It’s May and you know what that means, Spring Cleaning! Now roll up your sleeves, put on your rubber gloves, and grab that duster! You’ll be fully equipped to tackle your website’s Spring Cleaning after reading this checklist:

  1. Broken Links: There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking on a link and seeing that ugly “404 Error: Not Found”. If your site isn’t working correctly, 46% of those who visited your site will NEVER return again. (Source: Anchor Mobile) Do you know how many broken links are affecting your customers and your business? Find out today and clean up your broken links!
  2. Clean Up Your HTML: If you regularly add content yourself and, or, you haven’t touched your HTML in years, please do me a favor and contact us today. “Junk” in your HTML doesn’t only make your website look unprofessional, but search engines like Google and Bing, want nothing to do with it. Think of your HTML like a needle in a haystack. If your HTML is full of “junk”, Google is going to have an incredibly tough time figuring out what your website is all about. As a result, Google will rank your website lower in search results. The cleaner your HTML, the higher your website will rank in search results and the faster your website will load for viewers.
  3. Site Maintenance: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, when was the last time your DNN website was upgraded? I cannot express enough importance when it comes to performing regular upgrades on your DNN website. Think about your website the same way you would think about your car. You made the initial investment when purchasing your car but you still need to perform routine maintenance so that it will continue to function properly. For instance, if you did not change the oil in your car for years, it wouldn’t perform as well, it would cause other problems, and would end up costing a ton of money to fix. Similarly, if you did not perform upgrades on your DNN website for years, bugs and security patches will not have been fixed in DNN or in your DNN modules, causing more problems and in the long run costing you more money to fix. If you see the “Update” or “Critical Updates Available” message when you log into your DNN website, you need an upgrade and are not on the latest version of DNN.
  4. Your Site’s Appearance: Have you given your website a whole new look in the last couple of years? Is your website responsive? Does it look incredible on a tablet and smartphone? If you answered no to any of these questions (be honest!), you should definitely freshen it up with a responsive makeover. Today, the internet is at our fingertips, literally. We can access the web through our laptops, tablets, and smartphones. DNN makes it easy to achieve a responsive website by applying a responsive skin. According to Pew Internet, as of May 2013, 63% of adult smartphone owners access the internet via their smartphone and 42% of American adults (18+) own a tablet. These numbers will only continue to rise in our near future.
  5. Freshen Up Your Content: When was the last time you updated your content? Search engines like Google only want to show viewers fresh content. By updating the content on your pages regularly, you increase your chances of being seen in the early pages of search results.
  6. About Us: When was the last time you updated your “About Us” page? Is your content still relevant? Has your business accomplished something big this year and you haven’t mentioned it?
  7. News, Calendar, Events, Blog, Gallery: Do you have a News, Calendar, Events, Blog, or Gallery module on your website? Are you adding new content to these modules regularly? Come up with a schedule to add new content to each of your modules regularly and stick to it! The more relevant and new the content is on your site, the more people will come back to look at your site.
  8. Contact Us: Look over your contact information. Is it up-to-date?
  9. Copyright: Is the Copyright in your footer up-to-date? If not, login to your DNN website, go to Admin > Site Settings and change your Copyright to the correct year.
  10. “Calls to Action”: Update your “calls to action” or if you don’t have any, add some! How are your viewers going to know what you want them to do if you don’t tell them. Some examples include, “Sign up for our mailing list”, “Purchase our Website Starter Package”, “Call today for a free estimate”. Give your viewers some kind of direction.

Photo Credit: Thee Design Studio