{"id":276269,"date":"2015-04-24T05:38:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T19:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.easyweddings.com\/au\/pro-education\/time-audit-website-heres\/"},"modified":"2015-04-24T05:38:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T19:38:07","slug":"time-audit-website-heres","status":"publish","type":"au-pro-education","link":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/pro-education\/time-audit-website-heres\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it time to audit your website? Here’s how…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"website<\/a><\/p>\n

Websites are like babies; they’re a\u00a0lot of fun to make\u00a0and the first few months\u00a0involve some serious\u00a0trial and error until you figure out what you’re actually doing. Then, just when you think you’ve got it under control, they grow and develop into something far more advanced than you could have ever imagined, and all of a sudden it’s embarrassing\u00a0to be\u00a0seen with Times New Roman and Flash is\u00a0SO last year!<\/p>\n

If you’ve been neglecting your digital\u00a0duties, use this nine-point checklist\u00a0to review\u00a0your website\u00a0and ensure it’s\u00a0keeping up with evolving\u00a0online and design trends:<\/p>\n

1. Check your SEO<\/h2>\n
Are your titles 50-65 characters in length and unique for each page? Are your page URLs under\u00a0255 characters including domain name, and do they tell readers what the page is about? If not, it’s time to create some keyword-rich and descriptive URLs, using dashes in place of spaces to separate words. Images can also positively affect SEO if filenames are keyword-dense and directly reference the image content. Alt text\u00a0<\/strong>should also be\u00a0<\/strong>entered, along with keyword-focused captions added where possible.<\/div>\n
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2. Mobile friendliness<\/h2>\n
As the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> reports, “more than half of Australia’s biggest companies\u00a0will “disappear” from Google on mobile devices as the US technology giant changes the way it ranks searches.” This means that if you website is mobile friendly from April 21, it’s your time to shine, while competitors with desktop-only websites will be\u00a0ranked lower on mobile devices until they succumb to\u00a0the mobile-friendly trend. Adversely, if your website is not<\/em> mobile friendly, you’re going to the naughty corner with the rest. Here’s how to fix it.<\/a><\/div>\n

3. Image rights<\/h2>\n

Why would people put their pretty pictures on Pinterest<\/a> if they didn’t want to world to share them? Possibly\u00a0because they are promoting their own business; be it photography, a personal blog or a florist, that person went to the trouble of creating that image and unless specifically stated that you have the rights to use it for commercial purposes without attribution, you legally cannot and morally should<\/em> not be using it for your own financial gain (and if you’re a business, that’s exactly<\/em>\u00a0what you’re doing). You then have two options: learn how to make your products shine online<\/a>\u00a0with DIY photography, or\u00a0brush up on\u00a0the ins and outs of using images online<\/a>\u00a0from free stock websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Download speed<\/h2>\n
Slow loading pages are conversion’s worst enemy. Customers\u00a0wants things right here, right now, and if your website can’t keep up with these demands, it will fall victim to the Back Button, or be searched straight\u00a0over the top of. To help businesses combat lazy load times,\u00a0Google Developers<\/a> have created the PageSpeed tool family which\u00a0optimises website performance with insights products that highlight best practices for speedy delivery. Put your website to the test using PageSpeed Insights<\/a> and receive a score out of 100, as well as suggestions on how to fix your slow-load problems.<\/div>\n

5. Google Analytics<\/h2>\n

How can you expect to get better at something if you don’t know what you’re doing wrong? And how can you do more of what you’re doing right, if you don’t know what it is that’s working? Google Analytics<\/a> can tell you this information. It’s\u00a0quick and easy to setup<\/a>\u00a0and will return valuable insights into your website within hours of installation.\u00a0Not sure what you’re looking for? Check out this\u00a0Google 101 video<\/a>\u00a0produced by one of Easy Wedding’s very own Digital Strategists to show you what you metrics to watch out for as a wedding business.<\/p>\n

6. Links<\/h2>\n
There is nothing worse than clicking a link\u00a0on a website to be greeted with an error message. Whether it’s inbound links pointing to pages on your own website to increase organic ratings and enhance viewers’ visit, or outbound links directing readers\u00a0to other wedding-related sites, partners or places of inspiration, check that all your hyperlinks still work from right back when you first created them. Ensure these links open in a new tab to give visitors\u00a0an opportunity to finish what they were reading, and anchor text where possible to take readers to the exact information they seek. Around\u00a02-10 internal links per page should appear seamless to readers, while still\u00a0grabbing\u00a0the attention\u00a0of\u00a0search engine algorithms.<\/div>\n
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7. Noise\u00a0cancelling CTAs<\/h2>\n

Autoplaying content, popups on every page and flashy banner ads are out, while clear call to actions (CTA) are totally in this season. If people land on your homepage and don’t know what to do next, how can you expect them to take that action? Do you want them to Shop Now<\/em>, Book an Appointment<\/em> or Sign up for Free Trial<\/em>? Make it\u00a0overtly obvious what visitors\u00a0should do and increase their chances of\u00a0taking that action. Keep it simple with one clear call to action per page and refer to your Google Analytics to see where your\u00a0visitors are ending up. If they’re bouncing from the homepage, your CTAs need some serious revision!<\/p>\n

8. Check your availability<\/h2>\n

Think you’re being generous with a Contact Us form? Think again. It’s great that people can send you messages directly from your website, but what happens if they want to actually call you\u00a0and speak to a human? Give people as many channels as possible for getting in contact with you, including social media, phone number and email address. If\u00a0they’re going to invite you to take part in their wedding day planning, they need to know they can contact you in times of need – don’t play hard to get!<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Ger personal<\/h2>\n

As Corey Eridon<\/a> from HubSpot puts it, your “About Us page is like your personality at a job interview, and your blog is your personality after a few drinks.” People want to get to know the people behind the brand; they want to know what makes you so passionate about your business\u00a0and clients and what differentiates you from the rest. The copy you put on your About Us page will tell them this, but what you reveal on your blog will show them. Ensure you have social buttons activated\u00a0on blog posts to encourage readers to share content and add a\u00a0Pin It Button<\/a> to allow visitors to add your beautiful images to their Pinterest boards.<\/p>\n

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For more must-have website features, take a look at the\u00a010 must-have features on your business website in 2015<\/a>\u00a0and review our Easy Weddings\u00a0website design portfolio\u00a0<\/a>for examples of how a wedding business website should<\/em> look and feel.\u00a0Not sure where to start improving your wedding website? Leave the\u00a0URL in the comments and our design team will be in touch with some ideas!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":268901,"template":"","au_pro_edu_tags":[],"class_list":["post-276269","au-pro-education","type-au-pro-education","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","au_pro_edu_categories-share-worthy-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-pro-education\/276269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-pro-education"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/au-pro-education"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"au_pro_edu_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au_pro_edu_tags?post=276269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}