In Part 1 of our website tip series, we talked about the basics, such as stray copy in your footer and old social media logos. In Part 2, we dived in to website conversion. Part 3 mentioned tips on website content and in Part 4, we gave you the best rules to go by for images and videos on your website. This is the last piece of our "Improving Your Website" series with tips on the news/blog and ads.

PART FIVE: NEWS/BLOG & ADS

1. Dates on the Blog:

Why: If your blog contains helpful information that doesn't go out of date, then there's no reason to have the published date on the blog because it makes the content look old. 

Solution: Take the dates off the blog and make sure that the dates don't appear in the URLs of the blog posts. Keeping the article's published dates on the blog hidden will make the content appear current, so people are more likely to engage with it by reading, sharing, or commenting. If you do have information that does go out of date, do not forget to go through your articles and update information!

2. Press Releases

Why: Press releases are a good thing to have on your website, but not when they are lengthy and static.

Solution: Type the press release in a blog post and shorten it. Plus, they are great to share on social media platforms!

 

3. Ads For Your Own Stuff

Why: Since being on the internet became mainstream, people have been so used to seeing ads that they automatically scroll past what they think looks like one. The term for this is "banner blindness."

Solution: In order to fight "banner blindness," promote your stuff within your content and add simple, text-based calls to action at the bottom of every page.

 

4. Guilt Trip Pop-Ups

Why: Here is a scenario. You are on a website and a pop-up shows up and the company wants you to sign up to receive email updates. You have two options: you can either enter your email address or click on the "No thanks, I would rather not benefit from free information." These types of pop-ups don't make users take the action (such as signing up for email in this scenario).

Solution: Substitute the guilt for value, so they see a benefit in it. A good example of this is the following: "Are you doing your SEO wrong? Put in your website URL to check."

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We hope that you enjoyed our informational series on "Improving Your Website." Stay tuned for more posts in the future that can be beneficial to your company or organization. Need help with your website? Contact us today!