We were lucky to have a fantastic summer this year, even if it arrived a little late.

As Autumn finally  hits and those lovely bright leaves swirl off the trees revealing the bare framework of the trees, it’s a good reminder that other things might want a good clearout.

Yes, I’m talking about your website!

And mine, if I’m honest. As your daily business carries on, it’s easy to forget about some of those housekeeping tasks in the day-to-day bustle.

Use this prompt to step back and review your website for anything which might be outdated, and think about planning some shiny new content to engage your visitors.

Here are a few things to check;

• Are there old links to related sites which no longer work?
• Have you still got pictures and details of people who have left the company?
• Is your content management system clogged with old special offer pages that you no longer need?
• Are your contact details still correct? Particularly if you use a mobile telephone number you might have changed.
• Are any special offers visible to the public still valid?
• Is your copyright statement up to date?
• Have you received any awards or accreditations which should be updated to more recent versions?
• Are any products you are advertising still available?

I often find that a drawback to the first bit of decent summer sunshine is that the extra light shows up a cobweb or two in those dark corners. Time to get out the long-handled brush and whisk them away, quickly!

This is a handy reminder to shine a bit of light in the darker corners of your website too. What is lurking there that you might have neglected to clean up?

• Out of date special offers
• Landing pages you no longer use
• Bios of people who have left the company
• Products you’ve scrapped
• Dead links to external pages that no longer exist.

Going over your website and clearing up the “cobwebs” is a good opportunity to think about whether there is new information that should replace the old.

Search engines like fresh copy, and so do your regular visitors. Tidy up your site and you’re likely to attract more traffic and more business.