Is It Time For a Website Update?
Websites are essential nowadays. In fact, according to Search Engine Land, 85% of consumers use the Internet to find a local business. Gone are the days of finding companies in your local print Yellow Pages. Now, people do nearly all of their product and service research online. However, this doesn’t mean you can have a website quickly slapped together and forget about it afterward. It takes time and knowledge to create a good website, and it’s well worth it if done correctly and maintained over its lifetime. So, if you’re wondering how your site compares, here are some warning signs that it may be time to for an upgrade.
Lack of Content Information
Most people will probably go to your website to look for information about the products and services that your business offers. So, if you have little to no content, they likely won’t stick around for long. Likewise, if you have dated content that’s no longer relevant, it can be confusing. Help your customers out by including information beneficial to them and updating it as needed.
Loads Too Slowly
40% of people give up and abandon a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load. A 1-second delay in a page’s response time can result in a 7% drop in conversions. Wondering what’s making your site so slow? It could a number of things, including:
- Too many images
- Large files
- Unnecessary code
- Flash
- Excessive use of CSS and JavaScript
No Clear Call To Action
One of the most common design mistakes is a lack of a clear call to action. Things like “contact us”, “shop now”, “watch video”, “sign up”, etc. are important for driving potential customers further down the buying funnel. These elements will encourage them to take an action that will benefit your business. Getting traffic to your site is nice, but it doesn’t mean much if people leave without taking any meaningful action.
Not Responsive or Mobile-Friendly
Your website should look consistent, no matter what device your customers are using. Why is this important? Well, this year there will be 5 billion mobile phone users around the world, and, according to Broadband Search, 3.5 million of those are smartphone owners. This means that a huge segment of your website traffic will be from people on their phones. So if your site isn’t optimized for mobile, this will likely reflect poorly on your brand image. For many people a poor user experience is all they need to check out your competitor instead.
Non-User-Friendly Site Navigation
According to Statista, poor navigation is one of the main reasons why a website loses its customers. This is true even if your website is visually appealing and has great, relevant content. It also makes it difficult for search engines to crawl a site which will impact your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Which leads us to another common website problem…
Not Optimized For Google
A big sign that you need a website update is if it wasn’t designed with search engines in mind. If Google can’t easily index your site, you likely won’t be showing up on the first page of search results. If your customers can’t find you, then they’ll likely go with whatever business is showing up at or near the top, as these companies are seen as more legitimate by many people.
Lack of Up-To-Date Technology
Using aging plugins that are seldom (if ever) updated can hurt the overall functionality of your website. It can also be a security threat; as older technology advances, it gets replaced with newer and more secure versions, security features that your site will be missing out on. By updating your back-end technology, you can make sure that your site is secure while also impressing your visitors.
What We Can Offer You
If you went through this list and found it a little too familiar, your business could benefit from an updated website. If you don’t have a website at all, well, it’s definitely time to get one! At Duneland Media, website design is one our specialties. All of our websites are created with the elements on this list (and more!) in mind. Want to see what we’ve done in the past? Have a look at some of websites we’ve designed. If you’re interested in making an investment in your business, feel free to contact us by calling us at (219) 369-4676 or email us at info@dunelandmedia.com.
