{"id":271,"date":"2011-01-06T14:07:19","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T18:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/?p=271"},"modified":"2011-01-06T14:07:19","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T18:07:19","slug":"new-year-time-for-your-website-annual-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/2011\/01\/06\/new-year-time-for-your-website-annual-review\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year&#8211;Time for your Website Annual Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Annual Website Review Checklist\u00a0<span><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>Many websites grow almost as large as a house.\u00a0 Throughout the year it seems to get new pages, links, images and user generated content.\u00a0 That&#8217;s why I recommend    performing an annual review of your website.  To help get you    started and get your site in shape for the New Year, here is     an Annual Website Review Checklist.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>1.  Review Your Domain Name Record<\/h2>\n<p>Don&#8217;t let outdated information cause you to miss renewals        and other important notices.  Verify that the contact        names and addresses on your domain record are correct        once a year.  Use these resources to review your domain        record now:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.internic.net\/whois.html\">InterNIC<\/a><span>[http:\/\/www.internic.net\/whois.html]<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.networksolutions.com\/en_US\/whois\/\">VeriSign<\/a><span>[http:\/\/www.networksolutions.com\/en_US\/whois\/]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>2.  Check Website Email Addresses<\/h2>\n<p>Added new staff?\u00a0 Replaced some others?\u00a0 You could have invalid email        addresses on your site.  Make a list of all the email        addresses on your site and confirm that they&#8217;re still        active.<\/p>\n<h2>3.  Update Your Confirmation and Automated Messages<\/h2>\n<p>If the automated messages from your registration, request,        order and other forms have not been updated in the last year,        it&#8217;s time to review them.  These messages can be powerful        customer relations tools, but only if they&#8217;re meeting your        customers&#8217; needs.  Make sure your automated messages are        serving your customers\u2014not spamming them.<\/p>\n<h2>4.  Test Your Forms<\/h2>\n<p>In conjunction with updating your automated messages, you        should test your forms to make sure that they&#8217;re still        functioning correctly\u2014and to review how easy they are to        use.  Simply submit each as if you were a visitor on your        site.  Be sure to review your error messages as part of        this process.  You should test your forms often and        immediately look into any sudden drops in the number of        submissions.<\/p>\n<h2>5.  Validate Your Links<\/h2>\n<p>Do your part to stop link rot, while improving your site,        by making time to check your internal and external site        links\u2014especially if you&#8217;ve neglected this task due to        more pressing demands.  Here are a couple of basic tools        that can help:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/viablesoftware.com\/viaalertlr.htm\">Link Runner<\/a><span>[http:\/\/viablesoftware.com\/viaalertlr.htm]<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.relsoftware.com\/wlv\/\">Web Link  Validator<\/a><span>[http:\/\/www.relsoftware.com\/wlv\/]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>6.  Check Your Site&#8217;s Search Feature<\/h2>\n<p>Like most of the items on this list, checking your site&#8217;s        search feature should be done more than once a year.  But        we know it&#8217;s not always possible to review all aspects of        your site on an ongoing basis.  That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important        to make sure your search is functioning effectively and        that outdated content isn&#8217;t showing up as part of your        annual review.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t have a search feature on your site, now&#8217;s a        good time to see if adding one would enhance your site&#8217;s        usability.<\/p>\n<h2>7.  Check Your File Sizes and Download Times<\/h2>\n<p>If a lot of updates and additions have been made to your        site, it might be time to check your site&#8217;s performance.        It&#8217;s not unusual for page and image files to slowly creep        up in size with each successive update.  Re-optimizing        your files so your pages load faster will make for a        better user experience.<\/p>\n<h2>8.  Review Your Stylesheets, Standards, Accessibility        and Compatibility<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to save some serious time for your visitors\u2014and for  yourself during site maintenance\u2014the annual        review is the perfect time to revisit or set site        standards covering CSS, Web Standards, Accessibility and        Browser Compatibility.<\/p>\n<p>To help you wrestle with the issues surrounding evolving        your site to new standards, we offer these articles and        resources:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Web Standards<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.webstandards.org\/learn\/faq\/\">What are Web Standards and Why Should I Use Them?<\/a> from the Web Standards Project<span>[http:\/\/www.webstandards.org\/learn\/faq\/]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Cascading Stylesheets (CSS):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.meyerweb.com\/eric\/css\/\">CSS  Work<\/a> from meryerweb.com<span>[http:\/\/www.meyerweb.com\/eric\/css\/]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Browser Stats:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.upsdell.com\/BrowserNews\/stat_trends.htm\">Browser  Stats &amp; Trends<\/a> from Browser News<span>[http:\/\/www.upsdell.com\/BrowserNews\/stat_trends.htm&#8221;]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>9.  Update Your Time References and Copyright<\/h2>\n<p>About Us and other background information on your site        may contain specific time references such as &#8220;for five        years&#8221;.  Your site may also include a historical timeline        or list of accomplishments that should be updated at the        start of the year.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, your copyright should be updated when your        content is updated.  During your annual review, check to        make sure this task hasn&#8217;t been overlooked.  Although you        can simply use the date that the content was first        created, it&#8217;s a good idea for your copyright to reflect        when content was created and when it was modified.  This        is not only to protect your work, but also to avoid        having visitors think that your content is out of date.        Below are some examples of the syntax:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Content created in 2009:\n<pre>Copyright (c) 2009 nxtConcepts, Ltd.<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Content created in 2007 and updated in 2011:\n<pre>Copyright (c) 2007, 2011 nxtConcepts, Ltd.<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Content created in 2007 and updated in 2009 and 2011:\n<pre>Copyright (c) 2007-2011 nxtConcepts, Ltd.<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Learn More About Copyrights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.whatiscopyright.org\/\">What is  Copyright Protection<\/a> from WhatisCopyright.org<span>[http:\/\/www.whatiscopyright.org\/]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>10. Check Your Search Engine Visibility<\/h2>\n<p>Search engines are one of the        most important and cost-effective sources for attracting        targeted traffic and increasing brand awareness for many        sites.  At the same time, many changes have taken place        in how search engines return results and display paid        (sponsored) listings.  As a result, I check        your site&#8217;s visibility on the top search engines by        searching for your company name, products and other        appropriate keyword phrases.<\/p>\n<p>If your site isn&#8217;t coming up near the top of the results        for these terms, you should look into the benefits of        marketing your site through search engine optimization        and paid placement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/searchday\/article.php\/3095871\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/webmasters\" target=\"_blank\">Search Engine Marketing Basics<\/a> from Search Engine Watch<span>[<\/span>http:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/webmasters<span>]<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/links\/article.php\/2156221\">Major Search Engines and Directories<\/a> from Search Engine Watch<span>[http:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/links\/article.php\/2156221]<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Annual Website Review Checklist\u00a0 Many websites grow almost as large as a house.\u00a0 Throughout the year it seems to get new pages, links, images and user generated content.\u00a0 That&#8217;s why I recommend performing an annual review of your website. To help get you started and get your site in shape for the New Year, here &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/2011\/01\/06\/new-year-time-for-your-website-annual-review\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Year&#8211;Time for your Website Annual Review<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[123,117,124,48],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how_to","tag-css","tag-seo","tag-web-standards","tag-website"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxtconcepts.com\/srufo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}