Websites, like most of the things in our lives (phones, computers, interior design, buildings, plumbing, electrical work, etc.), sometimes need to be updated with a fresh coat of paint or possibly an entire overhaul of their current design.
This maintenance is just part of having a website. It doesn’t mean that your original site was poorly developed or designed. It could be as simple as a big change in technology that is making your website slow or feel like it is technologically behind. It could also just be a shift in the way that consumers are preferring websites to be designed. An outdated or poorly designed website will lead to a decrease in overall sales and a lot of frustration overall whether that be from your clients/customers, employees, shareholders/owners of your business, etc.
Below are five signs to be on the lookout for that may indicate that your business’s website could use a little updating.
1. Your Website Is Not Mobile Friendly
In today’s world, so much of our shopping and decision making is done on our mobile devices that it can be absolutely devastating to your business’s potential to not have a website that runs smoothly and looks really nice on a small screen. In fact, Statista reported that around 55% of total web traffic in 2021 was mobile!
Having a mobile-friendly website can boost your sales and your reach a lot more than you might expect!
Think about the following scenario.
Let’s say that you are with a group of people chatting about something. One of them mentions a product that they recently purchased or a service that they signed up for last week. Your nearly instantaneous reaction would probably be to reach for your phone and start researching whatever it is they are talking about, right?
So, what are the potential outcomes?
One – you have an awesome website that transitions perfectly to the mobile web. This now potential customer is impressed with your company and has a great first impression of the work that you do or the products that you create. Their interest has been piqued. Heck, they might even place an order or fill out a contact form right then and there! If not, it’s at least now saved in their open tabs on their phone, and they’ll be sure to revisit your site later on. This can only happen if you have a great mobile website though!
Two – your website is either non existent or not even accessible via a mobile browser. This means that your potential lead now has to remember the conversation that they had with this other person once they are in front of a desktop browser. The chances that they remember to research your company or even have the desire to now that it’s been so long are getting really slim. This may have just cost you a sale!
Three – your website opens up on a mobile web browser, but it’s not optimized for this view. It might look great on a desktop browser, but when it’s mobile it becomes clunky, not as pretty, and doesn’t function like it would on a computer. This is perhaps the worst potential outcome, because the first impression that you’ve now made on this person is a terrible one! You could have had a great first impression or at least no first impression at all – instead, you’ve now lost the sale within minutes of this person hearing about your company.
Mobile-friendly websites are very worth the extra investment – I promise!
2. Your Website Design Is Outdated
This one might be a little bit more difficult to verify on your own. Maybe you really love the way your website is designed, whether it’s outdated or not. It might be beneficial to consult with someone who works in the industry to get an unbiased opinion of your current website’s design.
Even without a professional, though, you can definitely still check this out for yourself. If you think that your website is starting to show its age a little bit, then it probably is! Might be time for that update!
Another thing you can do is just start looking around on the internet. There are millions of other websites out there to get ideas from. Poke around on some and try to see if their sites look more modern than yours. A classic design doesn’t always need to be changed as long as it is done right, but keeping your website design on top of new trends or new lead-to-sale conversion tactics can be extremely beneficial!
3. Your Website Load Time Is Slow
If you notice that your website is loading very slowly or lagging across multiple devices and multiple internet providers, something is probably wrong and should definitely be checked out!
Websites should run smoothly and without any hiccups to provide the best possible experience to your potential customers. Fast loading times can keep potential customers on the page and clicking through, while slow loading times often cause them to bounce when they get impatient!
A slow website doesn’t always mean that you need to throw in the towel on the current site and start completely over. There could be an issue with some behind-the-scenes stuff like your actual website code or the server that you are on.
If you know a thing or two about these kinds of things, then take a look there first. Maybe you just need to move to a new server! If you don’t have the expertise for this, it never hurts to bring this up to a professional. You can even check your site speed on a free tool like PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to see if you can figure out the problem.
Now, if it’s not a simple error like this, then it could very well be time for you to build out a new, modern website that takes advantage of new technologies that might have come out since you created your original site.
4. You Aren’t Happy With Your Website Traffic or SEO Results
A great indicator of the need for a new website is the traffic (or rather, lack of traffic) that you’re getting on your site or your SEO results (to learn more about SEO, check out this article).
Now, just because you aren’t getting a million visitors to your website each month, don’t instantly jump to the conclusion that it’s because your website isn’t designed well. That’s not always going to be the case. There could be many factors contributing to a decrease in traffic or to never having the traffic in the first place.
This is just a suggestion for you to consider. It might not fix everything, but if people aren’t visiting your site, before you start diving into potentially deeper issues, take a look at your website design. Run it by a web developer. Look into the possibility that you might see better results if you were to update your site.
This is another great place to start if your website is not ranking on search engines for the keywords that you had hoped that it would be. Again, check in with a web developer to see if there might be just a few updates you could make to your site (or starting over with a new site) that could increase your SEO results.
5. Your Competitors Have a Better Business Website Than You Do
Finally – I highly suggest that you take a look at your competitors. Nobody knows your industry like you do! Go check out all of your biggest competitors’ websites and see what they’re doing.
Websites play a huge part in the final decision that a consumer makes. If you’re looking at all of your competitors’ websites, and they all look way better than yours, it would probably be a really good idea (if you want to stay competitive at least) to give your website a much needed makeover.
To win business, you need to be the best of the best, and your website is generally the first impression that a client/customer gets from your business. If they’re looking at five different competitors, and your website looks and runs like it was from 1992, they’ll probably be inclined to pick one of your competitors without even getting to know you and your team or how great your product/service really is.
It’s terrible to lose these sales, especially when you probably would have won over the customer if they had just gotten to know you a little bit. Unfortunately, in our day, we don’t have that luxury. People make rapid decisions sometimes based purely on the way your website looks or feels.
Make it count!
Need a New Business Website?
If you notice any of these signs on your current website, I highly recommend that you at least consider updating your site. It will be key to the success of your company!
If you need any help whatsoever with this, please reach out to our team. We have a team of top-notch web designers and developers who would love to help you keep growing your business with a brand-new business website design!
