5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website Today

Hey friend! How are you? You made it through Thanksgiving, yay! Happy Hanukkah if you’re celebrating this week, and happy Cyber Monday! 

Don’t forget to take a moment and acknowledge your accomplishments! You rock, crafty friend! 

As we settle in to the holiday season, it’s important to maintain your website while you continue to take orders and work with customers.

Your website is your storefront – it is usually the first introduction of your brand, and you know what they say: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Here’s a quick checklist of things to look for as we continue through the season (and beyond). Add this to your weekly schedule so your website continues to improve and gives your customers the great experience you want them to have when visiting your shop.

Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Make sure all your links work!

Ask a friend to help you with this one. Go through your site and click on every link. Make sure they all lead to the correct page. No one wants to click a link and get that “404 Error” message – this is a sure way to scare off potential customers!

If you find broken links, fix them as soon as possible.  This also includes links to social media, press mentions, contact pages, etc. 

Make sure your email signup links are working!

Sometimes the email signup forms on websites get disconnected for some reason – the computer gremlins having a party, maybe? 

Whatever the reason, it’s a good idea to check these links regularly. 

You can test this yourself – enter your information and make sure you get the welcome email that should come after someone signs up.

Watch Your Product Inventory!

This is one of the most common occurrences during the holidays. Your products are selling, and your inventory counts are at zero, so customers see that they are sold out!

You may need to watch your inventory on a daily basis, but make sure your item counts are correct, otherwise you may be missing out on sales.

Don’t Send Your Customers Down the Wrong Road!

Take some time to check the navigation menus on your website. Do they make sense? Are they easy to follow? Can customers find what they’re looking for?

I find that I’m too “close” to my website to look at this objectively, so I’ll ask a friend to do it for me. They can let you know if anything seems confusing, or if they have a hard time navigating around your shop.

You can also pop into my Facebook Group and ask the members there to help you with this! The community in the Bloom Facebook Group is a terrific resource for handmade business owners just like you.

Do You Ghost Your Customers After They Purchase?

What does your post purchase follow up look like? If you answered that question with, “What’s a post purchase follow up?” then friend, I am SO glad you’re here!

When someone purchases one of your products, you want to then nurture that new relationship! This means setting up a series of communications with them to follow up after their purchase.

If you have an email service provider, you can easily set up an automated email that can send these follow ups for you. 

If you don’t have this set up yet, most ecommerce websites have an automated email that goes to a customer after they make a purchase. You can edit this email to make it personal, add links to your social channels, and ask them to respond to you and let you know how they like their purchase.

I know this time of year is hectic and busy, but maintaining and improving your website is something that should be a part of your daily routine. Since your customers are regularly interacting with it, you must make sure it’s performing at the best possible level.