Updated: Dec. 5, 2024; Dec. 13, 2022; Dec. 3, 2021; Nov. 3, 2020
Originally Published: Nov. 2017

 

There is something about having a brand-new website that just feels amazing. You and your team have worked hard to achieve this perfect look and feel. You have paid attention to every detail you can possibly think of (there is always one or two things that slip through – it happens to the best of us). But as time moves on, you might find yourself paying less and less attention to the website because other things require more immediate attention.

As we head into a new year, it's a great time to look at your website and find ways to freshen it up. Below are six tasks that can make a positive impact.

1. Update the Copyright on Your Website

Seems small, right? But a user might notice that your website says 2020, when it is 2024! That gives the impression that no one is paying attention to the site and the information isn’t correct anymore. It is a quick change in Titan CMS, through the Titan Administration section.

2. Fix Broken Links

As content changes, links break. Maybe you linked outside of your website, and that resource has moved or, worse, no longer exists. A small typo can create a broken link, too. You can use tools (a good one is Screaming Frog) to proactively find errors so you can clean them up. Fixing broken links will raise your search rankings and reduce the number of 404 errors your users encounter.

3. Remove Outdated Content

Websites, as we know, are no longer set it and forget it. They must be treated like living parts of your business. Going through your content (think blogs, events, how-to articles, product information, etc.) and determining what stays and what goes is a great way to spend time.

It might be that some content just needs a little refresh. If that’s the case, garner some data by doing keyword research (we can help if you aren’t sure where to start) before throwing away everything and starting from scratch.

It's a daunting task, but divide up your website and make it a weekly or monthly goal to check certain sections. Before you know it, you'll be in the habit and it won’t be an annual task anymore.

Oh, one last thing, don’t forget to clean metadata too!
 

Edit your metadata in Titan CMS in the Search Engine Information section of the page properties.

4. Clean Up Your File Pile

The File Pile and OffNav sections are like that junk drawer you swear you’ll never have, but – like everyone else – you have. Maybe you have more than one.

Go through your File Pile to spot duplicates, obsolete or otherwise useless files and to identify files you need. Your OffNav section may have a collection of pages no longer used, test pages, or ideas that never took off (at least not yet). Going through these pages will help you not only clean up your site tree but also communicate to your team what is relevant.

Increased tree performance, better search results and consistent content standards make the effort totally worthwhile. 

5. Configure Smart Search

Nothing frustrates end users more than not finding what they are searching for on your site. What to do? Call in a superhero: Titan CMS Smart Search. 

Titan CMS 7.4 and higher have the improved Smart Search interface that allows you to manipulate how end users receive search results. Add Smart Search to your monthly monitoring schedule, too. Sometimes, you will need to adjust. Sometimes, you’ll be spot on. Either way, you’ll want to know.

Make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for by creating cards for your most-searched pages.

6. Optimize Your Images

It seems that everywhere you look these days, people expect things to be faster – including your website. User patience is dwindling, making it more of a challenge to ensure your site loads as fast as possible (not to mention that page load speed is now one of Google's Core Web Vitals – read more on that and learn about tools to help you measure Core Web Vitals here.) 

One way you can increase page speed is by optimizing your images. Check out this great post on the Northwoods blog for tips to help you get started.

Our team is also available to perform an audit of your site to pinpoint issues that might be impacting your site speed, including image size. Contact us to request an audit or learn more.

Here's to a very happy, healthy and successful new year!

Note: All screen shots in this blog are from the Titan CMS 7 interface. If you're on an earlier version and would like to upgrade to v7, please contact us for more information.