Gear Up for the New Year
Four Items Your Association Can Check
With the new year quickly approaching, it is important to review your website. Whether or not that review is much-needed or just precautionary, it does not matter. Try to make it a habit. Your new-year self will thank you!
Now, let's skip right past the "why should I review my website" question, shall we? I believe we can all agree that periodic checks are good for many reasons. Plus you're already reading this, so let's move right on to the "what should I be checking" question.
1 - Is your content fresh?
First things first…let's check our content. A new year probably brings with it some changes to your association. Maybe those changes affect particular offerings…programs, memberships, etc. Maybe those changes require a complete refresh of an entire portion of your website. Either way, a review can help confirm what changes may be required.
There's an added bonus, you say? Periodic updates to your website's content help boost your association's search rankings. Updates to your content show search engines like Google that your website is being maintained and updated with fresh content. Once they confirm this to be true, they award your association by boosting your results right on up the search rankings.
2 - What are you featuring?
Try to take a look at your website as if you were a regular visitor. What do your eyes see as soon as you view your homepage? The items that come to focus the most…do they reflect what is most important and impactful to your association? Yes?…awesome! You're a rockstar! If not…well aren't you glad you checked this?
Similar to the new year requiring new content, it most likely also brings with it brand new campaigns and membership drives.
Make sure these topics are 1) eye-catchers as soon as a visitor hits your homepage, and 2) that there is a way for those visitors to take action on those topics.
The initial display and look is only half the battle. In order to make all of this count you'll need to make call-to-actions available, thus giving the visitor a chance to interact with those featured items further. This could be as simple as just giving them more information on the topic, then requiring the visitor to visit your association to complete the process. OR, this additional interaction could be giving them the opportunity to complete the entire process on your website via an online registration.
Regardless of the processes in place within your association, give your visitors the information and opportunity necessary for them to take action.
3 - What do analytics tell you?
Alright, I know you're probably already snoozing just by reading the word "analytics"…. I totally understand, but try to stay with me here! Checking in on your analytics periodically can become a very beneficial practice, particularly when a brand new cycle is coming around the corner.
Understanding how and what your visitors interact with on your website can go a very long way. You can then also begin to make each visit even more impactful when you're able to marry those behaviors with the important content you're trying to share.
Here's the simplest example that has repeated itself time after time…
You begin to notice that a particular part of your website is being interacted with more than you would have guessed. Odd right? Why there? Could be due to a number of reasons. But that's not the critical point here. What you now have is real estate on your website that you can count on for a potentially higher impact. And, with the new year just around the corner, you can now be strategic and place targeted content in a space that will draw more eyeballs. A membership drive, perhaps?
And speaking of Membership…
4 - Have you run through your Membership process?
We'd all be kidding ourselves if we didn't mention Membership as one of the natural and biggest website pushes come January. So, here's your review…whether your association makes online memberships available or you simply share membership information for signing up at your physical branch, step through your process as one of your visitors would.
What's it like?
Was the user experience what you expected? Were there a few extra clicks involved? Did you get the information you would expect and assume to get in order to help make a decision?
Be real with this review. Because odds are, if you felt the process was a little clunky…your visitors most likely feel the same way or more so. So, take your experience…think about what could make it a more positive and efficient website visit.
Here are a few key items to consider when finalizing your own unique process.
- Membership featured on the landing page, catching attention right away
- The feature includes a link/button that leads to more information
- Information is helpful, succinct AND
- Allows them to begin the purchasing process right then and there OR
- Allows them to explore particular membership types further…before making a final decision
- All of this with no unnecessary clicks/taps - get them there efficiently!
And those are the items we believe you should check before the new year rolls around. Only FOUR!
Gearing up for the new year is absolutely important, but it should not require so much time that it becomes its own project. So yes, just FOUR!
Keep it simple and stick to these in your review. We have a feeling you're going to feel confident and prepared when it comes to your website!…and oh yeah…your association may just see a bump in activity too, which is ALWAYS a good thing for both your association and the communities it serves!