Every year as the lighted ball drops in Times Square, we make all sorts of promises. Read more, exercise more, eat differently, be more polite, etc. While you’re at it, why not expand that self-examination to your online marketing and sales?

A good place to start is your website. This is, after all, your internet presence. Your website should be at least as helpful to customers as a physical store, if not much more interactive.

With that in mind, here’s a checklist for your basic website annual review:

• Does your website have a clear and obvious purpose, such as selling or educating?

• Does it have the basic functions? These include:

o A simple statement of about you/your company on the front page
o A photo gallery of products and/or calendar of events
o An easy way to contact you
o A blog/news section
o An incentive for visitors to return
o A means to collect email addresses.

• Do you own your domain name, and does it show up in internet searches?

• Can you easily update your webpage?

• Do you update your site on a regular basis, making it easier for search engines to find you?

• Is your webpage user-friendly? Check on the following:

o Does it load slowly?
o Is it cluttered?
o Does it have unusual colors or hard-to-read fonts?
o Is it clear what you are offering?
o Does your site look good on different browsers, tablets and smartphones?
o Is it easy to use the contact form?

• Does the site sell your products directly or lead easily (think, one click) to somewhere that does?

• Does your webpage collect email address from current and potential customers?

Now for the final step (and the one where you don’t have to do any work!) Have someone take your website out for a test drive. Ask them how quickly they can look up products, send a message, sign up for emails, place an order and just generally poke around. If you hear them sigh or groan, find out why, and fix it.

With that, I wish you the very best in the coming year.  I look forward to working with you to continually improve your internet marketing with customized websites and innovative ways to bring customers to you!