5 Simple Steps to Spring Clean Your Site (& Convert More Clients)
/My subscribers and I have been spring cleaning our sites for the past couple of months - taking small simple steps to audit, update, and cleanse our websites, so we can attract and convert more of our ideal clients.
While it may technically be summer (or any other season depending on your location and time of reading), cleaning your site is something you can (and should) do any time of year.
Here’s what we’ve learned…
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I love my subscribers and, in every single newsletter, I give them exclusive offers, insights and a simple + actionable tip.
I thought it’d be fun to do something similar with this post, so as a taster of The Growth Notes, I’m giving one simple + actionable tip under each topic. You might want to bookmark this post :)
My challenge to you - should you accept it - is to pick ONE action item and complete it today.
1 | Does your site show a true reflection of who you are?
You are unique! But it can be hard amid the comparisonitis and “latest trends” to bring your individual personality into your business.
Likewise, your personal brand will no doubt evolve as you grow, both as a person and as a business owner.
Now, I’m not saying you have to have zero filter (boundaries are essential). And I’m definitely not talking about a rebrand. It’s more to do with the fact that a big part of what customers are buying is YOU. So, is your site still a true reflection of who you are?
How much more of your unique personality can you inject into your business?
Take Action: Quick Personal Brand Audit
Ensure you’re channeling your uniqueness + celebrating your difference to authentically stand out!
Make notes on how you can bring more of your IRL personality into your:
Home page
About page
Services page
Blog posts
Remember, this isn’t a rebranding exercise - it could be something small & quick, like adding your portrait to your sidebar, or main pages.
Here’s my homepage - I had to get way out of my introvert comfort zone to take this step, but it was worth it (your potential clients and readers need a face to a name):
If you’re 100% happy with the above pages, you can branch out and do this for your emails, social media, printed media, etc to help your messaging align.
Get inspiration: 7 incredible entrepreneurs who are rocking their personal brands…
2 | Are you thinking like your ideal client?
Readership awareness is vital for the following reasons (as a minimum):
You have 5 seconds (or less) to make it clear what you do
Knowing what your ideal client is seeking - goals, problems, etc - will mean your content becomes packed with value (pssst… we deep dive into this in the Spring Clean Your Site Workbook)
Search engines prize relevant content above all else
The 5-second “rule” straddles both techy stuff, like how fast your site loads (aka page-speed), and how quickly your ideal client can find what they’re looking for.
Take Action: Review your user experience (UX)
There are lots of things you can do to improve your UX, but what I want you to do today is check that your blog niche is obvious. You can do this by:
Asking friends &/or family to look at your homepage and blog feed then explain what you do
Ask a couple of biz buddies or peers to do the same (you could return the favor)
Look at industry leaders’ and competitors’ blogs - how fast and clear is it what they do?
It’s always interesting and helpful to hear others describe what they think your niche is!
If you niche is not clear, you can reassess your content and, in the meantime, add a heading to your blog feed &/or homepage describing your niche or your title (e.g. I’m an “SEO + Digital Strategist”).
3 | Have you audited your top performing blog posts?
If your blog is at least a year old (or even 6+ months) this is a crucial activity and one I recommend you do annually, or even more frequently if you have lots of monthly posts or high levels of traffic.
Auditing your top performing posts, will:
Give you insight into your readership
Help you find out what's working
Decide what needs updating
Give you ideas for new content
Take Action: Update old blog posts
You may find that some of your most popular posts are in need of updating - even if they’re only a year or two old. This is a great way to keep search engines happy with new content, while lightening your workload. There are 50 ways you can give an old post new life, for example:
Add new statistics or industry info
Create pinnable images or image quotes
Add in “tweetables” with Click To Tweet or Share Link Generator
Update headings or some of the subheadings
Add a CTA (Call-To-Action) at the end of the post to encourage comments.
Break up text with quotes, subheadings, bullets and shareable images
Once you’ve updated a post, don’t forget to update the publish date, to bump it to the top of your blog feed (which also signals “new content” to search engines).
Transform your site into
a client-magnet!
✔ Customizable ✔ Interactive ✔ Actionable ✔ Strategic ✔Affordable
Save time & skip the guesswork + create content your readers will love - only $47 (say whaaaaaat!)
4 | Are you making the best use of your blog images?
Pin-worthy images make me stay on a blog longer and share their posts - I’m sure it’s the same for you. But creating those images takes time (and time is money)!
Once you have the right tools and procedures in place, creating high-quality images and making them work for you, becomes much simpler.
Designing images which align with your brand style and speak to your ideal clients is the first step, but make sure you’re optimizing your images for SEO - at the very least, resize your file before you upload!
Stock Photos & Graphics
If you’re not a semi/professional (or very enthusiastic) photographer, creating eye-catching, on-brand pictures can get frustrating, tedious and exhausting! Luckily there are lots of stock photos sites out there, whether you’re looking for flat lay and styled stock photo sites, diverse images, esoteric, wacky or subversive pics - whatever suits your brand best.
We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to free stock images these days, but I recommend you buy your stock photos and support other small businesses - Haute Stock* is my favorite.
To design on-brand graphics, you can use free tools like Canva or Picmonkey - they also help you watch out for rookie errors, like the wrong size (see the Pinterest checklist below).
Take Action: Create Pinterest-worthy images
Don’t worry about your back-catalog! Going forward, use the tools above to design a rough template for your posts’ featured images.
Check how to optimize your posts for Pinterest and make a note of the checklist below.
Pin-worthy Checklist:
✔ Striking image/photo
✔ Correct size (735 x 1102 pixels)
✔ Your logo + web address
✔ Brand colors
✔ Persuasive title tag
✔ Snappy meta-description
✔ Call-to-Action
5 | Have you optimized for social media SEO?
There are so many ways you can use social media to improve your SEO (and I recommend you track your social media so you can see what activities are the most productive).
But today we’re talking about what you can do ON your site.
I’ve already mentioned “Tweetables” (there’s one below), but you can also use apps like Sumo and Shareaholic to help people easily share your posts, and images, across any platform.
Make sure you’re linking to your social media profiles - you can do this in your sidebar, footer or header navigation.
Take Action: Make better use of your traffic from Instagram
For many bloggers, Instagram is a fantastic tool but the bug bear is that you can’t have links in posts. However, there are ways to optimize for Instagram traffic - you could even do this for any social media traffic.
You can use freemium “Link in bio” apps like Linktree or LNK.BIO or you can create a short landing page on your site.
On my Instagram landing page, I include:
❓ A simple headline with my name + what I do
😊 A fun "welcome" image
📰 My latest blog posts
💌 A sign-up form for The Growth Notes
📢 + Links to my:
When putting your Insta landing page together, remember that your IG followers may not know everything about you and it may be the first time they’ve come across you.
Consider things like: what you usually share on Instagram and where you want people to go when they land on your site.
BONUS! Search Engine Optimization: Are you using long-tail keywords?
Ah, SEO - my favorite topic! There’s no way I could leave this out!
SEO encompasses your content, such as blogging, wider content strategy and the “techy” stuff, like title tags and meta-descriptions (which, in practice, aren’t as techy as they sound!).
I’ve already touched on some of these in the post so far and you can go through my archive of SEO-related posts anytime but, right now, I wanted to draw your attention to long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords help you dig deeper and reach a more specific audience by using longer search phrases, i.e. “swimming classes for pre-school kids near me” vs the (short) keyword “swimming classes”.
Keywords have higher competition than their long-tail cousins, making them harder to rank for (getting high up in search results).
It’s also worth noting, that long-tail keywords have higher conversion rates. Why? Because they bring in leads which are more qualified.
Take Action: Brainstorm long-tail keywords
Think about short search terms your ideal clients are using and then build them out into longer, more specific phrases.
Job description example:
Photographer
Photographer near me
Wedding photographer near me
Wedding photographer in [your location/s]
Professional wedding photographer in [your location/s]
Blog topic description example:
Tips for photoshoot
Tips for wedding photoshoot
Tips for the best wedding photoshoot
Bride and groom wedding photoshoot
How to make my wedding photos the best?
Blog title: 10 Ways to have your dream wedding photoshoot on the big day
Blog title: 10 Tips to make sure your wedding photoshoot is a dream on your big day
Blog URL: www.yourblog.com/best-wedding-shoot or www.yourblog.com/dream-wedding-photos
Use your ideas to develop content and include some of the keyword text in your posts, headings and subheadings.
The Growth Notes
The above 5 “Take Action” points were some of the actionables I shared with my subscribers in my new Growth Notes bulletins. I love to give my subscribers extra value and exclusive offers, so if you want to get in on the action (pun intended haha!) then...
Get exclusive tips & strategy BEFORE anyone else (I’m talking simple + actionable marketing, blogging & SEO) - join The Growth Notes community!
5 Simple Steps to Spring Clean Your Site - Summary
1 | Bring more of your real (IRL) personality into your content: channel your uniqueness + celebrate difference to authentically stand out.
2 | Make sure your niche is obvious on your site + write with your audience in mind.
3 | Audit your top performing blog posts and update old popular posts.
4 | Create Pinnable feature images for your next 3 blog posts with Canva and resize them for social media.
5 | Set up an Instagram landing page on your site or via an app like Linktree, LNK.BIO (both freemium) or Linkin.bio (paid).
BONUS! | Brainstorm long-tail keywords and develop content ideas + use some of the keyword text in your posts, headings and subheadings.
Share your results on Pinterest &/or Instagram and post with the hashtag #springcleanyoursite to keep yourself accountable.
Transform your site into a client-magnet!
✔️ Customizable ✔️ Interactive ✔️ Actionable ✔️ Strategic ✔️ Affordable
Save time & skip the guesswork + create content your readers will love - only $47 (say whaaaaaat!)
*Disclaimer: One resource is an affiliate link. I only use affiliate programs for products and services I know and trust.
