2023 is a year for future-minded growth. If you haven’t taken a look at your website in a while, or you feel like your competitors are getting a digital edge, now is a great time to improve your website. Previously, we talked about digital marketing trends emerging in 2023 and how they might impact your website’s traffic, conversions, sales, and more. In this blog post, we’ll explore a few easy methods to improve your website in 2023.
4 Steps to Improve Your Website in 2023
If you haven’t updated your website in a while, all of these improvements might be intimidating. Let’s go through this list one step at a time. You might go through this list of website improvements in 2023 month by month or quarter by quarter. This way, you can improve your website gradually and make goals that work for you.
1. Content Audit
A content audit can help you update your content, improve your SEO, streamline your website, and more. This is an easy way to improve your website in 2023, though it may take some time. First, you’ll need to take an inventory of your content, which you can do with a content audit. Then, you’ll need to decide which pages, blog posts, or other content should be updated, combined, deleted or reorganized.
Combine Blog Posts
As you conduct your content audit, you might find that you’ve covered some topics several times. You might find duplicate or similar blog posts, landing pages, or other content. Combine this content and you can create one, thorough piece, instead of multiple pieces that compete with each other.
Consolidate Content
While you look through your content, you may find duplicate or similar content that doesn’t make sense to combine into one post, but it might also be cluttering your site. In this case, use redirects to bring traffic from weaker pages to stronger ones. As you’re consolidating, consider content that is no longer timely or relevant, products or services that you no longer offer, pages for old events you’ve held or attended, and similar content items.
Reorganize
A well-organized URL arrangement can help your SEO. In general, your URL should contain your keyword or phrase. Your URL should also be somewhat short. If a user has to make more than three clicks to get to the page or information they’re looking for, your URL organization might be too confusing. See if you can rearrange or consolidate your content so your subdirectories, subdomains, and page paths are streamlined and straightforward.
2. Update Your Mobile Site
We’ve previously discussed Google’s mobile-first index, which prioritizes websites with a mobile website. Websites that don’t operate properly on mobile devices now get an SEO penalty. This means it’s harder for users to find the website when they make a relevant search. Since more than 50% of searches are now made on a mobile device, updating your mobile site and making sure it’s functioning properly is essential to improve your website in 2023.
Make a Responsive Site
A responsive website reorganizes itself automatically to suit the visitor’s screen, from a mobile device to a tablet and more. Instead of creating a separate mobile website or app, a responsive site allows you to keep the website you have, while still providing a great experience for mobile users. This is especially important for local businesses, since visitors often search for local businesses when they’re on-the-go. Many users are also shopping online with their mobile device, answering emails, reading articles, and more.
Test Your Site
It’s important to test your site on different devices to ensure that it’s effective for different users. Either test your site yourself, or work with your friends, colleagues, or site testers to test various elements of your website on different devices. You can also test your site using Google’s mobile-friendly site testing tools.
3. Update Your Marketing Assets
How we use the internet, what we buy, and how we decide what to buy all change quickly. This means your marketing strategy is probably changing too. However, some of your marketing assets may have been left behind as you’ve adapted to changes in buying habits, new media, new products, and more. Or, if you haven’t updated your marketing strategy in a while, now is a good time.
Update Your Landing Pages
For your marketing strategy to be effective, your web visitors must be able to find your landing pages easily. A variety of updates can help you improve your website in 2023 and optimize your landing pages. First, look at the content on the page and make updates appropriately to target popular, relevant keywords. Consider what new content you might add, including images or videos, which can improve your SEO.
Update Your Sales Funnel Stages
The way that your audience uses your site and buys your products may have changed. For example, if you’ve focused more on social media as a top-of-the-funnel (Tofu) customer acquisition strategy, your website should reflect that. Or, if your primary audience has changed—perhaps you’ve targeted a new age group, or a different income bracket—the content of your site should reflect that. Or, if your top-selling products have changed, you’ll want to consider which items you highlight on your site, and why. Take a look at your sales funnel stages and consider how you can improve your website in 2023 with this in mind.
4. Update Your Tools
The tools that you use to maintain your website, monitor your marketing campaigns, and execute your strategy are essential. If you haven’t recently looked at the tools you rely on, now is a good time. There may be more efficient or effective tools available, or there may be important updates pending.
Universal Analytics to GA4
Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools you can use to see how customers use your website. This tool gives you important insights about your traffic, landing pages, customer demographics, and much more. This suite of tools is also undergoing big changes.
The version of Google Analytics that most of us are familiar—dubbed Universal Analytics—with will soon be inactive. The new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) platform will be taking its place. Now is the time to get familiar with GA4 and learn how to start using this critical new set of tools.
Update Website Tools
Many of the functions that we rely on are powered by plugins. Just like other software tools, these plugins need regular updates to ensure they operate properly, and don’t expose your website to attacks or vulnerabilities. Now is a good time to review some of your tools and make sure they’re working properly and fully updated.
This also includes your Content Management System (CMS). If your CMS makes it difficult to update your website, add important tools or plugins, or execute your strategy, it may be time to make a switch. WordPress is the most popular CMS, and gives you plenty of options to control your content and make changes. This system is also more complicated than many other CMSs, and may require some learning.
Consider Replacements
Are your tools still giving you the functions that you need? Or are they making some tasks more difficult than they need to be? Or, are you paying for programs that you could get for free? There may be other programs available that can help you cut costs and save time.
For example, are you using expensive graphic arts tools to create relatively simple images for your website? A free like Canva might be a better fit for you. Or, are you using an expensive Microsoft Word subscription for simply writing text? A tool like Google Docs provides similar functionality, and you can easily share documents with coworkers and colleagues.
As you’re considering how to improve your website in 2023, make a note about any tools that frustrate you, or don’t work as well as you’d like. Take a look at free alternative tools, and try experimenting.
If you feel like your website isn’t keeping pace with today’s digital demands, 2023 is a good time to improve your website. You may have more complicated goals in mind, like adding an online store, or specific functions to help your customers. If you’re looking for an experienced team of marketing and programming experts to help reach your goals this year, contact us. We can help you make a digital marketing plan, outline a website redesign, build powerful programs, and more.