1. Check the Copyright Date

As soon as you create your website, it’s automatically copyrighted. But you need to make sure you have the copyright information on your website. Your website copyright gives you exclusive rights to your content.

Your copyright information should include the year it was published, the most current year (if the content has been edited since the publish date), and the copyright owners name. So if you’ve had your website since 2018, then you would simply put © followed by the years 2018-current year.

Ex. © 2018-2021 Motes Design, LLC

2. Check your links

Don’t you hate it when you click on a link and it takes you to that blessed 404 page? Instead of getting the information you were promised, you get “Error: Page not found” starring blankly at your disappointed face.

You DO NOT want this to happen on your website for several reasons. The first being it’s unprofessional and straight up tacky. 88% of visitors leave a website never to return after a bad experience on a website.

Second, Google notices these things. When a visitor clicks on a broken link, they will likely leave within seconds. Because they spend a small amount of time on your site, search engine algorithms will assume it’s because you’re not providing great content for your visitors that’s relevant to their search. This results in lower rankings.

3. Proofread your copy

Your website is usually the first point of contact a potential customer has with your business. They’re looking to see if you’d be pleasant to work with, worth their time, and most importantly, worth their money. Poor grammar or misspellings are unprofessional and totally avoidable! Just read through your content and make sure everything is correct.

If copywriting isn’t your forte, don’t worry! Just try your best and ask your grammar-savvy friends to proofread your work.

4. Check your analytics

Hey if you’re not checking your analytics every month how are you creating an effective marketing strategy? YOU’RE NOT.

Okay, tough love over,  but seriously, if you don’t have google analytics installed on your website get that done TODAY.  It takes 5 minutes and you’ll have the ability to look at how many people are coming to your site and where they’re coming from.

That’s the most important element of Google analytics. You need to look at the stats once a month and adjust your digital marketing strategy accordingly.

Don’t have a digital marketing strategy? You’re missing out on some BIG BUCKS.

5. Test your contact form

If you have a contact form on your website it NEEDS to work. You’re missing out on potential customers if it doesn’t. If someone has filled out your form and you never got back to them because it failed to send you a message, you wanna know how likely they are to inquire again? ZERO PERCENT. (That’s my estimate. I have no solid evidence to back this up. But that makes sense, right?)

So take a minute, fill out the form, and make sure you receive the filled out form in your inbox. 

6. Mobile Testing

If you’re skimming through this article, start reading here. This is super, duper important.

The majority of website views come from a mobile device. Over the last 7 years, mobile traffic has increased by 222% with over half the worlds’ website views coming from mobile devices.

What do these numbers tell you? Your website better look great on a phone.

It’s so easy to design websites that look gorgeous on desktop, but then weird stacking issues ruin the experience on a phone. If you notice issues on your site, get your designer to fix those problems PRONTO.