All we know for sure about websites in 2024 is the site we have now won’t be the same site in 2025. AI is now part of our everyday conversation. We will all need to make adjustments on our website strategies. What we are posting. How we promote our sites. We are already starting to plan the changes we want to see in the new year. Yes, we are thankful for a good website this year. In 2025 we need to be the best.
This year was all about Website Recoveries. Nothing will make you more thankful for your website then almost losing it. While we hate to hear all the stories of business owners being cheated out of the websites they paid for. We have been very thankful we could be there when needed. And help them get their websites back on track. Save yourself from becoming a recovery project this year. Know where are the parts of your websites are, how to login to them and who owns what. We have a checklist to help you find all the parts and logins.
Who is website thankful?
- Be thankful if you kept up with your website maintenance. Now you have a good foundation to build content on. And you can tackle any strategy that we will need moving forward.
- Be thankful if your website is a resource that can help people solve their problems. Not just bait for search engines. Useful websites will always be wanted by visitors no matter what happens with search engines.
- Be thankful if your website is generating leads. All businesses need new customers. When the website brings in a good lead its a great feeling. As long as the site is generating leads, you can always work to improve things and increase that number.
What if you can’t imagine “website thankful”?
If you are not feeling very thankful for your website right now, how do you get there? Make a website plan for 2025 and start with these items.
- Speed – Everyone hates a slow website. The visitors who come to it. The editors who are trying to update the content. The customers trying to complete a sale. Do what you need to do to get the site faster. Get a new hosting vendor. Forget about the large long playing video on the homepage. Fast websites get used more often.
- User Engagement – Do visitors like your website? We now have new metrics in GA4 for User Engagement. To fix this, you will need to do testing. There are several issues that could be causing low engagement. It could be your navigation. It could be your content or even the content formatting. Or the call to action you offering is not something visitors want. Change one item, look at your metrics and keep tweaking until you see improvement. It will be worth it. It is only common sense that a website people like to use is one that will generate business.
- Content Review – Reviewing, updating and pruning old content will become part of our regular SEO work this year. You don’t need an overhaul to make a difference. Freshen up the items on your site that have been sitting there for awhile. Search your content for old dates. Delete items that are no longer relevant or past dates. Replace the same old customer reviews with new ones. Try a new photo on key pages. Visitors will notice signs of fresh information. Google will give you credit for fresh information. And then once you do a first pass on the website, don’t let it go so long next time. Start making freshness a routine website activity.
Signs Your Website is on the Right Track
You know you are on the right track with your business website if:
- Updating your website is part of your routine.
- Your biggest source of leads is your website.
- The quickest way to communicate to your customers is by posting on the website.
- Customers quote your website to you.
- New product launches always include website content as a step in your process. You wouldn’t launch something new without it.
- High quality content brought you new business opportunities this year.
What if you can’t imagine “website thankful”?
Now is the time. Start thinking about next year and what your website could become. Create a list of all the problems you are having with your website. Ask yourself what would you really like from your website? Dream big and make a plan and budget for 2025.
Need help?
We have a free website strategic plan download with worksheets to help you plan for next year. We already anticipate we will need to put out multiple versions of this document this year. So make sure and give us a good email when you sign-up so we can send the updated directly to you. Then if you still need some help, sign-up for a Free Consultation and we can help you plan.
