Do you ever get to the end of the day and see that you’ve crossed off three items on your to-do list only to add five more? It’s no wonder “make website updates” continues to get pushed to the bottom of the list. I see you and feel your pain which is why today, you’re going to learn about my three favorite tools for saving time when it comes to getting your website to actually reflect how awesome your small business is. 

In fact, these tools have helped me in designing over 50 websites and I use them to keep my own website updated, too! Best of all, they are all free so there’s no reason not to try them out and see if they help you stay on top of your website updates a little more often. 

(Quick Side note: I am constantly asked how often someone should update their website. My response is usually this:

Your website should be an accurate representation of your business or nonprofit. So whatever updates it takes to make that happen, do those. Sometimes that’s keeping your hours updated. Sometimes it’s updating your e-commerce inventory or staff directory. Other times, it’s ensuring the photos are current and your online brand matches your in-person brand. If your website fits the bill on all of these, aim to make at least a small change or two every other week. This will keep telling Google and the other search engines that you have dynamic information and value to share.  (And if you can find a way to stay up with a blog, that’s a huge asset in keeping the updates coming!)

The Broken Link checker from Ahrefs

Broken links are a surefire way to lose customers on your website. They expect everything to work and make judgments about you or the quality of your products/services if they don’t. This quick tool is easy to use -- just drop your URL in the box and you’ll get a list of broken links to go fix -- no downloads or sign-ups required. 

Mobile-Friendly Test from Google

If you’re not sure you’re website is mobile-friendly, this is a great place to test it out. Just put your website address in the search box and let Google do its magic. You’ll get to see which areas they suggest improving, along with some other great feedback. And since Google is pretty much the decider of how much traffic your website gets, you’ll want to take their advice. 

Uptime Monitoring from Greencheck

If anyone has ever told you that your “website is down,” you know that feeling that follows. “Why is it down? What happened? How do I fix it?”

Unfortunately, for many, they never even know the website is down and as a result are likely to lose customers or donors as a result. If you want to keep your website running 24/7 and be alerted to any potential issues, the tools from Greencheck look great! They offer uptime monitoring as well as a whole host of other solutions!

Free Keyword Tools from WordStream

Sometimes when I start talking about SEO (search engine optimization), my client’s eyes glaze over. I get it  - not everyone nerd’s out about analytics like me. But this free tool from WordStream is a great entry point to some beginner keyword research (and it’s free!) Just drop in a link from your website and it will tell you the best keywords associated with that site. You can then begin to use more of these keywords in your online ads, your website, and your social media feeds. If the results return more than ten strings, focus on those that have a high search volume and low competition first. 

With these three tools, it’s like having your own personal website marketing guru and assistant sitting next to you all day long. It’s also worth noting here that your website platform has a lot to do with your ability to keep your website updated and fresh. I’ve had so many clients tell me they just dread making their website updates because it’s so hard to figure out the simple things like swapping out a photo or add a new blog post. And while every platform has its pros and cons, this is one of the reasons I always recommend building a website with Squarespace 7.1 I’ve been using Squarespace as a user for nearly seven years and building websites with it for over four years. The platform has grown in tremendous ways and continues to be my number one recommendation for any small business or nonprofit that wants to create their own website or hire a designer to create a website that the client will maintain.

I have experience in creating and maintaining websites using WordPress, Drupal, Wix, Weebly, and a handful of others that are no longer in business. By far, I’ve had the best user + admin + customer service experience with Squarespace. Naturally, I want to give my clients something they can learn easily and feel confident to update whenever they need it, without having to pay someone to make simple updates! Plus….

✔️All websites have built-in responsive designs so your website will always look great on any device and have BFF status with Google since great SEO is built right into the platform design.

✔️With Squarespace, you never need to worry about potentially harmful plugins that break or slow down your website or remember to run updates. Nobody has time for that! 

✔️ Your site has unlimited growth potential. Add unlimited pages, upgrade to a commerce plan, add calendars, blogs, photos, videos -- pretty much anything you can think of! 

✔️ Squarespace automatically backs up your site multiple times a day and in multiple online spaces. But, if you accidentally delete a page, you can restore it immediately without even contacting Squarespace. 

✔️Squarespace's friendly and efficient 24/7 support is included in your annual subscription

✔️It’s seriously so easy to update. Make quick changes to the text, photos, links, or any other content from any computer or even on their mobile app. You can see an example video right here of me explaining some behind-the-scenes updates on a Squarespace website (just scroll down on the page until you see the Table of Contents and the Preview button).

And now with Squarespace 7.1, the design team there has really outdone themselves! I’m amazed at all the ways you can design a page without any custom code at all and every single site looks completely different. If you’re looking for website design services, please be sure to check out our company page at Sarah Moon & Co.

Until next time,

Andrea