REFRESHING YOUR WEBSITE FOR 2019
I thought it might be helpful to create a list of website maintenance tips to help you prepare your website for 2019.
Tip 1: Get Ready for WordPress 5.0
WordPress is one of the world’s most popular content management systems and they recently released one of their biggest software updates in years. I’m a big fans of WordPress and most of the websites I developed are built in WordPress. WordPress 5.0 offers a “streamlined editing experience” for its users. With the new update also comes the new Gutenberg editor, which puts each piece of content into its own distinct block.
It’s important to check into your website for any major software updates and ensure that this new update won’t affect any of your plugins in a disastrous way. Overall, if you are using WordPress to support your website, you will want to ensure that your plugins and backend won’t be affected negatively by this new update.
Tip 2: Proofread your Content
Now that a year has gone by, there is a good chance your content could use a refresh. Have any of your team members changed? Do you still offer the same set of core services? Is there any fresh content that you kept delaying to add in 2018?
I would also recommend reviewing your meta information and ensuring that your website is properly connected to Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Check for any major errors and get them fixed before the end of the year to give your website a fresh start in 2019.
Tip 3: Create a Content Calendar
As you manage your digital marketing (if you’re doing this in-house), having a calendar helps to keep your team on track. Add things like major events (such as trade shows or annual meetings) and come up with related content around those events.
Content can include blog posts, infographics, email newsletters, and social media posts. You don’t need to drill down into the date/time of a post or just what that content might look like but having a general guideline will certainly help.
Tip 4: Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly (and Fast)
We’re getting into 2019 and if your website isn’t mobile-friendly by now, this should be at the top of your list. Gone are the days of responsive websites being “nice-to-have.” More people than ever are using their mobile devices and tablets to browse the web and if your website is not mobile-friendly, Google and Bing won’t be very kind:
Mobile-first indexing means that we’ll use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for.
– Google
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html
Having a responsive website has been a ranking factor for a few years now and Google also recently changed their algorithm this year to prioritise FAST mobile-friendly websites over slower websites. Basically, if your website isn’t quick to load on mobile, then you’re looking at being demoted in the search results.
Tip 5: Clean Up Your Website Comments
It’s very important to keep up and clear out any spam. The first reason you’d want to do this is that it can slow down your server/website if you have too many comments clogging it up. This won’t happen for a few hundred comments, but if you haven’t cleaned up your website comments this entire year and have thousands, you’ll want to clean them up before 2019.
If a website redesign is on your list for 2019, I’m here to help. I’ve been in business for nearly 20 years and have built and worked on hundreds of websites.