Your business’s website is arguably the most important tool for reaching and converting potential customers. In today’s technology-driven world, your website should be as accessible and easy to navigate as your bricks and mortar store – which is why a website redesign project should be one of the first things on you checklist if you’re running an outdated website.
If you’re not pouring your energy into an intuitive website design, you’re already behind the curve. It’s likely your competition is optimizing already. Are you in the market for a website redesign? If you’re lacking one of these elements, your business needs a web overhaul.
Responsive Design
You’ve probably heard the term “responsive design” bandied about, but what does it mean? Simply, it maintains that your website should respond easily to different platforms. In other words, your website should be as easy to navigate on a mobile device as it is on a desktop. If you aren’t sure whether that is the case for your website, schedule a meeting with a good web designer. Having a responsive website is probably the single most important aspect of its design.
Continual Updates
Think back: When was the last time you updated your website? If you’re still straining to think of the answer, then it’s been too long. If you haven’t updated your site because you just don’t know how to, it’s time for an overhaul. A competent web designer can install a CMS (content management system), so keeping your site updated will be a breeze. Remember, updated website content keeps your visitors coming back, increasing your chances for a conversion.
Quick Load Times
As a species, humans have a short attention span to begin with, and the internet has made it worse. In these days of instant gratification, we’re not likely to sit around waiting for a sluggish page to load. What constitutes a good load time? According to most web developers, around five seconds. If your page takes much longer than that to load, it’s time to optimize your site. A faster load time also ensures your visitors aren’t using as much data to visit your site, which is ideal given mobile data constraints.
Access to Analytics
Do you have a way to measure your website’s efficacy? If not, Google Analytics is free and can provide you with some valuable insight about your website’s weak points. You may need a website redesign if your analytics tool brings up these red flags:
• Visitors don’t navigate past your home page. If people don’t stay on your site, it could be because (1) your homepage is boring or (2) your website isn’t easy to navigate. A redesign can help make your page more enticing, as well as give people a reason to stay.
• Your visitor’s log is trending downward over time. If you’re slowly losing customers, gaining them back could be as easy as updating your content. Search engine queries reward sites that update continually, making your business easier to find.
Alignment With Your Current Business Focus
As your business evolves, so does its needs. Your website should be scalable; in other words, it should be easy to add onto or remove your existing content as your company evolves. If you want your business to survive (and thrive!), adapt your content strategy to match the pace of today’s technology. Cloud technology, reviews, social media tickers, widgets – you should be using all of these. If you’ve fallen behind the technology curve, now is the time to update.
Optimized For Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization has become a commonplace term for business owners. If you’re among the uninitiated, SEO is one of the most important tools in your website’s toolbox. Search engines such as Google and Bing favor websites with content that update often, are coded properly, and that aren’t too image-heavy. You can control certain aspects of this yourself, like churning out good content (like a blog) and easing up on the amount of images you run. However, coding requires the help of a web designer. Optimizing your website will signal search engine algorithms to rank you higher, driving more traffic to your site.
A Recent Copyright Footer
When did you design your website? If it’s before 2012, consider revamping your entire design. Not only has tech changed in those years, it may signal laziness to your site visitors. Would you like to work with vendors who seem disinterested in what they do? If your copyright is too old, it signals to visitors you’re not consciously updating your website’s design, which could communicate a sense of indifference. You love and care about the success of your company, so convey that enthusiasm to the world.
Your website is the virtual face of your company, and in today’s optimized world, it’s likely what most people see before they ever see your doors. If you can’t confidently say your website has each of these elements, it’s time to consider a redesign.
