In many industries, the summer months can bring some temporary calm as clients and customers take vacations - leaving their emails to pile up and their to-do list to remain untouched.
For those with some downtime (either welcomed or not), check out these quick website improvements that can be made in no time (and with little to no help from anyone else) but mean a great deal when it comes to the impression it makes on current and prospective clients or customers.
Companies across industries are investing heavily in their content strategies - creating pieces that inform, entertain and influence - but many struggle with finding or making the time to write consistently. For those facing a downtime, they should create quality blogs (e.g., helpful and relevant) that are "evergreen," which mean they can be used today, tomorrow or six months from now. Quality definitely matters more than quantity when it comes to blog writing (also the longer the better for search ranking purposes), so get writing even if just one lengthy and informative blog comes from the efforts.
There are countless websites across the 'Net that are guilty of not updating copyright information - often found in a site's footer. By not updating this each year, a site risks looking untrustworthy. Some software systems and plugins can do this for you automatically.
If a company name uses any combination of lowercase and uppercase letters (e.g., COMPANYname, CompanyName, Company Name, CompanyNAME), it's important to ensure they are used the same way everywhere - on social on landing pages on ads. If a site isn't sure how to properly write its name, then customers, members of the press and those wanting to link to the site won't either.
There are many instances when a site thinks their logo is enough branding and does not repeat its name anywhere on a landing page. While there is a fine line between stuffing a name and being helpful, it's important to repeat a brand's name on a landing page to reinforce who they are as customers are arriving from a variety of referral sources.
For information publishers and service providers in particular, an About Us Page can help customers/readers understand why a group is an authority in its niche. By expanding executive/author bios, brands can help their website visitors feel confident that the people operating the site essentially know what they are talking about. Also, don't be afraid to add some personality to the page if appropriate - also consider hosting a photo shoot one day so staff's pictures are consistent and fresh.
With some downtime, there is no excuses not to visit what blogs or other content types have been popular in the past. By looking at some of the most engaging content pieces over the last six months, brands can either share it again on social (reminding followers of its popularity) or repurpose the content in different ways like creating a video, an infographic, a presentation, a webinar or a whitepaper. Knowing what worked well in the past and using it in a fresh new way can get a site more traffic and engage visitors even in the "offseason."
Even for businesses that have not moved or changed other contact information, directory listings can become out of date and it's important to ensure accuracy across all third-party sites. When contact info is out of date, conversions can be lost and a site's reputation can take a hit. While it is possible to update directories manually, there are plenty of tools that will locate outdated info and update it on a company's behalf.
The summer months present a good time to reach out to like-minded site owners to see if there are any guest blogging opportunities. While end-users may be taking vacations, most of a person's peers are still behind their desks. By establishing guest blogging opportunities in slow months (and creating quality content for them), it can help bring even more traffic and lead opportunities once business ramps up.
Using a tool that checks for broken links can save users headaches because they are less likely to arrive at a page that doesn't function as expected. Once broken links are located, Web professionals may need the help of a colleague to actually fix them, but knowing they are there is certainly the first step.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of website improvements, but they are all manageable and quick to complete for those with some downtime.