Creative chaos is not a myth. Quite the opposite, actually. Even though it is sometimes embarrassing to admit, we have been living this truth in one way or another. It could be your inbox, or it could be one of the chairs that is the closest to your closet.
It is not uncommon for creative chaos to appear on your website, either. Unlike the ones no one can see as they are tucked away nicely in your bedroom or your downloads folder, the mess on your website deserves your attention ever so often. Just like the clothes you carefully picked for that important business meeting, your site deserves to be in its best shape as it represents you and your business. You want it to be impeccable, polished, and impressive. That way, you can reap the benefits of blogging on your website as much as you can.
How do you accomplish that, though? You can't take your website to the hairdresser. Still, here are five things you could do to make your website look and perform at its best.
1.Freshen it up
If your website is running on WordPress, you are most surely using at least one theme and several plugins. If you are using it, why not make sure you are using and taking advantage of the newest model at your disposal?
Updates are annoying, and you might feel that they are slowing you down. While they are a menace, they also bring a lot to the table when you finally get the process over with for the time being. Update everything, and you will soon see the benefits of your, rather short, attention and care.
2.Put on the visitor's shoes
Is everything on your website running as well as it should? You are running your business, and it is likely taking too much of your time already, but take the time to give your website another look, this time as if you were the customer.
You know the drill. You go to another website to purchase something, and you find the button that seemed to be the road to the solution you were looking for. However, when you click on it, it takes you somewhere else. Or, the copy is of poor quality, so you have no idea how to get where you wanted to get. Let's not mention broken links that are just plain frustrating.
Turn the same critical eye to your website, and double check if there are any frustrating aspects to it. Any broken links or buttons? Does your form bring pleasure and joy to fill in? More likely, you will find out that the same form is the nuisance to others, that has them clicking on the back button and searching for the solution elsewhere.
If you don't feel like you could be objective on the topic - find a friend that doesn't shy away from giving positive criticism, and ask them to do it for you.
3. Get some fresh ingredients
Content gets outdated more often than you would think, so make sure you toss out the old and get the new. Hiring a professional photographer to get you a fresh set of images for your website would be a thing to do. If you feel like that would be enough, you could also do a complete makeover.
Hiring a designer to revamp your whole website is another option. It won't cost you an arm and a leg, but it will bring you many new customers. Before you do it, make sure to remove all of the old content or pages that are no longer relevant, so that the result won't be awkward.
Make sure that the design you get is also responsive on mobile devices. There is nothing more annoying when the search for information, services, or product turns into endless scrolling, zooming in and out with every click. Everybody is carrying a computer in their back pocket - make sure your website will look perfect on those screens as well.
4. Time is money
If you waited for ages for your website to load while in your customer's shoes, you already know you are in trouble. The statistics are clear on this one - if the site takes longer than four seconds to load, people will likely hit the back button and look for another solution.
The speed of your website is rarely your fault, and there could be a bunch of culprits for this kind of behavior. It could be that the videos or images on your website are too big so it takes a lot to load them. If you have a carousel on your landing page, the trouble is even more significant. It could also be your hosting provider that is the reason behind the turtle-ish speed of your website.
In any case, this deserves your attention as often as possible. Replace the images, double check the videos, and if needed, get another hosting provider or upgrade to a better plan. If your website is fast enough, Google will reward it with a better ranking, and your site will get many new visitors.
5. Start a new
If the double-checking of your website was altogether a dreadful experience, or if you are looking to revamp it in another direction, then starting from scratch might be the best way to clean up your site. This solution is rather an obvious one, especially if the back end of your website is such a mess, that even if you tried it would take you ages to clean up.
It is no easy task, and it is hard to admit to yourself that your site is beyond saving. Still, it would be the right thing to do, instead of waiting for statistics on the visitors and traffic to go up through sheer miracle.
All it takes to start from scratch is one press of a button - with the right plugin, of course. If you need to go to these extremes, install WP Reset. Starting again with this plugin is the least painful experience you could imagine. There is no need to delete everything manually. Instead, click the "Reset" button and give yourself the opportunity for a fresh start.
Lookin' good!
Just like with any other chaos, the one piling up on your website needs your attention, too. Getting rid of the unnecessary things, polishing it up now and then and keeping it relevant is probably the reason why your business will succeed. Think of it as a salesperson of your product or service, and it will be easy to see why you would want it neat and tidy. Drop the reading and get started!
Top comments (0)