Webcami’s New Year Website Review Checklist for 2017

Whether you love it or hate it, the new year brings a new opportunity to take stock of our lives, both personally and professionally. If you want to ring in your new year LIKE A BOSS because you ARE THE BOSS, reviewing your company website can really get you on the right footing for the year to come.

These aren’t new year’s resolutions, which often go unfulfilled. These are actionable, review-able, and do-able items for any small business owner. I have been working on this myself over the holiday break and I’m feeling hopeful about putting the right message out there for my business online for the coming year.

Determine if you need an SSL certificate – Google has a rule change in 2017.  They are noting who has SSL and who doesn’t.

An SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer), a digital certificate, creates a secure link between a website and a visitor’s browser. It’s ensuring that all data passed between the two remains private and secure and in doing so, SSL encryption is preventing hackers from stealing private information such as credit card numbers, names and addresses. This is the difference you see between an HTTP:// and HTTPS://.  In 2017, Google says if you sell products or services on your website and accept credit cards on your server, you need an SSL certificate for website security. If you have a membership site that requires your visitors to set up their own logins to access information, you need an SSL certificate. 

If you just have a basic business site with a simple contact form, don’t process credit cards on your server (but do so on Paypal, for example), don’t require visitors to login to see pages, you are okay for now. BUT, if you want to just get ahead of the game and get this done, it’s around $70 a year for an SSL certificate (depending on your host).  I just added this to my site at GoDaddy, and it was PAINLESS.  🙂

Review your domain renewal/hosting plan.

Where is your domain registered?  Is it at the same place as your hosting?  Can you consolidate?  What is your hosting plan?  Is it an old plan?  What kind of hosting is it?  Is there a better plan now?  Do they have a managed WordPress option now? Don’t just auto-renew.  There might be something better for you!  If you need that SSL certificate,  you can get that added while you are calling.

Get a WordPress update, back up and virus scan schedule on your calendar.

This is no longer something you can do “every now and then”. Only around 40%  of WordPress sites are up to date and 25% of hacking that occurs is coming through out-of-date plugins.  Over 70% of users aren’t backing up and regularly doing virus scanning.  I recommend this gets WEEKLY attention in 2017.  Even with all of this done, there is still the possibility of a hack.  Be in the best position you can.  Here’s a link with DIY instructions on what to do, or check out my care plan (for current clients only).

Please note if you don’t have a WordPress site, you need to check with your designer and see what they have in place for the site you have.  Basic HTML, Joomla, Drupal and Magento sites get hacked, too!

Change your homepage photos.

Give the world a new look at your business.  Change things up.  Have they been looking at the same homepage for the last five years?  It will refresh your message.  If you need some new stock photos, check out my ultimate guide to stock images.  I recently added new photos to my own homepage and within 48 hours had a new client appointment with comments about how they loved my new image.  SWEET!

Review the content on your site.

Did you move?  Hire anyone new?  Add a new service?  Raise your rates?  Are there broken links? Simply click through your own site with a notepad and jot down all the changes you need to make.  Nothing is worse than explaining that your rates are higher due than the outdated information on your site to a potential client.  Also, do you have new work to add to your portfolio?  This might not get done in a day, but note it so you can work on updating it throughout the year.

Have ideas for your blog?  Write them down.

You don’t have to blog them all. But, make the list and you can work it into your schedule throughout the year.  Don’t keep it in your head for a later date.

Is your contact form going to the right person/people?

This is a big one.  You don’t know how many people might have someone leave their company and forget that their contact form submission are going to that email address from their website.  Or that they have received a contact form in WEEKS and don’t know why.  Test the form.  Know where it goes.  Make sure it’s working.

Is it time for a total website overhaul?

Finally, if you look at the whole site and it’s just not what it used to be, if it’s completely outdated or god forbid, NOT MOBILE RESPONSIVE, it might be time to consider a redesign.

BUT, don’t use that an excuse to ignore the list above! You might find yourself heading into 2018 with the same site, same content and the same to do list if you don’t.

BE A BOSS.  OWN 2017 and your WEBSITE!