It’s 2020—a new decade to start afresh, re-establish your business goals and priorities, refocus on new client acquisition, or maybe you are at a point where you need a new look and feel for your branding and web presence.

1. Make sure your hosting and domain registration information are up to date; setup auto payment if necessary.

2. Do a quick audit on your website. make sure there are no misspelled or misused words, grammatical errors, etc.; this will give you a professional / polished look.

3. Perform a link check on your entire site. Literally click every single link on every single page, button, call to action, etc., including links to your social media pages to confirm they all work and will take your clients as well as potential clients to the right place.

4. Review your evergreen content. Is it still relevant today? What new information can you add to the content to help show that you’re an expert in your field? Remember, Google and bots love evergreen content, so keep it updated, relevant, useful, and current.

5. Check your social media pages and accounts. Are you linking to the right page on your website? do you have.

6. Make sure your website has a way for site visitors to reach you. you would not believe how many websites I visit each day and notice that there is no phone # to contact the business. Why? This is a no-no; I strongly recommend you have at least one phone # and a valid email address that clients and/or prospects can contact you right away should they need contact you

7. Check to make sure your site is still connected to Google Analytics, and readjust any keywords accordingly.

8. If you added a new site section (categories) to your website, especially if you are a blogger, check to make sure your site visitors can easily navigate around your site to get to what they need quickly.

9. Mobile-ready and ADA accessible website. Mobile currently accounts for half of all global web pages served. According to Statista, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram are among the top ranked most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2019. This is a huge number considering smartphone ownership is growing rapidly, so make sure your site is mobile ready, including touch call. You also want to, in fact, it is required by law that you provide a section 508 compliant website that is accessible by those with disability.

10. Include an FAQ, review/testimonials—anything that will help your potential visitor get more information to help them make purchase decisions, hopefully to purchase from you. Empower them to find your website as a resource so they can quickly move through your sale funnel.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means… other things to check for include security (especially if you have an eCommerce site); high resolution professional images, provide a search function; be consistent with your brand voice, tone, and style.

In closing, getting a new branding and website (or even a new logo) is not going to make people book you or buy from you, not from your website alone. What make them want to buy from you instead of your competitor is the amount of useful information you can provide upfront, on your website so they can learn more about you, your services or products.

A high-quality website is one that provides relevant, useful content and a good user experience, and it all starts with the content structure, clear navigation, professionally written content, mobile and ADA accessibility.