Your Website Content Needs Updating. Where Do You Begin?

Are you in the “haven’t updated your website in a really LOOOONNNGGGG time boat?” If the answer is “yes” you’re probably struggling with where to begin. 

The good news is that figuring out where to begin is an avoidable struggle. You can use analytics data and typical website traffic trends to make your decisions. Keep reading to learn how! 

 

Using Google Analytics to Inform Your Decisions

Do you have Google Analytics (GA)? If not, it’s free so definitely get GA and install it on your site! This update may require minor technical support depending on your access level to your website and comfort with code updates. 

Google Analytics allows you to get data for your entire website or specific pages including stats on the number of unique visitors to your site (users), how many visits your site got (sessions), time-on-site figures, and much more for any timeframe you please. 

If you do have GA you can gauge user stats by page. In the left-hand navigation area within Google Analytics, click on the “Behavior” category and open the sub-category titled “Site Content.” Then click on the “All Pages” option. 

Once you select this option you’ll have page-by-page data based on whatever timeframe you select. Since you need a good sample set of data to make informed decisions, review at least a year of data or more if you have it.

This data will provide insight into how people are interacting with the pages on your website. You can determine which pages get the most traffic and which ones have the best time-on-sight statistics. It stands to reason that the most visited pages are the most important ones on your website and worthy of your attention. 

However, if there is a page or pages you think should be receiving more traffic relative to others those are also a great place to start. 

What if you don’t have Google Analytics?

Definitely get Google Analytics! That said, it’s not a deal-breaker. You can use typical website traffic patterns to prioritize your efforts. 

In nearly all cases, the homepage is the most visited page traffic-wise on a website. Start with your website’s homepage. 

Thereafter, category pages are worthy of your attention. For a practice website, the category pages are generally organized by services offered. Begin with the most popular or highest revenue generators followed by those that are the lowest. 

Finally, If you have additional time you can update resource pages or old blog posts – in other words, pages that don’t get much attention should still get addressed eventually but they should be lowest on your list of priorities. 

 

Please feel free to reach out to the Sesame Team if you have any questions with Google Analytics or in deciding how to update your site!

 

—Michael Fitterer, Sr. Marketing Manager, Sesame Communications