We’re going to get through this together. Here are some website update recommendations we would suggest implementing during the coronavirus crisis.
As we all navigate this crisis together, many of our clients have businesses that are already, or are likely to be, impacted by the disruption caused by coronavirus. We are working aggressively roll out website updates for many of them to help notify their customers about any operational disruptions, reduced hours, office closures, sanitation measures, etc. If you have not yet done this, now may be a good time to consider updating your business website as well.
Tips for your website
As a web and digital marketing partner to many businesses, we are always ready to assist our clients with website maintenance and updates, (and hey, working remotely isn’t foreign to us, so business is running as usual over here!). Below please find our recommended updates for business websites during the coronavirus crisis, which outline ways you can notify your clients, customers, and website visitors of your response to the COVID-19 crisis.
- Notification Banner: Add a notification banner to the top of your site with a short message about any office closures or how the situation is immediately impacting your business.
- Blog Post: Prepare a blog post, such as this one, with more extensive information about any changes your business is making to daily operations, including updated office hours, customer service strategy, or any other pertinent information.
- Update Website Information: Remember to update your contact page, locations pages, and/or footer contact information to reflect any changes to your hours.
- Google Business Listing: Update your Google Business listing, if you have one, to reflect any updated hours during this time.
Stuck working from home? Now may also be a time to consider planning a search engine marketing program for later in the year. To establish a robust, effective program, it often takes several months to begin achieving strong search engine rankings. Getting a head start on planning and content development now will help create some momentum heading into Summer and Fall. If you are interested, contact us today and we can put some time aside to discuss new ideas for your next digital marketing program.
Tips for working from home
As with many other digital marketing agencies, we’re no strangers to working from home. While many Americans make this new adjustment to working from a home office, here are some tips to get you started:
- Dedicated Work Space: Create a dedicated work space in your home where you can focus and get your tasks done, and ONLY use this space for work. When you’re there, you are working; when you’re not there, you’re not working. Keeping a separate sphere for work will help you avoid distractions (and children).
- Stay Connected: Stay connected and organized with your employees and colleagues by making the jump to a robust collaboration solution that centralizes your communications and project management needs. We recommend Slack, Monday.com, or Zoho. Slack, for instance, offers unique integrations that help centralize all of your communications channels in one place, while also offering video conferencing, screen share capabilities, and more.
- Go Virtual: Replace in-person meetings with conference calls, screen sharing, and video calls. Try Join.me, GoToMeeting, Zoho or Zoom.
- Get Outside: If possible, try not to spend your entire day at home working. Get outside for some fresh air. Go out for a walk, a run, a bike ride, or other exercise if weather permits. Some fresh air in the morning will help you set the tone for the rest of your day, and a walk at the end of your day may help you unwind and switch off.
Some additional tips that may be useful:
- Taking a break to binge-watch your favorite clips from The Office is totally acceptable.
- Blast ABBA now that your co-workers can’t grumble loudly from the next cubicle.
- For any video calls, make sure your home-for-perpetual-spring-break kids are not running around in the background. Also put on pants.
- Singing musical numbers at full volume is encouraged.
- If your computer stops working, try turning it off and back on again. If that doesn’t work, Home Depot should still have hammers in stock.
How to contact HSM for support and website updates
In order for us to best serve current clients, please use our customer support center to submit maintenance and update requests. There is also a link to this area in the top right corner of our website.
- Once on the support center homepage, please click “Sign In” in the upper right corner to create your support account and manage your ticket history.
- If you have time-sensitive updates and would prefer to not login to an account, you can simply click “Submit a Request” instead. This will allow you to quickly enter your basic contact information, details about your request, any attachments and level of priority. Alternatively, you may also email all of this information to support@hideseekmedia.com.
- Upon submission, a support ticket and email chain will automatically be created and we will be able to keep you updated on the progress of your request.
If you are not currently a client but are in need of a digital marketing partner to assist you with any time-sensitive website updates, please contact us today to get started.
Health-related resources
For health-related information about COVID-19, please visit the CDC.gov and WHO.int websites for the latest and most up-to-date information.
We will all get through this. Please stay home as much as possible to avoid community spread and transmission. Please also remember to be kind to one another and look out for those who may be at risk or in need of help. Let’s try not to hoard food and supplies; everyone in the community needs food, water, and toilet paper, and taking more than you need for a few weeks makes it harder for everyone else. Although social distancing is important, it is also important to make sure your neighbors, friends, and the elderly are supported. Let’s all be good neighbors and check in with anyone you know who might be alone to make sure that their basic needs are met. And of course, for anything web-related, don’t hesitate to reach out! Our team is available to you around the clock.
Stay safe, and stay healthy!
HSM is a results-driven digital marketing company. We work with small and large organizations across all industries to deliver impactful, measurable results through our powerful digital marketing solutions that include website design & development, search engine marketing, digital advertising, and high-performance website hosting. Interested in learning what our solutions could mean for your business? Shoot us a line and tell us about your project.
