Does Your Website Need an Update?
In some ways, websites are like writing stories: everyone thinks they can create one. And many people can, especially with the web development tools out there today. You can go and create a free website right now.
But will it look decent? Will it represent your business adequately? Will it compete with your competitors on Google and other search engines? Will it load quickly, look nice, and generally communicate what you want it to, without words?
No, it more than likely won’t.
We are advocates for professional design because it’s not just a business card, it’s the face of your business. If you’re a contractor you wouldn’t be driving a dirty beat up truck to bid appointments at the homes of potential clients, because it reflects on your work. If you have a storefront you would make sure it’s tidy, because it says something about the way you’ll do business.
It’s the same with your website, and this is almost always the first place potential customers will interact with your business. Once you lose a customer on first look, it’s very hard to get them back.
So, let’s take a look at the qualities of good websites, and ask yourself if your site has them.
Are The Search Engines Working For You?
The first step in getting potential customers to come to your website, is to allow them to find your website. We call this SEO, or search engine optimization. There are literally hundreds of factors that go into how a search engine like Google ranks pages, all of them secret, but we have an idea by reverse engineering them from the backend allowing us to put your site above the competitors.
Lots of things go into these calculations, but it’s what we’re trained to do and practice daily, almost more of an art than a science. If you haven’t been doing this for years as we have, you’re likely missing out on hundreds if not thousands of customers.
Does Your Website Look Modern?
The second factor in your success is how your website looks at first glance. Is it using design principles from a decade ago? Customers can tell. They might not be able to explain why, but people know when websites look old. And in the digital age you never, ever want to look old.
Is It Easy To Navigate?
Can potential customers find what they’re looking for? Most people will only visit restaurant websites, for example, for two things: opening hours and the menu. Is the menu easy to read? Is it up to date? Do you have a poor quality PDF that needs to be opened? Once potential customers get through this jungle they’ll likely just go elsewhere.
Was It Professionally Designed?
In this case, we mean the visual look of the site. Are design principles followed, or is the design haphazard? Again, this is a sub-psychological thing, but certain design choices will turn your customers on and nudge them toward buying, and bad design choices will do the opposite. Especially now with the mobile first design approach.
Do You Have Good Content?
Is your content professional? Are there spelling mistakes? Do people see your site as a place of authority, or does it look sloppy? Is your content helping or hurting conversions?
Is Your Website Being Updated Regularly?
Google doesn’t want to rank pages that are years old. As long as your site is regularly updated— we’re talking routing maintenance and updates, adding new information or refreshing old content— Google will keep you high in the queue.
One great way to make sure Google sees your site is up to date, is by keeping a blog regularly updated. A blog is a bit of a double edged sword, because you must keep it updated regularly, but we can of course do this all for you, like clockwork.
Is Your Site Mobile Friendly?
This one is obvious: Does it look good on people’s phones? If it doesn’t you definitely need an update as most people are using the internet through their phones these days.
Does it Load Quickly?
Does it take forever to load images, videos, graphics, new pages? We can fix this. Sometimes this can be as simple as compressing images, removing animations, and/or deactivating unused plugins; however sometimes the issue can be much deeper and caused by the theme of your website itself, in that case you will need to redesign your website using a more optimized theme. This can be a typical issue when using a free theme, free themes also tend to be less secure and developers provide less support.
Think You Might Need an Update?
Frankly, if you think you think you might need an update you probably do. In that case, give us a call and we can make you a brand new website— or update your existing one— to solve all of the problems mentioned above. We work everywhere in the English speaking world, and are based in the Eastern Time Zone.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you. Contact us today!