Your self-monitoring checklist
- When was the last relaunch of your site?
- Is your layout still up to date?
- How up-to-date are the contents of your site?
- does a security warning appear on your website? (is an SSL certificate used?)
- can your site be operated without problems on cell phones?
- does your page take a long time to load?
- is the current cookie legislation from 28.05.2020 implemented correctly?
- is your website implemented DSGVO compliant?
- do linking errors or outdated subpages exist?
- do you use a data analysis tool to evaluate your online performance?
- are you actively using social media channels?
- do you have a backup of your website in case of failure?
- is your website protected against attacks in the best possible way?
In some or many of the mentioned points most websites have potential. We are specialized in fixing exactly these problems.
Together with the Search & Information Industry Association (SIINDA), Das Örtliche examined 190,000 German websites and over 90% of the sites did not meet many of the criteria. We checked this in random samples and actually came up with similar values.
Is your website still up to date?
You probably know this as well. You enter a site and think this website is already a bit older. This is only a problem to a limited extent with other websites, but it should not happen with your own site. In the worst case, you will lose users who will associate it with an outdated offer or a company that is not modern.
It is even worse if the content of the page is no longer up to date, new services are not specified or services that no longer exist are still on the page, in the worst case even wrong prices. This gives a first bad impression to the user and may prevent him from becoming a new customer. Or vice versa, if the news was last updated 1-2 years ago and you can see at a glance that the site is not maintained.
Can your website be operated on cell phones?
The last few years it has been a very clear trend that more and more users access websites with their cell phones. If the page is then poorly usable or the content is not readable, the user will most likely bounce again.
Loading times also play a major role. Every second counts, no one wants to wait a long time on a cell phone for a page to load. This must be checked and taken into account for the mobile page. Otherwise, users will also jump off the page.
In addition, Google has proclaimed “mobile first” and has thus given the topic a new significance. To get good organic rankings in Google you have to optimize your website for mobile devices.
Are your data protection and cookie implementations DSGVO compliant?
Secure transmission is currently absolutely necessary so that browsers do not show security warnings when entering your site and user data is transmitted in encrypted form. Among other things, this requires an SSL certificate to be installed.
For contact forms, it is now necessary to inform the user what happens to the data and to link to the privacy policy.
And according to the new Cookie Directive in May 2020, users must actively agree to cookies before they are set and can decide which cookies they agree to.
Are there errors on your website?
Depending on the complexity of the site, internal linking errors often occur. Old pages are deleted or links are set incorrectly and suddenly users end up on an error page of the web hosting package. This leaves a bad impression and again the user may jump off.
If you use PDFs, it often happens that users land directly in the PDF via the organic search in Google and do not even get to see the website. Therefore, it is important to either disguise all relevant information in the PDF or to refer to the website with a link.
Meanwhile, old Flash animations also lead to errors and warnings. The service will be discontinued at the end of 2020 and therefore Flash animations should be replaced as soon as possible.
How relevant is social media to your business?
Have you already created social media channels and are they maintained? Not every channel makes sense in every industry. It is important to use relevant channels and then also continuously fill them with suitable content. In the best case, this puts you one step ahead of the competition and allows you to gain new prospects and customers through the additional reach.
Do you know why some of your users become customers?
Many companies often don’t have analytics tools built in yet or don’t make use of them. However, data has enormous potential to improve your own business goals. Through data, you can see very clearly what users are doing, what interests them, and which user groups perform best online. This data can be used to target users in campaigns and attract new customers.
How secure is your website, even from failure?
It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. The website crashes after an update, it is attacked by a hacker or the server fails. Do you actually have a backup of your website? And is your CMS or plugins up to date? If not, you run the risk that you have to restore the website again with high effort and costly.
We can help you with that in an uncomplicated way
Because we have encountered the same problems over the years, we have developed a methodology to help you. Then you can concentrate on your core business and be sure that your website is up to date, usable, error free and protected.
