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Website Refresh Checklist: Essential Elements and Best Practices For Increased Visibility and Engagement

How can I make my website more marketing savvy?

Even in this era of social media proliferation, your website is still a key marketing tool for you and your business. As it is controlled by you (not a mega platform that changes the rules of engagement frequently and unexpectedly), it makes sense to regularly check that your website is working as hard as it can for you.

No matter what you or business offers, the goal of your website should be inviting, easy to use and engaging as possible, so that it encourages visitors to take action.

I was recently asked by a client to give them my advice for important elements or components that they should consider or review for the next version of their website to make it more “marketing savvy”. Below is a fairly comprehensive checklist to help you get the most out of your website.

13 ways to elevate your website for success

1. Focus on an easy, inviting, navigation and visitor experience once on site.

Having an easy-to-navigate site is crucial. Visitors need to be able to easily find what they’re looking for on your site, and you need to make sure that they have a good experience when they do. Start by creating an easy, simple navigation and engaging visitor experience.

2. Make sure it is responsive and functions really well on mobile.

You know that responsive design or even “mobile first” is a must-have for any business. Not only does it make your site look great, but it also makes it easier for customers to use. Your site will feel more like a real place, instead of some virtual void.

3. Highlight a quick video about who you are and who you serve on the homepage (or your About page).

The video could be a short explanation of what your business does, or maybe it’s just a fun fact about yourself that makes you excited to work with other people. It could also be a funny story about how you came up with your name, or an inspirational quote about perseverance. Whatever it is, make it quick and fun!

4. Include thoughtful CTAs, (calls-to-action) throughout the site.

CTAs (calls-to-action) are an important part of any website, and they should be thoughtful and well-placed. They’re meant to entice users to take the next step in their journey with you and your brand. But if you’ve ever tried to write a CTA, you know how tricky it can be!

5. Design an easy opt-in, lead gen and/or sign up for your downloadable content and email newsletters.

Your website is the first thing people see when they land on your site, so it’s important that it’s easy to navigate and provides the information visitors need. Create a simple opt-in page that allows visitors to sign up for your newsletter or other offers in one click.

6. Visitors would love to see previous client testimonials and press, ie. some sort of third party endorsements throughout the site.

When you want to refresh your website, it’s easy to get caught up in the details. But the reality is that most people just want to know what it’s like to use your services and products, and if you’re offering those things, the testimonials of happy customers and you sharing your thought leadership with the media are going to be extremely valuable.

7. Provide a better online calendar or event experience, both in navigating and in sharing on social media.

If your business is heavy on events, consider adding a better online calendar/event experience. You want your visitors to make it easier for them to get the most out of your events.

8. Make a friendly, inviting, easy path to join your community or membership.

Your membership (if you have one) should be easy to sign up for and access, so that people feel like they’re getting as much value out of their membership as possible! 

Make sure that all of the information about how to join is easily accessible from one place without having to search through multiple pages on your site (or email correspondence).

9. Add a search bar or search function to easily find all of your great content.

Searching for content on an especially robust and comprehensive blog is a pain. You don’t want your visitors scrolling and scrolling. They can’t just type in some keywords and hope to find everything. Include a search bar or search function so visitors can find specific content easily.

10. Ideally all pages (not just blog posts) should be easy and user-friendly to share in social media – and look good when shared.

We’ve all been there: You’re looking at your Facebook or Linkedin post and you see that your latest blog post has only a few likes and comments.

“What happened?” you ask yourself. “It looks great! And I know it had more likes than that!” The answer is simple: Your post wasn’t easy to share on Facebook. The image was wonky, it was hard to read, and it looked bad when shared as a social media post. 

And so what happens? People don’t share your content on social media because they don’t want to deal with the hassle. So make it easy for them to share your content in a way that makes them and your content look good.

11. Make sure your social media icons (with the correct links) are easy to find (even if in footer) for people who want to find and follow you in different ways.

Have you ever been on a website, and all of a sudden, you get this nagging feeling that the site is missing something? Maybe it’s the little icon at the bottom of the page that tells you where to find the contact information or how to unsubscribe.

It may seem like a small thing, but it can completely change how your visitors feel about using your website. 

12. Create a special “landing page from social / IG” instead of using “linktree” or “linkinbio”.

Leads are the lifeblood of a business. It’s not enough to just have great services, you need to be able to capture leads and turn them into customers. There are many different ways you can do this and many use linktree or linkinbio.

You could also consider creating a hidden page on your website – that features the most immediate content and CTAs you’d like your Instagram (or other social media) fans to see. 

This is an excellent tool for increasing your online presence. It allows you to build and manage all of your links in one place and gives you access to any link at any time, even if it has been removed from the index by Google or another search engine.

Ninja but necessary…

You should not forget to make sure that the site “plays nicely” with Google and all of the search engines, so make sure to:

13. Optimize for Google and best search practices

It’s important to make sure your site is search-engine friendly. Not only will this help you attract more potential customers, but it will also help ensure that your website stays atop of the rankings.

The first step to ensuring your site is optimized for search engines is to make sure you have a domain name that allows you to optimize your content for SEO purposes. Make sure that it has certain keywords in the name and that you have an active website with relevant content.

13a) Properly set up for Google Analytics 4

Keep in mind that Google is the king of search engines. That means that if you want to get the most out of your site, you need to make sure you are set up with the most recent and updated version of Google Analytics – GA4!

Now that Google is using GA4 for tracking visits, you’ll get a much better sense of how “engaged” your audience is. You can also see which pages they’re clicking on and when they visit them. This information will help you determine which pages are working best for your business and what kind of content you should be creating.

13b) Be thoughtful with your navigation hierarchy and headline strategy

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of refreshing your website and forget that it’s not just about the look and feel. Setting up your site so that it’s search engine friendly is just as important as making it look great!

A strong navigation hierarchy and headline strategy improve user experience by making it easier for visitors to find relevant content. Additionally, clear navigation and strategic headlines enhance the crawlability (yes that’s a word!) of your site for search engines, allowing them to understand the structure and relevance of your content, ultimately boosting your SEO  (search engine optimization) performance.

13c) Ensure images are also optimized for best practices and accessibility compliant

Optimized images contribute to better search engine rankings, as search algorithms favor fast-loading and accessible websites, thus improving overall visibility and organic traffic. It enhances user experience by improving site loading times, especially on slower connections, leading to higher engagement and reduced bounce rates. And accessibility compliance ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and understand the content, promoting inclusivity and widening the audience reach.

Are you ready for a website refresh?

Your website visitors are your community! Make sure your site is as welcoming and easy to navigate as it can be. If your site is out-of-date, confusing or hard to find, then it is going to decrease your chances of growing your community, engagement and enhanced visibility. 

Make sure that the user always knows what they can do next, don’t make them jump through hoops or miss out on your core message because you haven’t presented it in a clear and logical way.

You’ve got a great message, product, service to share with your audience – LET’S MAKE IT SHINE!

I’d love to hear which of these things you want to update for your website. If you’re having trouble getting started, need someone to brainstorm with, looking for a planning partner or just need some accountability then let’s chat. I’d love to see how I can help!

[*Full disclosure: This cobbler has no new shoes and is about to work on her own site for the first REAL REFRESH in nearly eight years! Do as I say NOT as I do – but I will be bringing you along for the journey!!! Stay tuned!]

GDPR compliant ready website USA

Is Your Website GDPR-Ready? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force May 25th, 2018. It is intended to affect data privacy laws across the European Union and Great Britain. Even businesses run outside of the EU may have users within the GDPR’s jurisdiction, so this new regulation affects just about anyone with a website online (I mean, it IS called the world-wide web, after all!). Understanding GDPR and how it will impact your website and your business may be a bit overwhelming at first (with a whopping 88 pages of legal language), but thankfully, there are many resources available online to help website owners figure out how to ensure their site is operating within the new regulations.

The best way to start

Perform an audit of your entire website to see what aspects of your site need to be declared as far as what you collect, and to be transparent to all visitors accordingly.
The following guide is not an end-all, be-all to GDPR compliance for your website, but is a general condensed overview meant to help you to go through what items on your site need to be addressed. Ask yourself the following questions about your website, and follow the suggestions under each.

1) What data is my site capturing? 

The following list of examples of data collecting you will want to audit includes, but is not limited to:
  • Personally identifiable information: Obviously, names, addresses, and email addresses are identifiable information. If your site allows comments, that’s collecting identifiable information. Same with contact forms. Someone fills it out and hits “Submit.”  You need to find out where is that data stored, and where does it go to?  Some contact forms don’t store the data in your site’s database, some do. Which option do you have set? Don’t forget I.P. addresses. In the United States, Visitor I.P. addresses are not necessarily considered identifiable information, but in the EU, they are. If your site tracks or collects any users’ IP addresses, you will need to know this, as well.
  • Cookies: Most websites send a small file to each user’s computer or phone, called a cookie. Most of the time, a cookie’s file contains just a timestamp of the user’s visit to a site, but can also store many other personally identifiable data, such as an email address or password.
  • Selling of products or services: Does your site sell products and/or services using ecommerce or payment tools (PayPal, WooCommerce, Stripe, Amazon Seller, etc.)?
  • 3rd party site tools: Such as live chat tools, marketing tools. If your site uses a live customer chat or any marketing tools, such as funnel services (LeadPages, ClickFunnels, WishList Member, etc.), you need to visit these service providers to see what they are doing to be compliant

Any other ways not listed here, in which your site collects a user’s data, you will want to mark down.

 

2) How long is the data on my site kept for?

Any tools mentioned above, or others, that your site uses to capture a user’s data must be investigated by you to find out how long a record is stored on your website’s database or in some cases, on a cloud connected to or provided by the service or tool in question. Follow up with your website designer/developer or investigate each tool on your own by visiting its provider’s website and either search for their updated privacy policy that clearly indicates that they are GDPR compliant, or contact them to ask how they are planning to meet the regulations, then be sure to get the information in writing.
In many cases (if your site is running WordPress, for example), the above-mentioned tools and aspects of your site may be handled by a script called a WordPress plugin, and those are typically written and managed by third-party developers. Visit your WordPress plugins page and then visit each plugin’s respective website or plugin listing to investigate the way the data is collected. Here is also a resource on WordPress and GDPR compliance.
Once you find the information that each provider outlines which indicates how they compliantly handle data, you can link to the language that each service provides, within a Privacy Policy page (addressed further in this post).

3) How does my site address consent and explicit consent?

After collecting all the above answers for the first two questions, write out what needs to be addressed, and how you want to present and disclose what it is your site does with any information it captures (you will need to make sure none of it is personally identifiable because there’s an issue of consent. All visitors need to not only consent to give you access to their data, you need to allow them to do so.

You can prepare a Terms page on your site to outline that by using the site, each visitor has agreed to give their consent for you to collect their data. Then you can add a button or check that says “I agree” next to a link to this Terms page.

4) How does my site allow users to access and control their data?

The next concern your site needs to address is the prove your site has the ability to deliver all data to each user in the EU that you have collected on them. The GDPR outlines that one thing they require for all EU website users, is that each EU citizen has the right to access and opt-out of or remove any or all of this identifiable data upon request. 

Some data compliance efforts may not be required on your part

If your site deals with health or medical information, you need to know that explicit consent is required for the processing of certain special types of personal data. Examples would include things like racial or ethnic background, political, religious, or philosophical beliefs, data concerning health information, sexual health, and sexual orientation. This is outlined in more detail in the GPDR’s Article 9. If your site does not use or request such data, you should be OK, but be sure to read through the GDPR text to make sure.

Bottom line: Transparency

Setting up a clear disclosure that explains in plain English what data you collect, what the data is used for, who can see the data, and where and how long it is stored, should be done via a Privacy Policy page. A good idea would be to check out a reputable legal website which provides privacy and terms page templates, use and customize what they have available, and then, for each service your site uses to collect data from users, provide a link to their page that outlines their GDPR compliant practices language.
If your site collects no personal identifiable information whatsoever, and your site is in the US and does not cater to users in the EU, you probably have nothing to worry about, but in the spirit of transparency, it’s still a good practice to just make sure there is a site disclosure easily accessible to all users of your site, even if you do not collect anything.

Next steps:

Whether or not you are within the EU or have customers in the EU, there are fines and penalties that can be imposed if your site is not compliant with the GDPR law. How these fines or penalties can be collected or enforced is still unclear, and many parts of what has been written so far have been presented in a very ambiguous way, so the practical effects and results on non-compliance have yet to be tested in a court of law.
You will want to share this with your legal team and/or website developer so you can work together to get GDPR-ready!

_______________________________________

This was a guest post by Bobbi Jo Woods

Plan now - for a better next year - event

Create A Step-by-Step Plan for Marketing Your Business Next Year

Are  you overwhelmed at the thought of a marketing your business next year?

Do you wonder if your marketing efforts with your website, email list and social media are effectively reaching “your” audience?

With 2017 right around the corner, wouldn’t you love to plan out your online marketing priorities for the year and know exactly what’s coming and how to make it happen?

NOW is the ideal time to ensure you start the new year off right!

On Friday, November 11th join me and Kate Schell of Digital Marketing Momma for a LIVE in-person workshop as we breakdown the 4 major areas of overwhelm and confusion that most entrepreneurs face in marketing their businesses online.

In this 3-hour hands-on planning workshop, we will help you:

  1. Identify Your Ideal Audience – do you know who you are talking to/trying to reach?

• Who is your target audience?

• do they want and need from you?

• What does the marketplace look like?

 

  1. Create a Marketing Calendar – it’s time to get dates and deadlines on your calendar NOW!

• Using worksheets we will clearly define your business goals so you know the end results you are working towards

• Plan out your work/life calendar to see when you can plan key dates, campaigns and promotional opportunities and give yourself the space to prepare and create.

• Determine what your primary marketing efforts should be. This will help you focus solely on the places and opportunities that will generate engagement and revenue.

• Understand what resources you will need based on your goals. By creating this list you will not have to scramble last minute.

 

  1. Identify the Most Engaging Content – what is the ideal information you want to share or promote using your online marketing?

• Brainstorm ideas for what the most compelling, engaging and valuable information you can be sharing with your target audience.

• Narrow down and prioritized the most effective and efficient way to develop/create/curate your content marketing.

• Get a complete list of popular programs and resources to use to help your content creation and curation easy and fast.

 

  1. Develop a Content Strategy Plan – so you know what to do when for the entire year!

• Map out your content calendar.

• Learn how to determine the right time to post and how best to connect with the right people for your business.

• Plan how to review and measure your marketing efforts to find areas that work and areas that need improvement, so you know where to spend more or less time, money & resources.

After this workshop, you will walk away with a clearer understanding, strategy and plan of how to reach your ideal audience as well as the steps and tools you need to do so to rock your business next year!

What are you waiting for? Register now (and get the discounted rate before November 4th) as there will be limited seating to keep this as interactive, dynamic workshop as possible.

 

Date:    November 11th, 9:00am – 12:30pm
Where: Stamford Innovation Center
           175 Atlantic St, Stamford, CT 06901

Cost:
$99 -discount price before November 4th
$149 – regular price after November 4th

 

REGISTER NOW!

 

Interested in the event, but can’t attend due to date or location? Let me know by email as we will be planning a virtual workshop soon.

3 Ways To Optimize Your New Website Launch

3 Ways to Optimize Your Website Launch

I’ve been knee-deep in new website launches with clients and with my own website, recently.  After months of fussing over getting everything just right, it’s totally understandable to want to get that new baby out into the world. I get it – you can’t wait to finally share your new look and branding with everyone.  However, here are a three steps you should consider taking so that your fantastic new website gets maximum exposure and visibility.

1)   Get your website Google-ready.

As important as it is for your new site to function properly and be easy to navigate for new users, it is just as important for it to work well for Google and the other search engines. Make sure that you have created the best headlines, meta descriptions, and keywords for all of the content on your site so that the search engines identify your website as one that is reliable, informative, and appropriate for searches in your areas of expertise.

yoast

For most WordPress sites, you can add in plug-ins (Yoast is the most popular) to help you do this. However, if it sounds too confusing, I advise hiring an SEO (search engine optimization) expert to help you with this process – ideally before you even design your new site.

2)   Carry your new design across all platforms.

No doubt hours and hours were spent thinking about the images, color, fonts, and the look of your new site – right? Keep that awesome design going with your branding for your newsletter, social media networks, and online presentations. You want your fans and customers to feel like they are in your world with your consistent look and messaging no matter where they are in your online space.

branding

Create new newsletter header, and new (and appropriately-sized) social media images (both profile and cover images) using your brand’s new look. Also, make sure your website and looks good when it is shared. Get your designer to help you, and use social sharing plug-in (my website designer  recommended Social Warfare) and set up your social cards on your website so that you can control the look and specific content that is shared.

3)   Let your tribe help spread the word and engage with your new website.

Nothing is as infectious and engaging as a happy excited employee or fan, so let them help you share your good news. Encourage them to share the new website with their networks. If they have been involved in the process, this shouldn’t be difficult as they are probably as enthusiastic to get the word out.

stats

In one recent launch, the team was so excited and proud of the new website, the employee team shared it on Facebook and encouraged all of their friends to like the company’s Facebook page, nearly doubling the the audience in one week!

Or make a game out of it. My friend Patty Lennon just launched a gorgeous new site and to get her people to check it out, she created a treasure hunt on her site – hiding a phrase that she rewarded people for finding.

It could be so easy to finally flip the switch and just let your site be your new site. Often, people choose to forget these extra steps or they wait until they realize they are not getting the traction they expected.  But taking the time and implementing these critical to-dos into your launch strategy will most certainly give you the wider visibility and engagement you are seeking for your most important online marketing tool – your website.

Want to learn more about maximizing your new launch? Schedule a clarity call with me now.

Your website is ready to go live, take a deep breath…and check again!

In this month’s guest blog post, website designer Veronica Agabs offers a great “check list” before launching a new website:

So, you worked hard and everything is ready but there still things to go over. I am not asking you to be a perfectionist but few simple things can make a big difference. So be sure to check one more time. Here is the list you should go over before you turn the ‘switch’ on.

1. Is the navigation where you’d expect it to be?
2. Is the navigation terminology clear (i.e. “Contact” versus “Reach Out”)?
3 Are there any broken navigation links?
4. Is there excess clutter in the form of graphics or text?
5. Are the colors pleasing to the eye or do they give you a headache?
6. Is the text on the homepage clean and simple?
7. Is it clear what the website is about? When considering the ten-second rule, this is one of those areas where there should be no doubt in the visitor’s mind.
8. As a visitor, are your most important questions answered quickly?
9. A simple About page is fine. In almost all cases, this includes a photo and a brief bio. It’s always nice to know who you’re doing business with, wouldn’t you agree?
10. Optimization for conversions means making sure your website serves a purpose – it doesn’t necessarily mean a big red “BUY NOW” button.
11. Do a basic SEO audit. Here are a few other things to look for:
– Does the website have an appropriate site title and meta description?
– Are the major pages of the site optimized with an appropriate title, meta description, and content?
– Is permalink structure set-up properly?
– Is there address and contact information in the footer of each page?
– Is their NAP (name, address and phone number) consistent across all their profiles (website, social & business listings)?
– Make sure all pages are verified by Google

Beyond the obvious navigation, general layout and color selection, does the site feel intuitive? Are things where you’d expect them to be? More specifically, is the existing design trying too hard to be creative at the expense of simplicity? Put yourself in the shoes of a real visitor, because this is who the website should be built for.

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Veronica Agabs is a a freelance web developer, a WordPress fan, dog and coffee lover, and mother of three.  She is passionate about helping businesses and individuals to build their visibility online. No project is too big or too small. Rather than being just a designer or developer, she sees herself as a business partner. Her specialties include branding, design, user experience, development, integration, and maintenance.