A website is your business’s online storefront. It is one of the most important marketing channels you have and is a reference point to showcase what your business is all about. And if you are like most businesses, you have had the same website since your inception. But is it still doing its job?
Fortunately, there are many tell-tale signs that say your website has seen its better days and is ready for retirement. Here are some reasons to invest in a good web development service.
You have a new product or service to offer
This is a no-brainer. If you have a new product or service to offer, you need to let your customers know about it! This doesn’t mean you should give your website an overhaul, but consider updating your homepage with a special creative to announce the new venture.
If you are offering the product or service in addition to your existing products and services, then consider having a dedicated page for that product or service. This way, you can get the word out about what you are offering, draw attention to it, and help boost sales for that product or service.
Your business has grown
If your business is growing, you will want to make sure your website can grow with you, so you can accommodate the extra traffic that you will be hosting.
First, make sure that any new company policies or procedures are accurately represented on your website. Any new mission statement or team information should be reflective of what’s happening in the company. You will also want to make sure that there’s nothing outdated on the site itself, such as old contact information or an out-of-date logo.
Your business could also need a new website if:
- You have a new logo
- There are changes in leadership
- You have set new goals for the business
- You want your customers to use a different system than before to interact with you
You are losing customers due to a poor online experience
Your customer journey on your website begins as soon as they click to enter it. If you are experiencing high bounce rates, this is a sure sign that your website is not providing a positive experience for users and is negatively affecting your brand.
If the user experience of your website isn’t optimized for mobile, the majority of users won’t stay on it. One study showed that 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will search for another site offering similar products or services. In addition to finding somewhere else to go, most of these visitors may also avoid recommending you to their peers, adding to negative PR.
If that wasn’t enough; if Google finds visitors leaving your website too quickly, it can end up penalising you in search rankings. So, even if users aren’t making purchases, how long they are on your site and how many pages they visit will still impact how well you show up in searches!
Your site is outdated
An outdated site can lead to higher bounce rates and lower rankings. If you aren’t sure of the state of your site, run it through a diagnosis.
Start with a manual diagnosis first. Ask yourself: Is the font size too small to read? Are the buttons responsive when clicked? Do images take too long to load?
Now, pull up an audit tool online, enter your URL and let the tool check if your website is good enough to compete in the current market.
A tool will also tell you whether or not your website is optimised for search engines by analysing the meta titles and descriptions, which are pieces of HTML code that dictate what appears in search results when someone searches for specific keywords related to your business.
The audit report will ultimately help you decide if your site is outdated and needs a complete redesign.
Your competitors are getting more traffic than you are
“Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” T. S. Eliot said that and it applies to almost everything. This doesn’t mean you should dump all your competitors’ ideas on your site. What it actually means is that you don’t have to do everything from scratch. You can take inspiration and build on the existing ideas.
To do that, you need to analyse your competitors’ online presence. Look at the features their site has that yours doesn’t. Does theirs include an e-commerce section? Does it have interactive tools for customers? Is it mobile-optimised? Are there customer testimonials on the home page that aren’t on yours?
Answering these questions will help you understand how your competition is attracting more customers than you are. And more importantly, you can use their websites as a benchmark for what your own should be doing in order to remain competitive and bring in new leads.
Your website isn’t optimised for mobile devices
If someone visits your website on a mobile device, and they can’t easily navigate around the site, then you are missing out on opportunities and losing money. Your business should be optimised for mobile devices for two reasons:
- Google favours sites with a mobile-first design. Mobile-first designs focus on improving the customer experience for smaller screens first, instead of starting from desktops and trying to fit it all into smaller screens. This means your website has one layout that’s optimised for all devices. You don’t need separate versions of your site based on screen size or device type.
- More than 50% of the searches are carried out on mobile devices. So, if your site isn’t catering to that segment, you are losing out on 50%+ in potential revenue.
The web is a rapidly evolving landscape. If you are still relying on the last design you knew was best, you are probably behind the times. As a rule of thumb, any site that’s more than 3 years old needs to be updated.
