Don’t Let Your Website Grow Weeds

by | Jul 2, 2020

For most organizations dealing with this nasty pandemic, it’s easy to not pay attention to business basics. A case in point is neglecting your website. This is something you want to avoid. Here are few reasons why.

Don’t Let Your Content Get Stale

Overall business activity has certainly slowed but hasn’t stopped entirely. Prospects are still in the market for products and services, and during these locked down times are using the internet in record numbers to research and buy.

It’s as important as ever to have a website that is up to date, with fresh and timely content in the form of blogs, videos, new product or service offerings, etc. Sites that provide details about COVID-19 safety practices and policies are likely to be viewed more favourably than those that look like they are frozen in the pre-pandemic era.

A website that’s vibrant and informative sends a strong signal that you are very much still in business and ready to serve the needs of your prospective buyers.

Make Your Site Better

The irony of this disruption is that there’s never been a better time to take a step back and re-imagine your business.

  • How can we market ourselves more effectively?
  • Can we do a better job of selling our products or services online to make it easier for prospects to buy?
  • What can we do to improve customer service?
  • How can we better engage with our existing customers?
  • What can we do to be more efficient?

The opportunities are endless.

Evaluating your website through a strategic lens will uncover enhancements and capabilities that will support these types of initiatives: developing, or improving on, an e-commerce site, adding an online chat, making your offers/calls to action much more compelling, adding graphics or other visuals that make the site more appealing, creating interactive features. Ensuring you are using the best web hosting service for your specific website needs will also make an impact on your ability to deliver products and services online. Web hosting providers influence server types, uptime and load speeds, and vary in their customer support capabilities.

In short, this is a great time to make your website a great salesperson.

Don’t Get Hacked

Keeping websites secure is critically important, even during an economic slowdown. Hackers don’t take time off. Proper website security practices must be maintained so your site is not vulnerable to attack.

This is particularly true of WordPress websites. WordPress has become ubiquitous – roughly 20% of websites are now built on the WordPress platform. The resulting advantage is that there are innumerable WordPress developers and add-ons, and because it’s open source, features, capabilities, and performance are constantly being improved.

But it also means it’s a favourite target for hackers.

WordPress versions and associated add-ons must be kept current so known vulnerabilities can’t be exploited. Engage in sound security practices such as changing passwords.

Keep on Top of Performance

Websites must be monitored for performance and updated accordingly so they don’t become sluggish. Pages that take too long to refresh are unacceptable to both searchers and search engines.

Searchers will abandon sites that don’t perform well, especially with increased user expectations because of higher online activity during the lock down.

A key ranking factor for search engines is site performance – it’s imperative to monitor site speed and maintain it above an acceptable threshold so rankings don’t slip.

If you are enhancing your website with images, video, new features or add-ons, make sure it isn’t having an adverse impact on site speed. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that gives you information about your site’s performance.

The Bottom Line

These are just a few of the reasons why you should pay attention to your website during these unusual times. The point is simply that you shouldn’t neglect your site.

Use this opportunity to make it more strategic from a business development and customer relationship standpoint. If you don’t have the capabilities to do this yourself, you can get help.

Whatever you do, don’t let your website grow weeds!

Core Online Marketing helps SMEs create the right online connections for business development purposes. We take a strategic approach to digital marketing that drives results. Do your online activities have a direct impact on your revenue growth? Download our free Online Marketing Self-Audit to find out.

Ben Molfetta
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