Seven things you can do to update your website or online business during Covid-19

Looking for practical, helpful things you can do to keep your business going during Covid-19? Nisha White from Blanco Digital Studio shares seven things you can do to update your website or online business now.

What are these strange times we are living in? I don’t know about you but last week was a bit of a blur. With endless news cycles of doom and gloom, being told to do this and not that, It was a little much and work was not on my mind.

We are a week on now and businesses are starting to get a bit more of a flavour of how the next few weeks (at least) are going to look so we need to adapt our businesses to survive this time.

I’ve been approached by a few clients about what to do with their websites and online presence as they are now taking centre stage more now than maybe before so I have put together a bit of a rough guide of what you can do on your site and further to help your business during these testing times.

Let me just state before you read any further. I am not trying to sell my services I just want to make sure businesses have the information (as I see it, this is just advice!!) they need to arm their online business to succeed. So let’s dive in.

1) Let people know if you are still open for business, or whether things have changed and how

These are unusual times, and you might have started to see businesses start to add notices on their website and information for their customers about what steps they are taking and whether they are still operating or not.

Think about what your business is doing during this time, create a message and add it to your homepage, about page, contact page and any other page you think might be relevant. If you are offering different services during this time, here is the place to mention it.

Information is key and your customers want to support you but they need to know what you are doing and how you are operating your business during this time.

2) Update any contact information or opening times

To go hand in hand with point 1, update your contact information. Check you have the right contact number and operational hours added. If you need to, make sure your office phone lines have been put on auto-forward to your mobile.

Make it super easy for people to know when and how they can reach you for your services.

3) Update your Google My Business

Or if you don’t have one, set one up now and update it with reflected time changes or anything else important e.g. if you are closed or only accepting online business for the time being etc.

4) Package up any offers that can be purchased online or for delivery or over the phone

I’ve seen some ingenious things businesses are doing to keep their businesses going, whether that’s zoom calls instead of face to faces or delivering stock which otherwise would have been collection only. Think, have a real think about how you can offer your services in a virtual way or within a safe distance.

Heres some ideas:

  • Scheduling Zoom/Skype calls instead of face to faces. Both are free and both are easy to use.
  • If you supply goods, creating starter packages e.g. a starter sewing kit with video tutorials or a gardeners starter pack with seeds etc. People will have more time on their hands and maybe kids to entertain. Think about how you can package up your services to help.
  • Create a video series of your services to use as promotions material or gated if you’d like to charge for it or collect emails for access.

5) Ask for testimonials and reviews you can add to your site

How many times have you thought, “gosh I must get some updated testimonials from my clients to add to my site?”. Get in touch with previous customers/clients and ask for a testimonial now and then add them to your site. Peer reviews help sell your products so much more than you shouting “I’m Great, honestly, trust me!”.

Customers are really rallying around small businesses at the moment which is wonderful so take this time to ask for a review.

Here are a few places to request them for:

  • Tripadvisor (if its relevant for your business).
  • Google my business (always relevant for any business).
  • Any other review site your business is on.
  • And, of course, your own website.

6) Tidy up any unused pages

Do you log into your website and just see pages and pages of unused pages? Or stock that has been out of stock for weeks and you know you’re not getting any more. If you are comfortable doing so, go into your site and delete any pages you aren’t using. Better still see if any of the content can be updated and renewed to become better pages for your website.

Unused or unfinished pages can go against your when it comes to your sites SEO so use this time to delve deeper into the setup of your site.

Other things you can check:

  • Dead links: these can be 404 pages or links that don’t lead to the right place. You can use a tool like this one to scan your site and update any links that don’t work

7) Work on your SEO, update page titles, content etc

This one’s a maybe. SEO can be difficult and if you don’t fully understand it maybe leave this one. But if you do and your business has evolved since the last time you updated any SEO on you site it might be time to update things. Here are a few area’s of your site you might want to check and update if necessary:

  • Page titles
  • Page URLs
  • Meta Descriptions
  • Social Media Images
  • Image Alt Tags

I apologise that this is a bit of a rough and ready list but things are moving so fast during this time I just wanted to make sure businesses had some guidance regarding their online presence.

Again these are just my pointers, they aren’t any official guidelines or anything during this time but I hope you find them useful.

Blanco Digital Studio make SEO friendly websites, crafted not only to look amazing but designed to help your business grow.

Photo by Corinne Kutz