2010 is officially here and it’s time to make your resolutions. While you’re deciding on your personal goals to start the new decade off right, why not kick it up a notch and make a few business resolutions as well? And what better area to focus on than your website! We may be a bit biased, but a good website is essential to your company’s success. With over 70% of the U.S. population online (and more than 22.3 million Americans accessing the internet from their mobile devices daily) it’s crucial to make sure you’re customers are getting the most out of their online experience. To help you with this, we’ve come up with a list of New Year’s resolutions for your website.

1. Rewrite your site: The most important thing you can do for your website is to update your content every year (this is the minimum). The last thing you want is a potential customer to visit your site only to find out you have outdated material. Not only that, but having fresh content on your site is another way for current customers to reconnect with you. Don’t forget the importance of quality content, either! Use content to your advantage as a way to not only provide useful information, but to increase search engine optimization. Duplicate and outdated content is a sure way to disenchant users and impacts SEO rankings negatively. If you don’t impress them with your site, there is little chance they’ll bother contacting you for additional information. Related Post: Using Content to Increase SEO
2. Redesign with your customer in mind: Usability is another important aspect of your site. If a customer can’t navigate through your site easily, more than likely they will give up and look elsewhere. It’s not only important to attract users to your site, but equally important to keep them there. There is a lot of competition on the web, so while structuring your site around usability, try to keep these questions in mind: How easy is it for users to find information or accomplish basic tasks? How quickly can they perform these tasks? And, how easy is it for users to recover from issues they encounter? Related Posts: Three Simple Rules to Remember, Active Website Teams Up with Tobii Technology
3. Keywords, keywords, keywords! Expanding on the importance of re-writing your site, another great way to create quality content for your website is through the use of keywords. We’ve said it before, but this is an easy way to rank higher on searches, thus generating more traffic to your site! The goal of your site is to provide information to your customers, making them want to use your services. By incorporating keywords into content, you’re making it easier for potential clients to find you amongst the masses. Related Post: Maintaining Long Tail Result
4. Socialize: Communicating with your customers is a fun and easy way to help boost visits to your site. For example, by establishing a weekly blog not only are you able to stay in front of your customers and give them a reason to keep checking back to your site, but you open up the communication channels as well. A lot of great insight can come from comments your customers make to your postings and lets you know what is of interest to them. Also, by having a Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn account (the list of these social media sites goes on forever!) you are able to reach out through different outlets. At AW, we’re firm believers that everyone searches the internet differently, so it’s best to cover all the bases. However, make sure not to take on too much. If you’re not dedicated to updating these sites, they won’t do you a lot of good. Be sure to post the social media sites that you belong to on your website for all to see, as well! Related Post: A Changing Culture
5. Publish content from your site: This one is pretty self explanatory. If you’re already taking the time to blog and post current content on your site, take a few extra minutes out of your day to submit your content to other sites as well. There are a vast amount of resources out there for you to use, whether it be social media sites such as Digg or StumbleUpon or a more traditional outlet like your local paper, the more you get your company name out there, the more traffic you’ll see to your website. Not to mention, by publishing your content on these sites, you increase the odds that someone else will find it useful and re-post it themselves. Related Post: Using Social Media to Your Advantage

As you move forward into 2010, don’t forget to set aside some time to nurture your website. The above list may seem a little daunting, but is necessary to help move your company forward. So start the year off right and give your website a much deserved makeover.

Related Sites:

10 Best Things You Can Do on Your Business Website

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox

Tobii Technology’s Blog