Man sitting at desk reviews items on desktop and mobile websites.

A website is a living thing. It’s up to you to nurture it and make it grow, and it’s also up to you to make sure it’s doing what it’s supposed to do for your business and your online visitors.

This isn’t a “launch it and forget it” kind of thing!

At Foster Web Marketing, we recommend that you check up on your website regularly—once or twice a year at MINIMUM—to make sure that you’re providing an online user experience that rocks and getting the best return on your investment. 

Not sure what you should be looking for or how to get started? Below, you’ll find some of our best advice for performing a routine website checkup.

Getting Started: Look at Your Website With Fresh Eyes

Website design and usage trends change very rapidly. That’s why it’s so important to perform regular checkups. At least once or twice a year, you should sit down with your website and give it a critical once-over. 

Pretend you’ve never seen your website before, and put yourself in your potential clients’ shoes as you navigate through different pages. For now, just pay attention to the “big picture” stuff, like: 

  • Do you like the way your website looks? 
  • Do you like the way it presents what you do? 
  • Does it load quickly and work well on both desktop and mobile? 
  • Do all the images and links work? 
  • Is it easy to click through the menus and find what you need?
  • Is the design modern and functional? 
  • Is it easy to contact you and find your basic information? 
  • Overall, what kind of impression does it give visitors?

Once you’ve nailed down these kinds of basic elements of your website and made sure all the nuts and bolts are working as intended, it’s time to go a little deeper.

4 Ways to Check How Well Your Website Works for Your Perfect Clients

With the basics out of the way, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and put your website to the test. We’ll start with some diagnostics that really reveal what it’s like to be a user on your website:

  1. Test your contact and request forms. People fill out the contact forms on your website when they’re ready to convert, so it’s extremely important that those forms work as intended. Go ahead and fill out your own contact forms and submit them. Are you asking for enough information? Too much? Is it easy to use? Is the text compelling? Do you know what you’re signing up for by submitting your information? Do you feel secure about how your info might be used? Are you sent to a thank-you page afterward? This is also the time to make sure that you are getting contact notifications on the other end and have processes in place for responding to requests promptly. Questions? Check out some examples of effective (and not-so-effective) contact forms
  2. Test email drip campaigns. If you have automatic thank-you emails and drip campaigns set up, don’t ignore them after you’ve filled out your contact forms. Instead, give those follow-up emails the same treatment as above. How does the frequency feel to you? Do the emails look good on your screen? Is the text compelling, helpful, and relevant? Do you include calls to action and explain what to do next and what to expect? Do the branding and message of the email match your website? Can you easily unsubscribe? (Don’t have any follow-up campaigns going? Find out how to build an email drip campaign in DSS.)  
  3. Do secret shopping on your own website. When you’re looking for an opinion, it’s always best to get it straight from the horse’s mouth. You can do your own “secret shopping” on your website by interacting as a potential client without using your real name and contact information. You can also hire an outside secret-shopper service to give you a completely unbiased opinion about the user experience and customer service on your site. Contact our team if you have questions about finding a secret-shopper service for your website.
  4. Search for content you know clients are asking for. Think about the biggest questions your potential clients have when they first speak to you. Then, do a few searches on your website to make sure you have content that answers those questions. Are the answers there? Are they easy to get to? Are they written clearly in layman’s terms? Do they link to supporting content that clarifies or expands on the topic? Are the answers current and helpful? If you notice any missing topics, develop a fresh content strategy to fill in the gaps. 

How to Check How Well Your Website Is Working for Your Law Firm

Now that you’ve looked at the user experience and tested it from the client’s point of view, it’s time to look at how well your website is working for your business. 

While you can guess at what will be most effective to attract your potential clients, you don’t actually KNOW what’s working unless you’re looking at the data. This is a critical task, and it’s something you should probably do more often than twice a year if you really want to push your success ahead. 

Using tools like Google analytics and DSS lead tracking, you can answer questions like: 

  • How many people are coming to my site?
  • How do people find my site?
  • Are outside sites linking to me and driving traffic?
  • Which pages on my website are the most popular? Which are the least popular?
  • How long do people stay on the page and how many pages do they view?
  • What’s actually working to drive more traffic to my site? 
  • Which calls to action are the most effective at driving leads?

With this kind of information in hand, you’ll know how to tweak your website and online marketing to make it more effective over the long run. And, the more often you check in and adjust, the better your website gets at reaching your potential clients and turning them into actual clients for your firm. 

Having trouble making sense of Google Analytics or using the tools in DSS? Don’t worry—this is a big topic that takes some time to master. You can always reach out to us at 888.886.0939 with your questions. 

How Does Your Website Look Right Now?

Even if you do a lot to maintain your website, it’s easy to let the routine and “big picture” stuff we talked about here fall through the cracks. However, when you take the time to do these kinds of “website checkups” with fresh eyes, you build a stronger website. And, when you routinely get actionable and precise data, you build a stronger marketing strategy.

Of course, this doesn’t always have to be an exhaustive analysis of every element on your website, as long as you’re paying some attention to each part over time. It really just needs to be a regular check-in that keeps your website and strategies focused on your goals and your perfect clients’ needs.

Is your website being all it can be for your business? Are you looking for a second opinion on the website problems you’ve diagnosed? Schedule a website analysis with our expert team to find out what’s working, what’s not, and what you can do now to change it for the better.

 

Nia Al-Kilany
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Codeaxia Digital Solutions 05/31/2021 07:29 AM
Thanks for sharing very useful information ...
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