How to give your private practice website a checkup
This check-up check list goes through all the major areas of your website so you can take a look at everything from strategy to SEO and answer questions about your website's health (just like when you go to your doctor, expect that you don't have to answer the same question 16 times).
I'd recommend doing a quick glance through the checklist now and setting aside about 30 minutes sometime in the next 2 weeks to actually work through all the questions and make notes on anything you need to update, edit, or get help with.
Your Mid-Year Checkup Checklist
1. Review your website strategy
Take a few minutes to review the strategy you have for your website. This might have been to increase awareness of your business, grow your email list, or book more consultations.
Then ask yourself:
Has your website been helping you reach this goal?
Are there things you need to change or remove from your website?
Is the goal you set for your website (growing your email list, booking consultations, increasing digital product sales) is still the #1 action you want your target market to take?
2. Review your website design
This can either be a quick check-in if you’ve kept up with your design or have just gone through a re-design or a more in-depth look if you haven’t had time to prioritize your design at other times.
Are the images up to date?
Does it still reflect your brand?
Does it look consistent across all browsers?
Does it look correct on mobile?
Do you colors and fonts meet accessibility guidelines?
Are your calls to action clear?
3. Check all your links and forms
You want to make sure that all of the links and forms on your website are still active and working. This helps with sharing quality content that helps people to trust you and helps with SEO because Google doesn’t like broken links.
Are all the links still working?
Are there any pages that no longer exist?
Do all your forms work correctly?
Are you getting timely notifications of form submissions?
4. Test any e-commerce functionality
Similar to links and forms, a check out function that works properly helps your business run smoothly and builds trust with your audience because things aren’t getting lost.
Does any inventory need to be updated?
Do you need to collect more/different information?
Is the checkout functionality working correctly?
5. Review your SEO efforts
You want your SEO efforts to be pointing to the services and content that you’re offering now.
Review and update your site title and descriptions
Review and update your page titles and descriptions
Make sure your location is included in your footer, site title, SEO descriptions, and on your contact page
Make sure all images have alt text
Check and update your list of keywords
6. Check your site speed
The slower your website loads, the less people are going to keep coming back to you. You want your website to load quickly so you can reach your dream clients (plus Google knows that pages that are slow to load are less liked, so they rank you lower in searches).
Are there images that need to be resized?
7. Review your analytics data
Use both Google Analytics and any analytics available from your website host. You can use this information to adjust the content you’re creating and promoting and where you’re focusing your marketing efforts.
What is your most popular page/post?
Are some pages dead ends?
Where are people coming to your site from?
What is your best conversion source?
8. Check that your sitemap is submitted
Make sure that Google has a site map for your website so it knows which pages are on your website and help with SEO.
Has your sitemap been submitted to Google Search Console?
Did Google find any issues you need to fix?
Have you requested indexing for any updates you’ve made to the content of your website pages?
9. Update your services
Make sure all the services you offer are listed on your website and remove any that you no longer offer.
Are all your services listed on your website?
Are there any services that need to be removed?
Does the copy for any of these services need to be updated?
Is the pricing (if included) up to date?
What questions have I been asked and can I include them in my FAQs?
10. Update your portfolio and testimonials
Updating your portfolio can be intimidating because it takes time that seems like it could be better spent on client work, but by doing it quarterly, you’re showing off your expertise and creating fresh content for people who might be interested in working with you.
Add new projects
Update testimonials
Share any updated results from your service
11. Update your bio
Check your about page, home page, guest bios, and social media to make sure every place is consistent and reflects your current services and brand.
Does your bio still reflect you?
Is your head shot up to date?
12. Update your features
By sharing the places you’ve guest posted or been invited to speak, you can build the know, like, trust factor with your audience.
Were you a guest on blogs or podcasts?
Did you speak at an event?
13. Back up your website
This is important so that you have a backup of your site in case it’s hacked or goes down. When you can recover at least the content, it’s a lot less stressful than starting over from scratch if things go wrong.
Images
Blog posts
Content
Bonus Items:
14. Brainstorm a list of blog posts
Create a list of questions your target audience is asking and turn them into blog posts. ChatGPT and Facebook groups are great places to see what questions people have about your industry and your services.
15. Run a UX test with a friend
Also known as a User Experience test, you can have a friend or Facebook contact perform tasks on your website to make sure that it’s easy to navigate and makes sense for your dream clients and website visitors.
16. Poll your audience and update your copy
Make sure your copy reflects what you do, who you work with, and the benefits that you offer to your clients.
Take a poll (informal or formal) of your audience to see what they are struggling with and how you might be able to help
Make sure you’re still speaking to your target market
Free Website Review
Overwhelmed by the thought of looking through your website and seeing all the little details that make you want to pull your hair out?
You can submit your website for a FREE review!
Just fill out this quick form and I'll walk through your website, answer your questions, and give you suggestions to improve the design, strategy user experience, accessibility, and more!
This is one of my most popular offers and I don't offer it all the time anymore, so make sure to jump on it now!
