Michael Epps Utley {kind=image/jpg}
When was the last time you refreshed your business website?
If it’s more than three years since your last refresh (or you can’t remember), it’s probably time to give your site another look.
This checklist reveals nine signs your website could be due for an update and the best approaches for keeping it fresh and SEO-friendly.
How Often Do You Need to Update a Business Website?
Most businesses regularly make small changes to their websites, such as adding or changing products or services or publishing a new blog post. But keeping a website fresh is more than just posting new content or tweaking what’s already there. Design trends change relatively quickly. You must also consider how social media evolutions impact your site and how search engine algorithms assess it. Additionally, different platforms (like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace) often update their features, many of which are worth understanding and leveraging.
For more extensive overhauls like these, three years is a good benchmark for evaluating whether you should redesign your digital properties. Of course, many businesses will need to update their sites more frequently than this, based on more urgent issues, like negative feedback from visitors or declining search rankings. It’s critical to monitor older websites and take action when issues arise.
Nine Signs You Need to Upgrade Your Website
Here are things to watch for that point to an immediate need to refresh your business website.
1. Falling Search Engine Rankings
In today’s digital world, your business must be visible online. Ideally, you want to be in one of the top three positions of organic search results (because most searchers don’t look further).
Every aspect of your current site impacts its search engine ranking, including the quality of the content (based on E-E-A-T standards), time to load pages (page speed), and ease of navigation (user experience). Staying current with SEO trends and adjusting your site accordingly is essential to maintaining a top position on search engine results pages (SERPS).
2. It Feels Dated
People today are design-savvy. Websites must look good and reflect current design trends to encourage prospective customers to engage with them. That said, website trends change rapidly, and what was cutting-edge two years ago may seem dated today. Offering an old-fashioned digital experience could negatively impact your brand, signaling that it, like your site, is out of touch.
3. Your Website Isn’t Mobile-First
Many businesses have tweaked their websites to make them accessible by mobile devices. After all, most people today do their surfing via their smart devices.
If your site isn’t entirely mobile-friendly, most users will leave and move on to a competitor that delivers a better mobile phone or tablet experience. Google’s algorithm also prioritizes how your website performs on mobile devices, so having a mobile-first site is critical to earning and maintaining a top Google ranking.
4. It Takes too Long to Load
Lighting-fast internet speeds have made people impatient online. A slow website is a sure way to drive visitors away. Factors that impact website loading times include:
The hosting provider
File size and compression
Broken links and too many redirects
Unused or unoptimized code
Investing in a fast and responsive website will pay for itself, making it more user-friendly and accessible, resulting in additional leads and conversions.
5. Your Site Isn’t as Good as Your Competitors’
Even if you don’t care about keeping up with digital design trends, most of your competitors do. If their websites are more attractive and have a better user experience than yours, buyers are more likely to do business with them.
Visit competitor websites regularly to see how yours compares. If yours is falling behind in design, performance, or features, consider a redesign.
6. Your Website Isn’t Fully Secure
Everybody knows online hacks can be devastating. That’s why online security has become a significant consumer concern. This is why Google prioritizes security. Your site should have an SSL certificate, at the very least, to protect user data. If you use a content management system, install updates to prevent security issues that hackers can exploit.
7. Your Site Uses Outdated Tech
Using Flash or other obsolete technologies on your website will negatively impact your search ranking, limiting the business you generate through it. Unsupported plug-ins slow down your website and deliver a poor experience to all visitors, especially those on mobile. They also make your site seem old, giving visitors a negative perception of it and your brand.
8. You Can’t Easily Add New Content
Regularly creating and posting high-quality content is foundational to inbound digital marketing and sound SEO. However, adding content may not always be easy, especially if the site is custom-coded or built on an antiquated platform. If you can’t update and add content quickly and easily, it’s time to build a new site on a modern platform.
9. Low Conversions
Is your website generating the business you expect it to? If not — or if conversion rates are falling — it might be time to rethink your digital experience. Poorly designed landing pages, hard-to-find forms, and poor calls to action can all negatively impact your conversion rates, making it worth investing in a new website that incorporates conversion best practices.
Is it Time for a Website Redesign?
If your website exhibits any of the nine issues outlined in this piece, it could be worth updating. Today’s online consumers are smart; any negative digital experience will turn them off and send them to your more digital-savvy competitors. Don’t get left behind — stay ahead of the curve by adopting modern web design trends, from looks to performance.
