Review your website annually

03 March 2008 · 1 comment

When did you create your website or last do a major overhaul? Chances are that quite a few months or even years have slipped by since the last time you really paid attention to what’s on your website. February is a good time of year to do a review of your site. Get it all [...]

When did you create your website or last do a major overhaul? Chances are that quite a few months or even years have slipped by since the last time you really paid attention to what’s on your website.

February is a good time of year to do a review of your site. Get it all up-to-date and in order for this new year of action. You don’t need any special skills for a review, just the ability to use a web browser and make some notes.

Here’s a checklist.

Contact details

  • are they on your website?
  • are they easy to find?
  • are they accurate?
  • do email links and contact forms still work?

News

If you have a News section:

  • are the items listed still news or are they now “olds”?
  • have things happened recently that have not been listed?
  • should you move older items to a News archive?

Activities

If you have a section about your activities:

  • are the activities still current?
  • are contact details correct?
  • are dates correct?

Newsletters

If you have a section for newsletters, meeting minutes etc:

  • have the most recent materials been added?
  • should older materials be put into archives by year?
  • do the links contain information about size and format?
  • is there a link to download Adobe Reader (if materials are in PDF format)?

Resources

If you make books, videos, brochures or other resources available for loan or purchase:

  • are items listed which are no longer available?
  • are prices or loan conditions current?
  • are new items available but not listed?
  • are contact details correct?
  • does the online order form work correctly?
  • does the order form for download and printing work correctly?

Review date

It’s a good idea to let visitors know you check and update your website regularly.

  • do pages have a note of when they were last reviewed?
  • do any pages show a review date older than 12 months ago?

Statistics

Check your statistics regularly.

  • how many visitors did you have last year?
  • which were the most popular pages?
  • what search terms did they use?
  • who links to you?

There are other things you could check on your website, but these are items you should check regularly. Print off a copy of the checklist and assign the task to a volunteer or paid worker. Add the review to your regular meeting agenda.

Written for and reproduced from CommunityNet Aotearoa Panui, February 2006.

1 comment

Tagged as: accurate, checklist, contacts, review, website

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Andrew 06 March 2008 at 19:09 35

Great tips for making sure your website does not get stale. Thanks.

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