Prepping your website for busy season

Summer is a peak season for most businesses, from wedding professionals to real estate, travel and accommodation businesses. On a busy season you’d be handling different areas of your business at once, and actively working with your clients. You’d probably working outside of the office, or completely immersed in client projects.

Peak season is also the time when people visit your website the most. You’d be sending people to your website more often than usual, and hopefully organic traffic would find its ways on your web pages too. You want to make sure everything on your website is perfectly ready to welcome your users to avoid overwhelm and ward off any possible glitch that might otherwise happen while you’re too busy to handle them.

This is why today I want to explore 4 ways to prepare your website for busy season, to provide you with the confidence to know your website is working for you even when you’re absent or busy doing the work you love.

Comb through each detail

Review your complete website on the design and content fronts. You want to make sure the design is attractive, user and devices friendly, easy to navigate and fully representative of your brand. If you’re working ahead of time and you realize your website design isn’t doing your business justice, it might be worth considering hiring a professional and commission a new custom web design that feels strategic and aligned to your business.

On the content front make sure you update any old images or texts. That way, your visitors will be seeing your most recent work or finding the correct updated information. Test your website in every way. Click on every link on your web pages. Check your navigation menus, your contact and opt-in forms, as well as the mobile experience. You want to make sure everything is working correctly to avoid worrying about it while you’re too busy with work.

Create informative web pages

During peak season, visitors might come across your website organically in search of specific seasonal products or services. To help them find exactly what they need with ease, create dedicated pages for a particular seasonal topic/service/product and include all the answers to their possible questions. This practice might also be a great boost to your SEO if you are able to evaluate your traffic from previous peak seasons and understand what people actually look for on your website.

Update your autoresponders

During a busy season you’ll probably be unable to answer to emails as quickly as your usual. Remember to set realistic expectations for clients who get in touch with you via your website. If you have an email autoresponder, remember to update it providing a realistic reply-within time. You could use this automation to also provide answers to the most common questions. Or address people to hidden pages you previously prepared to provide more information during the wait and before being able to get back to them personally.

Consider having your website audited

If you don’t have the time or ability to fully audit your website on your own, or you feel like you need a professional point of view, it might be worth considering having your website audited professionally. This will take the weight of having your website fully checked and tested off your shoulders. And you can rest assured your website will be properly tested for peak season, ready to welcome your prospect clients at each time of the day (or night!).

I hope you these tips help you with prepping your website for your business season.