Eleven Signs That Your Company Needs a New Website
Like the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make an impression. Chances are, the first impression that people have of you or your business will be through your website. In the early days of the internet, you were ahead of the game as a company if you simply had a website. Today, your company doesn’t just need a website: it needs a well-designed, easy to navigate, engaging website that meets the needs of your customers and your business alike.
Studies show that 75 percent of people will judge the credibility of a business based upon the design of its website. Credibility translates to how likely people are to make a purchase, and means that you are losing customers if your site has a poor design. You want to ensure that your website conveys that you are a legitimate, trustworthy business, which is often determined by the quality of the web design and the content within it.
So in no particular order, the 11 signs your company needs a new website are as follows:
- Your website has remained unchanged for more than 3 years. The general rule of thumb is to redesign/refresh your website every 2-3 years, while still making content updates regularly. Remaining current with the latest trends in web design will ensure your clients or customers have a great experience when using your site. If visitors are impressed with your website, they will likely inform others about it.
- Your competition has a better site than yours. It’s only natural to judge the business by their website, and as stated before, first impressions matter. So if your competition has an eye-catching, more informative, more efficient website than yours, most viewers are going to be more attracted to it. If you think you have the edge on your competitor as a business, why not carry that over with a better website!
- Your website is painfully slow. Nearly half of all visitors will leave a website that does not load in three seconds. Every second your site doesn’t load you will lose a portion of your audience. It’s not just aggravating, it can be financially costly. It would be more expensive to lose your sales than to simply upgrade your speed with your hosting company.
- Your website is not responsive. Responsive design is a must. The number of mobile-only internet users now exceeds desktop-only. So if your website does not load nicely on smaller devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, you’re likely to lose traffic. No one wants to view a desktop-only site on a phone, where the content is so small, you have to pan, scan, and zoom to navigate it.
- Your website isn’t search engine optimized (SEO). The reason you’re online is so your customers can find you. Accessing your site is how your customers will find crucial information about your business, determine how to contact you, and potentially purchase your products/services. If you’re getting buried under your competition in search results, you need to do something about it. Once your site is optimized for search engines, you will see results immediately.
- Your website doesn’t link to your social media accounts. Having a social presence online is crucial. If you aren’t sharing those accounts with your target audience on your main channel, your website, then how will they find you? Social media is a great way to build relationships and keep in touch with your customers, as well as promote your business. It’s as simple as including the social links in the header or footer of your site or share buttons on pages and posts. This way, your customers know exactly where to find you and can engage with your updates.
- You can’t update content. The inability to control what’s on your site makes it impossible to stay current and provide your users with the most up-to-date information about your company. That is, unless you’re paying someone to actively do it for you. The lack of current information will not only make your site look dated, it can also hurt your business. Enlisting the help of a good content management system when you redesign your site puts the power back into your hands. Using a CMS like WordPress, for instance, will allow you to make updates to your site as you need to.
- You Have a Flash animation and/or “Enter Site” Intro. Flash animations are a thing of the past. They also don’t display on iPhones and iPads, so a lot of people are going to miss this content regardless. Watching an intro takes up your users’ time and deters people from the site. There’s no benefit to having an introduction to your site and most visitors will just click the skip button anyway. Also, Google may issue a warning to visitors that Flash is not supported on their device and encourage them not to visit the site. Most visitors will simply not bother attempting.
- Your site is tiny. If your site is only 800 pixels wide and you’re using 12 point type, your site missed the memo. Most desktop users keep their browsers wide enough that you shouldn’t feel forced to cram everything into one narrow area and scroll for days. There’s plenty of real estate to work with, so space your content out and give it some breathing room. Tiny websites look dated, and your users shouldn’t have to use a magnifying glass to access valuable content from your site.
- Your website is a single landing page. This does not pertain to the trendy “one page” scrolling parallax homepage that mimics a multi-page site, but rather a basic page with a logo, a picture or two, and the most basic of content. Getting your site optimized for SEO starts with a multi-leveled site that helps better organize your company information. It will also provide you with a greater presence in search results which is what a website is really about these days.
- Your website autoplays music or video. Not as common these days, but visitors find that quite annoying. I almost always leave a site immediately if it’s playing music because it’s startling or I can’t press the mute key fast enough. Visitors like to choose what content they engage with, and it shouldn’t be forced upon them.
Does your website fall under any of the categories above? If so, it’s likely time to consider a new website and the value it can bring to your company. The internet has created so many opportunities for consumers and businesses to reach each other, but without a good website, there’s no common meeting ground to get the conversation started. So whenever you’re ready to take the next step, contact us – we’re here to help!
