Advanced Access Blog

You know those little postcards your dentist or doctor sends out every 6 months or so reminding you to make an appointment to get a checkup? Sometimes I wish my website sent me one to remind me to give it a checkup. (Why not use these Marketing Tip emails as reminders?…) The truth is a lot of us develop websites and we don’t think to go back and make sure it’s still in good shape. Are you ready to get your site back in shape? Here is a list of top 5 places to check your website’s vitals.
1. Review your company and contact information

Real estate agents often change offices, companies, and even the technology they are using. Be sure your information is current throughout your entire site. Make sure that any reference to you or your company is up to date with the latest information. This might be a good time to spice up your about page as well.

2. Check your e-mail routing

Do you use e-mail addresses on your website that might be routed to another address? Be sure to go in and take a look at your e-mail settings and make sure all of the addresses are current. Even if you’re not using an address actively someone might have it on file from older materials and they may use it to contact you.

3. Test your contact forms

This is a big one. If you have a form on your site that someone is filling out and you aren’t getting it you may be losing a potential client. Test ALL of the forms on your site and make sure you receive the inquiry. Make sure you check that your forms are feeding to your desired IntelliCards address book as well.

4. Test your links

This one is time consuming but it impacts your visitor experience, and your search engine optimization. Make sure all of the links on your site are directing to the proper pages. If they’re not, it’s time to update or remove the links that have errors.

5. Check your domain name

It’s easy to forget about your domain name if you have it set to auto renew or have registered it for multiple years, but it’s always a good idea to make sure your domain registrar has your current contact information. It’s also a good idea to make sure you know when your domain is due for renewal.

As you go through your site and complete the above checks, look at your site as a collective. Is it really where it should be? Are you happy with its content, it’s appearance, or is it outdated? Just as you grow professionally so does your website. By regularly giving your site a checkup you can make sure that your visitors are seeing a proper representation of you and your business.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Product Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.