DIY WEBSITE CHECK UP: 5 EASY Ways To Tell If Your Website Is Performing!

We often talk about how important it is to have a high performing website before investing in outbound digital marketing strategies. Your website is your brand’s online home. Before you invite people over to your own house you want ensure you have a space that is ready to host. The same holds true for prospects that you are driving to your website. You want to ensure that your website has a solid foundation and makes it easy for site visitors to understand your business offerings & take the next step.

So how can you tell if your website is performing optimally? Here are 5 EASY ways to check if your website is working hard enough for your business!

1. Well organized, authentic representation of your brand.
If you were to put on your ideal customer’s shoes would they know exactly who you are, what you offer and what you want them to do on your website? Does your website align with your branding and marketing materials? It is critical that you make your website experience easy for prospects. When arriving on your site the business mission and purpose should be clear both visually & in messaging. Your website’s navigation should be well organized and let visitors know where they need to go find the information they’re looking for about your services or product offerings. It’s also important that the information on your site is up to date. Are there services currently offered? Are personnel members accurately reflected? Is basic location and contact information correct? Ensuring your business is well represented online is a key step in differentiating from your competition.

2. Mobile responsive design.
With the recent search algorithm changes having a mobile responsive website has become a nonnegotiable. Mobile responsive design means that your site will automatically scale to the dimensions of any device, which ensures it will look good on a desktop, laptop, tablet and phone. The navigation bar often collapses into a three bar icon (or fun industry term “hamburger menu”) that allows pages to be dropped down and clicked through. With over half of online searches being done on a mobile device responsive design is also another way you make your website experience easy for your potential clients or customers.

3. Keywords woven into content & SEO set-up properly.
Keywords matter and should be woven throughout your website. They need to be repeated on interior pages and should be included on page titles & meta descriptions. Looking at your competition can help you to understand keywords that are popular in your industry. It is also crucial to have SEO set-up properly on the backend of your site. This can be done in the page descriptions as well as with added on SEO plugins.

4. Clear call-to-actions throughout the site.
Tell them what you want them to do! Having clear call-to-action buttons helps your ideal client navigate their next step. “Contact Us” and “Book Appointment” are great ways to make a connection with a prospect. If you have commerce on your site “Buy Now” and “Shop Now” make it easy for customers to initiate the shopping process. On mobile you want to make sure these CTAs are highlighted and clickable.

5. Install Google Analytics (and make sure you’re using it!)
Google Analytics is FREE and helps you with metrics to optimize your website. You can get an understanding of the behavior and demographics of your site visitors. Are they going to the pages you want them to and are spending enough time on the page? If they are not going to the right places this can inform possible changes to make to your landing experience and the navigation. You can also understand where your site traffic is coming from and how your digital marketing tactics are working in driving that traffic.