Is your website looking a bit weary? Did you invest in a wonderful new website a few years back that was supposedly top of its class? Are you are starting to find that it is not quite up to scratch now? Do you constantly view funky or stylish websites and wonder what it would take to get yours up to speed? Perhaps you have noticed a dip in traffic, sales or your conversion rates are just not what they once were.
Making the decision to upgrade or overhaul your website is always difficult. Often there is a perception a large monetary investment is necessary, and the stress of never quite knowing whether the investment will make significant improvements to your business bottom line is common.
Here are a few tell-tale signs it is time to give your existing website some much needed attention.
Not responsive
If your website was built in the days when browsing was done predominantly on the desktop computer (which actually wasn’t that long ago!) and it doesn’t adjust seamlessly to different screen sizes then this is a dead giveaway you need to do some work. If users viewing your website on mobile or tablet devices are constantly swiping or pinching to view content effectively, not only is this annoying it is likely to put users off staying on or coming back to your site. What’s more, Google now penalises websites that do not have a mobile friendly version of their site with a decrease in search engine ranking. If you are aware of the massive shift in device usage it is probably no surprise to you that the majority of searches now happen on mobile rather than desktop computers. It’s time to get your website up to speed and responsive.
Search engines cannot find you
A few years ago there was a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality to website creation. In many cases this may have worked. But nowadays with changes to search engine algorithms and increasing online competition it takes a lot more to feature prominently in the search engine results. The good news is that this may not require a complete overhaul of your website. A combination of on page optimisation, ensuring that the structure and content of your website is search engine friendly, as well as off page optimisation through internet marketing should be sufficient to make significant strides in search engine performance. You don’t necessarily need to start from scratch.
It looks like it was built 10 years ago
Try to take an objective view of your website. Does it look bad? Or at least tired? Your website is a key component of your brand and can heavily influence how customers or prospects view your company. Quality web design is a key part of the success of any website. And quality web design doesn’t just mean a nice colour scheme. Aspects such as colours, images, navigation, text readability, testimonials, site loading speeds, conversion optimisation and much more all contribute to a top class web design. It might be that your site just needs a facelift. But then again it might also need a fresh start. The good news is that the prevalence of free and open source website CMS options nowadays means that website design is more flexible and cost effective than it once was. It might be just the right time to get started.