Get rid of clutter. Look through your analytics and find pages that no one (or hardly anyone) clicked on in 2012. Does this content serve an identified target audience or support an association business goal? Or is it just “stuff”? Get rid of the “stuff” and focus your content on your key audiences and their needs. If it is important content and it isn’t getting traffic, it is time to take a closer look at the site structure or navigation to understand why it gets so few visits.

Lose weight. Large files, images and unnecessary code on our websites will slow down load speed. There are ways to rework content-like using CSS for site design and optimizing photos for the web-to make your site lean.

Be social. It’s likely that you’re already out there in the social media world. But use this year to develop and follow a strategy. Who are you trying to reach with your social media efforts, what are you trying to say, how engaged are your members…what works and what doesn’t? Don’t be afraid to stop one or two of your efforts in order to concentrate on a couple that are giving you the bigger benefits.

Be there when others need you. And chances are, people will need you (or more specifically, your website) when they are on-the-go. Look into incorporating responsive design into your website…your mobile-focused members will thank you.

Communicate clearly. Web-friendly copy means paying careful attention to word choice. Too often people simply copy and paste content into their website from other publications. Always keep user experience in mind when writing for the web. Keep it short and sweet, use headers and bulleted items, and clearly state your important messages high up on the page.

Need some help getting going with your website initiatives? Let us know and we can help.

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