Your website is often the first point of contact between you and your potential patrons, so keeping your website updated and in line with current online best practices is imperative to its digital success. Can you remember when last your website was updated? If you can’t, it might be time to upgrade to a new one!
Your Website Looks Outdated
Granted, that is a rather extreme case of an outdated website, but even new-looking websites could be hopelessly outdated in terms of backend functionality and on-site link structuring.
The rule of thumb here is to redesign your website every 2-3 years, depending on the volume of competitors in your industry. By staying up to date with current design and usability trends, you create a better experience for your website visitors – increasing the chances of them returning.
Your Website Loads Slowly
Answer this honestly: How long will you wait for a website to fully load up? Three seconds? Maybe five? Here’s a scary statistic: If your website takes longer than four seconds to load, you stand to lose a third of your visitors. So, if your site is loading slowly, take a look at your total pageview statistics. You could be tripling that number simply by speeding up your website.
Here’s another scary fact: Google takes into account your website’s loading speed when ranking it. So, you’ll fall further down the search results page if your website is too slow for Google’s liking.
There is No Search Engine Optimisation
Writing a few paragraphs of content once in a while is great for keeping the content side of your website fresh, but it’s about as useful as a scarf in a heatwave if the content isn’t optimised for search engines.
Content optimisation requires strategic keyword and key phrase planning and is usually done by a professional content writer skilled in the art of optimising website content for the online platform. Well written, original, search engine optimised content can improve your website’s ranking – making it easier for your future clients to find your business!
There Are No Social Media Links
Are you active on social media? If your website doesn’t feature links through to your social media profiles, you could be losing valuable business. Think about your website as a central hub to the wheel that is your online presence, and your avenues of promotion (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter) as spokes. If they are disconnected from the hub, the wheel won’t work as well as it should.
Many clients will prefer to make contact with you via social media instead of calling or emailing, so promoting the social media platforms you utilise on your website gives potential and existing clients more ways to communicate with you and your business.
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