It is 2012 and with the new year, comes new responsibilities and goals.  Check out our checklist of maintenance items to make sure your domain and website start the year on a high note.

1. Update the copyright date on your website. Does it still say 2011? Time to update! You can even have it auto update to save yourself the time and frustration.

Use the following if your website is coded in PHP: (without the spaces)

 &Copy; Copyright < ? php echo date ( ' Y ' ) ; ? > Your Business Name or Site

Will result in:

© Copyright 2012 Vitalwerks Internet Solutions, LLC

If you don’t have PHP, you will need to use JavaScript. (without the spaces)

   Copyright &Copy; < s c r i p t type="text/java s c r i p t"> 
   document.write(new Date().getFullYear());
  < / s c r i p t >  Your Business Name or Site Name

2. Is your domain name set to expire soon? If you are unsure, take 5 minutes now and find out. If your domain name were to expire, it could end up being a very costly mistake.  If you are forgetful, why not just let it auto-renew to save yourself money and unnecessary frustration?

3. Update your domain contact information. Has your business moved recently, have you changed your email address, or even fired someone from your company that used to handle the companies domain? (tsk, tsk: keep your domains registered under your own name to avoid troubles down the road) Keeping your domain contact information current and updated is an easy step to take in protecting your domain and business.

4. Review your website copy. Is it all current? As tedious as it sounds, it needs to be done.  Content can easily get overlooked for months and years at a time! Keep your website copy current so your customers know what’s going on in the year 2012, not 2009.

5. Last but not least, review your website traffic via a tool like Google Analytics. Has your website seen a rise or drop in traffic lately? Compare traffic from month to month and year to year and brainstorm ways to try to increase traffic for the new year.  Running CPC campaigns? Check your ad copy and keywords to be sure that they are still relevant and that you are still targeting the right customers and sending them to the right webpages on your site.  Consider creating a new campaign and a few new ads to keep your content current and fresh.

Any other tips? Leave them below!