It’s a new year and a new you! The new year marks a fresh start for us all, and it’s the perfect time to kick into gear for 2022. One impactful way to start the new year off right is by refreshing your website. In the constantly evolving world of the Internet, there’s always something you can do to improve its appearance, ranking, or functionality. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve created a list of 5 new years resolutions for your website.
Review Your Analytics
If you haven’t set up Google Analytics for your website, drop everything and go do that right now. If you’ve set it up already, make this the year where you actually take a look at your account and make sense of all the data that you’ve been collecting. You might have a gut feeling about which pages are doing well, or maybe get the occasional piece of feedback from someone on Twitter, but Google Analytics is one of the best ways to actually see how your site is performing.
Getting the most out of Google Analytics requires some research (stay tuned for our future series!), but at the very least you should be checking where traffic is coming from, what your most popular pages are, what path people take once they get to your site, how long they spend on each page, and where they leave off. Remember, it’s important to determine what’s working, but it’s perhaps even more important to see what isn’t working.
Do a Content Audit
Do your future self (and your audience!) a favour, and take some time to go through all your website content so you know what needs to be updated. First, fix anything that needs to be fixed from minor mistakes like spelling errors to updating headings to include trending keywords and the current date. Conducting a content audit will also help you discover any unnecessary pages that can be removed. Take a good look at your website and see which pages no longer need to be there or clearly will never be used. If something’s bugging you on your site, chances are it’s bugging a whole lot of other people as well. Think of it as an opportunity to declutter your online space.
Second, update your top-performing content to get more out of it. Use Google Analytics (mentioned above!) to identify your top pages or posts and see what keywords they are ranking for. Then, determine how you can further improve their ranking. A great way to do this is to see what content ranks above yours in a google search for the keyword and ask yourself: what is this content offering that my content isn’t? It could be more comprehensive information, a more digestible structure, handy visuals, or other factors. Then think: how can I modify my content to do a better job at answering the search intent?
Keep an Ideas List
We’ve all experienced it: a brilliant idea strikes and we think to ourselves “there’s no way I’ll forget an idea this great”, only to find ourselves saying “wait…what was that thing I thought of again?” an hour later. If you don’t have a system in place to document your ideas as they come up, then 2022 should be the year you get one.
Use a note-taking or project management app like Notion, Goodnotes, or Asana that will let you quickly jot down ideas wherever you are and sync them across your devices. You can also start with something even easier by simply using the notes app on your phone. Having your thoughts in one place let’s you easily add ideas as they pop up, document your brainstorming every step of the way, and revisit them whenever you need. You might even glean interesting insights, like when in the day you have your most creative ideas! This year, when you wake up in the middle of the night thinking of a new way to start off your ‘About Me’ section, jot it down so you won’t forget it! If you’re trying to avoid screen time at night (an admirable pursuit!), you can place a notebook by your bedside and then moving your ideas over to your app in the morning.
Create a Content Schedule
Plan your year ahead by creating a content schedule for your website. Here’s where keeping an ideas list comes in handy. Once you’ve brainstormed a list of content ideas (choosing a theme for each month or quarter can be helpful during the ideation process!), you’re ready to start scheduling. Here is our magic tip: don’t just schedule when you are going to post your content; schedule the specific dates and times that you’ll work on creating your content, too. Having a work schedule will help keep you in a consistent routine that benefits both you and your audience. Plus, having it all down on your calendar will give you an at-a-glance overview of what you’ve got coming up each week or month.
Be More Active!
Whether it’s writing more for your blog, sending out your newsletter with greater consistency, posting more on social media, make it a priority to be more active about creating touchpoints with your audience! Be sure to set realistic goals for yourself and publish content with a frequency you’re comfortable with. If you had trouble staying consistent with last year’s goal of publishing one blog a month, make this year’s goal to actually meet last year’s instead of setting a new one. Gain fans and keep them coming back with consistent and high-quality content they can come to rely on. Being active is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. With consistent effort, you’ll soon be reaching and retaining even larger audiences.
What resolutions do you plan on setting for your website? Have any that we didn’t mention? Leave us a comment to let us know on our social media pages @Hover on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
