I have several websites and I am always in the midst of a new creative process. That’s my thing. But what can fall through the cracks are the little things (which are really huge!) such as making sure links to my articles, sites, special offers, products & services are all up to date and working properly.
Have you recently changed a payment processor? Affiliate software? Website hosts? Then you need to go double check the links back to these very important items.
1. Make sure that all the payment and referral links back to your products and services are working properly. I recently switched a product’s processing from clickbank to paypal, and forgot to check all the links on my sales page for that product. Once I fixed them – I received an order about 2 hours later! Imagine the potential income I missed for that careless brain fart!
2. Make sure that all the links you have out there to your websites are all correct and live. If recently changed your branding, and therefore switched urls etc. – just make sure that all traffic flows to your new page(s).
3. It’s soooo important to really try to choose one affiliate software option and stick with it. Because if you switch – it is very hard to convince all your current affiliates to then go and fix all the links on their sites as well. BUT if you do – make sure to check your site’s affiliate sign-up page for dead links and to email your affiliate list about updating their links etc. If you need a little help with setting up your affiliate program the right way, try the AffiliateDashboard tutorial. For an easy to implement affiliate system to use in your business, I like Affiliate Royale. If you are an affiliate of mine, you have already had a taste of this system.
4. Sometimes you may need to check the links for the images on your site. Especially the little ones that you don’t pay much attention to and/or that are hosted on another server. Many of these sites go out of business or make changes of their own – and then you have question marks in there place. It’s always a good idea to optimize your image text titles and descriptions for times like these. Use your keywords.
Lastly, if you don’t have the time to do this – outsource it. And no it doesn’t have to be this intricate outsourcing plan to someone 500 miles away! You can use a student or babysitter – heck even my 10 year old can spot outdated links:) Just get it done.
Lisa Angelettie
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