Website tips from a Geek who speaks plain English. ~:-)

Over my years of developing websites, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks. I enjoy posting articles to help you improve your marketing. This month I also prepared this as a checklist for myself as we were developing a new ValleyBugler.com web site.

These tips range from a quick change to hiring a developer, but I encourage you to consider them ALL for your site. We did. ~:-)

Make Images Retina Ready

Make sure your logo and key branding elements are retina ready so they look good on mobile devices. This can easily be done by making your image twice as larger as you wish for it be displayed.

Change your WordPress login

If you are using WordPress a quick way to improve security is to change your login page from /wp-admin to another URL. You can easily do this with a free plug-in.

Create or Update your Sitemap

If you don’t already have a Google Webmaster account, set one up and create a sitemap. If you have one it would be a good time to update it.

Do a Google Mobile-Friendly Test

Make sure your site passes this basic and really important test.

https://search.google.com/search-console/mobile-friendly

Give your Site a SEO Checkup

This site does a great free Search Engine Optimization audit. It also gives tips on how to improve your site. https://seositecheckup.com

Spend 5 minutes at your own Site

Take some notes about how you think you can make it better. If you don’t love your site, it might be a time for a redesign. Sorry, I’m not taking on any projects at this time.

Stop using a free eMail account

If you are still using a Gmail (or another free account) for business, please stop. You should use an eMail address from your domain. It is much more professional and numerous studies show it increases conversions.

Clean up your text

Spell check is not enough. Talk with a good editor. I also recommend checking out Grammarly. They have some great tools to help you be a better writer.

https://grammarly.com

Ask a Non-Expert

Actually, I recommend you ask 2-3 people that you barely know and ask them to sit down in front of your website and tell you what your business does. This is VERY important. If they can’t figure out what you do within 10 seconds you need to change to make your website purpose clear and concise.

Enough said. ~:-)