Spring Clean by himmelskratzer CC BY-NC-SA
Tomorrow marks the start of spring here in the northern hemisphere, and what better time than now to take a look around your Website and see if it would benefit from some spring cleaning.
Here are a couple of tips:
1. When was each section of your site last updated? Certain sections of your company’s Website, especially if the site is maintained by one person, are bound to get stale. This happened to me a lot during my last job, where I was the sole person in charge of the business’s Web presence (in addition to many other responsibilities). During your site’s annual spring cleaning, identify the sections of the site that need to be updated more often and set a timetable for getting that done. Delegate if you can. But, whoever does the work, make sure there is a plan in place for keeping things fresh in the days, weeks, and months to come. And if there’s a section that just doesn’t make sense anymore, don’t be afraid to cut it.
2. What about the little things? Check the footers and sidebars of your site for copyright dates you might have forgotten to changeover at the beginning of the year. Search for badges and other graphics—awards you may have received, associations you may have belonged to—and make sure that they are up-to-date and still relevant.
3. Could the site use a fresh coat of paint? What about a touch-up here or there? Ask yourself if any part of your site’s look and feel is out of date. If you find something wrong, write a list of small improvements that you might make without hiring a designer to start from scratch. Updating your site’s look and feel need not be an overhaul every time—in fact, too much change too often can be jarring to your customers. Incremental improvements are a growing trend.
Do you have any other tips to share on spring cleaning a Website? If so, leave them in the comments below.
Now, go out and have yourself an amazingly fun Fun Stuff Friday!
