Midsummer is upon us. For some businesses, it can be the calm before the storm. You may have summers hours at your office or you may be short-handed due to vacation schedules. Most of the time I don't think it is unusual to have some slow or maybe some more quiet time. You might find yourself more productive due to a client being out of town for vacation. Take advantage of this time to do some maintenance or planning.

It is no secret that sometimes gremlins wreak havoc and you could find yourself with broken links, images not loading, etc. Here are some key things on your website check up on while you might have a few extra minutes.

1. Hours of operation. Do you have summer hours? If so, make sure you update your website. Nothing can be more frustrating to clients or potential new clients than trying to reach you while having no idea you have different hours.

2. Contact Us. Take some time to make sure your contact information is still accurate and while you're at it do a test contact on any web forms you may have. You might be surprised and find an error.

3. About us. Are you a company that introduces your staff to clients via your website About Us page? Make sure all of your new hires are present as well as removing anyone who may no longer be on staff. If you don't do this, I urge you to consider adding it to your site.  We often hear from clients and potential clients that they enjoy learning a bit about us and our staff as well as putting a face with a name or voice on the phone.

4. Images. Go through your site and make sure all your images are loading correctly.

5. Browsers. When was the last time you took a peek at your site(s) on other browsers? Make sure they still load correctly.

6. Links. Just like images, make sure all of your links are still functioning.

7. Special offers. Does your company offer special promotions, coupon codes, etc? If so, make sure you do not have any that have expired still advertised on your site.

8. Services and news pages. Have you expanded or cut back on services? If so make sure you update your services page. Remember to be as specific as possible without being overwhelming when outlining your services offered.  Do you have a corporate news or announcement page? If so, when was the last time you updated it? Sure we all get busy, but you don't want to look as though you haven't been doing anything by having no new installments.  The same goes for your portfolio. When was the last time you checked the links in your portfolio? It's possible an older entry needs to be removed because the company doesn't exist or now uses a different provider and your work is no longer applicable to the link in your portfolio.

Nothing on this list should take hours. It is something you can easily do during any extra quiet time you may find during the summer months when your clients may be out enjoying the golf course. It will keep your business on its toes and leave you with less to do later when the year-end rush hits. Having all of your information in order will aid in locking up new business for the second half of the year.  When was the last time you gave your websites the once over?