There are many reasons to review your website. You should consistently review your site in order to ensure it is functioning in the manner you want. This includes not only reviewing the navigation and ease of functionality, but also your design and that it matches the tone and aesthetic of your brand.
A general timeline of when to review is broken down into four (4) different times-
1: Month 1 (following the launch of your website)
One month into your website running, you should double check your site’s overall functionality. Check the flow of your website. Is it easy to navigate? Can users find what they come to your site for? Is everything clearly written out and the point of both your brand and site clearly stated? Additionally, you should review your internal links and search engine optimization.
2: Month 3
Three months into your website functioning, this is the time to review your traffic details. At this stage, you should have enough data and reports to be able to see where your traffic is coming from. You can see this on your hosting platform as well as external sites like Google Analytics. Review this data to see where you are getting your visitors from, what pages they are going, and where you are losing them.
3: Month 6
Six months in, you should couple your traffic reviews with potential design changes and page updates. It is vital for both remaining up to date on search engines and keeping visitors interested. At this stage, especially when you are beginning, you may be scaling up or pivoting by this time. Your design needs to keep up with where your company and brand are. Additionally, even if you are remaining the same, trends and design ideals change and remaining “modern” will require a few tweaks here and there.
4: Year 1
By the end of your first year, you have enough analytics to do a complete review of your website. You will have in-depth traffic knowledge to adjust your SEO and marketing (which will adjust your website backend). Additionally it will indicate where you are losing people so you can make significant changes to the page(s), whether it is design or functionality related. Finally, your period of pivoting should have eased as you have a solid understanding of your target market and can make finishing touches to your overall design.
If you want help reviewing your site or someone who will make monthly updates and changes to keep your website properly functioning and at the peak of SEO ranking, reach out to a LiveFive team member today.