Every organization at Evolve has a website. How can a business not have a website in today’s world? But having an updated and effective website is another story. Small businesses and nonprofits are so busy and the website is often ignored or neglected.

Never fear: We’ve got five simple tips to help you improve your website:

1. Link your social icons: A lot of off-the-shelf website templates feature social media icons. It’s a great feature because you want people to find and engage with you on social media. But it only works if you actually add your links to those icons. On too many websites those icons aren’t linked. Either link them or remove them.

2. Double check your contact system: Your website should have a way for people to connect with you, but you need to double check that it works. Too often a form breaks or is sending contact info into the void and you don’t know about it until it’s too late. Check it frequently so you can find a problem before a potential customer finds one.

3. Be consistent: It’s great to have news or updates on your website, whether it’s the latest sale, the weekly special, or an update from your founder. But if you’re going to have timely content, you have to update it consistently. Be realistic about what you can handle. If you can’t commit to weekly updates, scale it back and do something you can manage. There’s nothing worse than a ‘back to school’ fall message on a website as you’re heading into summer.

4. Mobile friendly: As websites have become standard, so has mobile. More people likely view your website on a mobile device than a traditional desktop or laptop computer. Make sure your website is mobile friendly. This often requires shorter copy and properly sized and aligned images. If you’re not sure how your site is working on mobile, give it a try. Pull it up on your phone and try to complete standard tasks customers would do on your site.

5. Refresh your site: While websites are standard, it’s common for organizations to create it and forget it. You check it off your list and you don’t think about it again. That’s a mistake. Things change, tools break, and content becomes stale. Don’t worry, you don’t need to redesign your entire site. But you should review your site on a regular basis and make frequent changes. Fix those outdated plugins and make sure everything is humming along. Give your copy a once-over to catch any errant typos and tweak a phrase. Make sure your listed hours are correct. Update that photo. You’ve had staff turnover, so take a peek at your about page and make sure it’s current. 

There you have it, five simple ways to improve your small business website. We love to see our Evolve members succeed and are happy to share ideas with the community.