Thursday, 2 May 2013
Is Your Web Site a Clunker (i.e. pre 2012)?
In many ways a website is a lot like an automobile.
You may have a great car parked out in your garage, but if you neglect routine maintenance it’s on a downhill roll towards the junkyard.
Sure, the car may still get you from one place to the other, but it’s not running at its optimal level and, unless you get on top of things in a hurry, it won’t be running at all for much longer.
A website is much the same.
Stay on top of routine maintenance and your site will run like a champ – and bring scores of new clients to your firm as a result.
Let your site’s maintenance go, however, and you’ve got the Internet equivalent of a busted jalopy parked at your firm’s web address.
To help you avoid that fate we’ve listed three website tune-up techniques you can take advantage of right now.
1. Check your site speed. One of the Internet’s biggest draws is that it’s capable of delivering instant gratification. If your website chugs along and forces visitors to wait, well, they won’t. Don’t lose out on potential clients because your website loads slowly. Check your site’s speed with a browser-based tool such as webpagetest.org or with Google’s Speed Test tool.
If your site gets a speed test score over 70 you’re headed in the right direction, but you should really aim for a score in the mid 90s. A score below 70 means you’re site has issues that should be addressed immediately.
2. Fix any broken links. Imagine if a potential client was searching online for legal services information and your website popped up in the first position of Google’s first page. Nice! Now imagine that when this client clicked on your site’s link instead of being directed to your firm’s website she was redirected to an empty page. Nightmare.
That’s what happens when your site is riddled with broken links and it’s a surefire way to sabotage your firm’s online success. Avoid this by logging into your Google & Bing Webmaster Tools accounts and fixing any 404 errors you find.
3. Improve your site’s user experience. While it’s important to be mindful of SEO best practices and strategies to improve your site’s performance with the search engines, it pays to remember that your site exists first and foremost for real life human beings.
You can improve your site’s user experience through uncluttered design and layout, related posts plugins (if you’re hosting with WordPress), blazingly fast site speed and, most importantly, plenty of relevant, engaging content.
Please comment below if you have any questions. For more information, please contact me
or visit my website http://www.legalnichepros.com
Michael Waddington
President, Legal Niche Pros, LLC
Attorney at Law
Licensed in GA,
You may have a great car parked out in your garage, but if you neglect routine maintenance it’s on a downhill roll towards the junkyard.
Sure, the car may still get you from one place to the other, but it’s not running at its optimal level and, unless you get on top of things in a hurry, it won’t be running at all for much longer.
A website is much the same.
Stay on top of routine maintenance and your site will run like a champ – and bring scores of new clients to your firm as a result.
Let your site’s maintenance go, however, and you’ve got the Internet equivalent of a busted jalopy parked at your firm’s web address.
To help you avoid that fate we’ve listed three website tune-up techniques you can take advantage of right now.
1. Check your site speed. One of the Internet’s biggest draws is that it’s capable of delivering instant gratification. If your website chugs along and forces visitors to wait, well, they won’t. Don’t lose out on potential clients because your website loads slowly. Check your site’s speed with a browser-based tool such as webpagetest.org or with Google’s Speed Test tool.
If your site gets a speed test score over 70 you’re headed in the right direction, but you should really aim for a score in the mid 90s. A score below 70 means you’re site has issues that should be addressed immediately.
2. Fix any broken links. Imagine if a potential client was searching online for legal services information and your website popped up in the first position of Google’s first page. Nice! Now imagine that when this client clicked on your site’s link instead of being directed to your firm’s website she was redirected to an empty page. Nightmare.
That’s what happens when your site is riddled with broken links and it’s a surefire way to sabotage your firm’s online success. Avoid this by logging into your Google & Bing Webmaster Tools accounts and fixing any 404 errors you find.
3. Improve your site’s user experience. While it’s important to be mindful of SEO best practices and strategies to improve your site’s performance with the search engines, it pays to remember that your site exists first and foremost for real life human beings.
You can improve your site’s user experience through uncluttered design and layout, related posts plugins (if you’re hosting with WordPress), blazingly fast site speed and, most importantly, plenty of relevant, engaging content.
Please comment below if you have any questions. For more information, please contact me
or visit my website http://www.legalnichepros.com
Michael Waddington
President, Legal Niche Pros, LLC
Attorney at Law
Licensed in GA,
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