Since I wrote ‘6 Website Features You Should Check’ to help you make sure your website is up to date and relevant, I have added to that list.
Here is the original list:
- Contact email address
- Contact form
- Spelling, punctuation and grammar
- Copyright date in the footer
- ‘I’ rather than ‘we’
- A photo of you, the business owner.
Tall Tartan Talks here … Following learning and keen to make my website as efficient as possible I commissioned a fellow freelancer (a WordPress expert) to do a review of my website. An MOT, if you like. I am grateful for the many tips she recommended.
4 more features to check
Therefore, in addition, I recommend checking these features:
- SSL certificate
- New tab settings
- Broken links
- Error 404 message
Go on, look again … Open a new tab and work through your website and my list.
What and how to fix
1.What is an SSL certificate?
You are researching a topic and click on a website link. It opens. You notice that the padlock on the top left of the website URL (address) is missing. It appears with the message ‘Not secure’.
Some URLs start with http:// while others start with https. Maybe you noticed that extra ‘s’ when you were browsing websites that require giving sensitive information, like paying bills. But where does that extra ‘s’ come from and what does it mean? Your website host should provide you with an SSL certificate. If your website is missing that extra ‘s’, it could put off potential clients.
2. Setting new tabs
Adding content to your web pages might include a linking to another page of your website, eg Contact page with a hyperlink, or linking to another website you recommend.
If a visitor to your website receives an Error 404, there is an error loading that page, or a page link is broken. A quick and easy way to check that you’ve minimised this problem is to check that the links in your website work. Just google ‘broken links’ – you’ll find a selection of websites to help.
When I checked, I found many broken links. Aaargh! It seems I had tweaked and moved my pages around my website muchly over the last couple of years; I hadn’t checked that links still worked. They do now!
4. Personalising your 404 page
Have you tried personalising your Error 404 plug-in? Thanks to another freelancing colleague for that tip. If you feel creative, you could take your branding all the way through to the pages that break.
You hope that visitors to your website won’t ever see the Error 404 message, but, if they do, they will still see you, your personality and your message, with a link that you’ve placed there redirecting them back to your homepage.
Are you up to date now?
Remember, your website is your shop window. Does it work efficiently? Does it represent you and your business?
And here’s Part 1: 6 Website Features You Should Check in case you missed it.
Interested in branding? Read my blog post on My Branding Process.
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