When Was the Last Time You Actually Read Your Own Website?

I spend a lot of time looking at other people’s websites, and I’ve noticed something over the years. Business owners don’t always read their own.

I don’t mean they never visit them. Of course they do. But there’s a difference between pulling up your website to check something and actually sitting there and reading it like you’ve never seen the business before.

I’m guilty of it too. The problem is, when it’s your business, you already know what everything is supposed to mean. You can read a vague sentence on your homepage and not even notice anything is missing because you already know the rest of the story.

Your customers don’t have that advantage. They only know what’s on the page.

Your Website Can Get Outdated Pretty Fast

I was reminded of this recently when a longtime client asked me about refreshing their website. Which was interesting, because I had rebuilt it only a little over a year ago.

So I went back through it to see what was really going on. It didn’t take long to realize the website itself was fine. The organization had continued to grow, and some of what mattered most to them today wasn’t what we’d focused on a year earlier. The website hadn’t gotten old. The organization had just gotten ahead of it.

That happens a lot faster than people think. We tend to think websites become outdated when the design starts looking old or the technology behind them needs to be replaced, but I’ve found that the content often gets there first.

Then There Are the Things Nobody Notices

I manage another website that I’ve worked on for years. Recently, someone with the organization retired, so we removed her bio from the site. Easy enough, except later I was looking through the site again and noticed she was still in some of the photography on supporting pages.

Whoops.

It’s a pretty good example of why actually reading and looking through a website once in a while matters. We made the update we knew needed to be made, but there was no flashing red light telling us, “Hey, she’s still on this other page.”

Websites accumulate little things like that. Individually, they’re usually not a big deal, and that’s probably why they’re so easy to overlook. Eventually, though, you can end up with a website that feels slightly disconnected from the business without being able to put your finger on why.

Sometimes the Good Stuff Isn’t There at All

I ran into a different version of this recently with Kennard Music. This was a small project, not a redesign, and when I started looking at the homepage I realized Kerry didn’t really need a new website. The one he had just wasn’t doing a great job of quickly showing people what he actually does.

We worked with what was already there and reorganized the homepage around the work he wanted potential customers to understand. It wasn’t a huge project, but if someone comes to the website looking for live music for an event and has to hunt around to figure out whether that’s even something he offers, that’s worth fixing. In this case, taking a fresh look at what was already there made a lot more sense than starting over.

Does Your Website Really Need a Redesign?

Your Customers Don’t Know What You Know

I’ve been doing some Google Business Profile work for another client recently, and as I learned more about the business, I kept finding useful things that weren’t being communicated very well online.

The owner and staff know this stuff, of course. They talk about it every day, and that’s exactly why some of it gets overlooked. Nobody thinks to explain something on the website because nobody inside the business needs it explained.

I come in knowing a lot less, which is actually helpful. I get to ask the questions a customer might ask because, at least at first, I don’t know the answers either. If I can’t figure something out after looking at your website, there’s a good chance a potential customer can’t either.

I’m Not Immune to This

I’ve had to do the same thing with The Site Shark. The business has changed a lot from how I used to describe it. I still build websites and really enjoy those projects, but over time I’ve found myself doing much more with the websites businesses already have.

I took a harder look at my own website and realized that I was still talking about The Site Shark like I had a few years earlier. The business changed more than the website had.

That realization played a big part in how I now think about website management. Keeping a website healthy is important, but managing one also means paying attention to whether it’s still representing the business behind it.

Moving Beyond Website Maintenance

So, When Was the Last Time You Read Yours?

I had some fun with this on social media the other day and compared a website to a restaurant menu. You can hire a great new chef and come up with the best dishes you’ve ever served, but if you’re handing customers the same old menu, good luck getting anyone to order them.

Your website works the same way.

So here’s something you can do that doesn’t cost anything and doesn’t require knowing the first thing about SEO… Read your website.

Start with the homepage and pretend you don’t already know the answers. Would you understand what this business actually does? Does what you’re reading still sound like the company you run today?

Then keep clicking for a while. Chances are you’ll eventually hit something that makes you stop and say, “Wait, we still have that on here?” Or maybe you’ll read the whole thing and come away feeling pretty good about it. That’s great too. The point isn’t to find something wrong. It’s to look.

Your Website Isn’t Finished Just Because It’s Live

I don’t think businesses should constantly fiddle with their websites just for the sake of changing something. That’s not website management. That’s just giving me something to bill you for!

But I do think your website deserves another look once in a while. Your business isn’t standing still, so it’s unreasonable to expect the website you wrote a few years ago to represent it forever without a little help.

So go read yours. And if you get halfway through and start wondering what else you might be missing, send me a message and I’ll take a look with you.