The Garden Of Words

Web marketing for Horticulture by Horticulturists

Last Year Is Old News: Important Website Updates for 2022

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Is your website ready to power your business through the new year? You may be thinking “If it was ready in December, it’s ready in March” but the truth is, if it has been a few months since you’ve thoroughly reviewed your site, then it’s time for some website spring cleaning! 

Here’s your website update to-do list:

  1. Check your plugins and themes to see if anything needs to be updated or replaced. GOW recommends updating your plugins every two weeks, but if it’s been a while you should definitely take the time and update them now. There is no time like the beginning of the year to get into a good habit of bi-weekly website updates. 

    Keep in mind though, if your website is more than 4 years old, it may be time for a redesign. If your website has fallen behind the times, your customers will be the first to notice.

  2. Review your pictures. Do your photos still look like the products you sell? Are your photos doing your products justice? Do all of your products have images? Do your images have ALT text? OK, we know it’s a lot of questions, but all of those line items are important to your website’s effectiveness and function. 

  3. Search for broken links. Broken links are a nuisance when you are trying to get your customers from place to place on your site, so make sure all of your links are up and running at all times. 

  4. Click through all of your plugins. If you have special plugins on your site that add to your amazing customer experience, take a minute and click through them (as if you were a visitor) to make sure they are working as expected.

  5. Quality check for style issues. Just by updating your plugins or installing automatic WordPress updates, you can throw off your artistically designed pages. These alignment issues won’t generate any notifications or red flags, so the only way to catch them is to click through all of the pages and lay your eyeballs on them.

  6. Re-read your old content. If you have an “Events Calendar” or “Events” page that says “2021,” it’s time to move the clock forward and update those dates. Update the copyright date in the footer. Review and update your privacy policy and your terms of use, as needed. On a similar note, if you don’t have a current privacy policy or terms of use page on your site, create and add them to the site to protect you and your site visitors.

  7. Verify and update your logins. A lot of times, passwords get changed and then immediately forgotten. Or, professionals are hired to set up accounts and the login credentials disappear deep in your email inbox. GOW recommends using password software, like LastPass to share, collect, and change your passwords safely and securely. 

    Make sure you have login information for:
    1. Domain hostingWeb hosting
    2. Login to your content management system (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace)
    3. FTP (if you are using one)
    4. Logins for payment gateways (Stripe, Paypal)
    5. Google Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager, Google My Business Admin Login
    6. Email marketing platform
    7. Social media platforms

  8. Review analytics. Take a minute and peruse your current analytics and compare them to your previous analytics. We recommend using Google Analytics to accomplish this, provided you have it installed. If you don’t, there is no time like the present to get it set up. 

Here is what GOW looks at:

  • Bounce rate: A bounce rate between 40-60% is considered to be OK. Once your bounce rate is over 65%, you should start looking into why so many potential customers are landing on your site and leaving.

  • Traffic: Look at your traffic trends and see if you are increasing your customer count.

  • Mobile/desktop: Evaluate how your customers are using your site and make sure your data is optimized for the most utilized platforms.

  • States/countries: Look into where your website customers are coming to you from.

  • Popular landing pages: Click through the pages that bring you the most traffic and make sure those pages are optimized with product details and links to other pages on your site.

If you run into something that stumps you, send us an email and we can give you a hand setting up a discovery call to see if we can help.

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