If you run an online business, having a smooth-running website that performs well in search engines is imperative, and it becomes a top priority for you. Having a functional website has lots of perks attached to it. A great website not only helps current customers find you, but it has excellent abilities to generate new business and more often than not sets the first impression a potential client will get of your business. Your business website is a directory, information resource pointer, advertising department, and sales team wrapped up in one and is available to current and prospective customers every day of the week all year round. Unfortunately, with the work it has been built to do, it is highly likely to fail if not adequately cared for. This article provides you with essential tips on how to have your website running smoothly and properly.
How Do I Make My Website Run Smoothly?
In a bid to have a properly functioning website, there are things that you must do to keep it running smoothly and effectively. These include:
Update Your Website Content
You need to build trust and confidence with your website visitors and make them feel included by keeping information current and up to date. You should endeavor to scrutinize your website pages, looking for the most common items that tend to need updating. It should be done regularly and shows your commitment to your business and website in general. If you have staff that’s assigned to maintain your website, using tools that allows them to upload proof of work is a good way to keep an eye on maintenance progress. Always ensure that you look out for the following:
- Dates – Always ensure that your time-stamped content reflects the current year, etc.
- Broken Links – Test your links to make sure they still work and are not broken.
- Employee Bios – Add and remove staff member bios immediately after employment, sack, or resignation is issued.
- Old Email Addresses & Phone Numbers – Always ensure that your contact email(s) and phone number(s) are up-to-date and working correctly.
- Contact Forms – Always test all website forms to confirm they are working as expected. You may use a free online form builder to create any form, including order, feedback, event registration, and contact forms. It is readily integrated with any tool and works on any website.
Test Your Website In Different Browsers
This is very important because, in a situation where a visitor can not load your website or comes off as funny in their web browser, you would not be able to earn their confidence or business as they may consider you a scam or assume your website is fraudulent. It is essential to do this, especially if your website is a few years old, considering that web browsers are constantly adding new features and changing the way webpages are rendered. A simple way to do this is by downloading a few popular web browsers, then loading your website for some quick testing from time to time. You should test your website in the four most popular desktop browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), and Apple’s Safari.
Add a Sitemap
Always ensure that search engines can easily find all of your website content. If search engines cannot find your web pages, they wouldn’t be indexed or added to search results. This is a common and recurring problem with older websites but can be resolved quickly by simply adding a sitemap. Therefore, always think of a sitemap as a roadmap to all of your website content.
Use Webmaster Tools
You could sign up for a free Google and Bing Webmaster Tools account to keep your website running with outstanding performance. Make inquiries on which pages have been indexed, who is linking to your website, and set your website’s content crawl rate. You will also be informed in a case where a problem occurs, like Google or Bing not being able to access your website or sitemap. Also, if hackers attack your website, you can use the free webmaster tools to help clean your site and get it back online quickly.
Install Web Analytics
It is vital to keep tabs on how many people are visiting your website and from where. You should also know the media they find you through (search vs. referral link) and what they are doing once they get to your website. All of this data and much more can be captured using web analytics. We recommend the free Google Analytics platform. Simply register for a free account, add your tracking code, and you will start building a data set. Once you know how people are finding your website (or not), you can change your content and site structure as needed. For example, if you find that 75% of your website visitors spend more time looking at service or product ‘A’ compared to service or product ‘B,’ you can make adjustments to help maximize your business goals, whatever they may be.
For your website to run smoothly and seamlessly, you must adhere to the above listed. Having a seamless webpage is likely to attract more customers and make your business boom because you will earn the trust of your target audience properly.