Displaying your active social media feeds
- Feeding your website with blog articles each week
- Updating the website with new images and videos
These 4 tips will help you breathe life into your website each year and provide the best value.
Last month, I wrote a post (rant) about a terrible user experience I had with a website. I also show you how you these mistakes can be fixed. View the post here.
