Your website is your best marketing tool. Apart from being your first chance at making a lasting impression on your potential clients, it’s also your company’s face to the world.
According to recent website design statistics, about 94% of first impressions about a business brand are web-related and 48% of people cited a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business.
If you’ve spent the time creating a top-notch website, it’s only right to keep it up-to-date so it doesn’t lose its value.
Think of your website as a house. A house looks flawless when it’s newly built. A few years later, it still looks appealing. But as years pass by, you’ll start noticing cracks or decay in certain parts of the house due to prolonged use. The decor will start to go out of style, and you might not love or need the same features you used to.
To make the house more habitable for you and inviting to your guests, you’d want to refresh things a bit by fixing anything that’s broken, and maybe a fresh coat of paint too!
You should treat your website the same way.
Important Note: If you’re doing a brand refresh or total rebrand, you’ll definitely need to update your website. This article is focused on when you’re not making any major changes to your business.
How to know it’s time to refresh your Website?
Generally, you’ll know it’s time for a website refresh the moment it starts underperforming. ‘Underperforming’ is a pretty vague thing to say, so here are 11 specific conditions to check out:
- High bounce rate
- Outdated and boring website design
- Low sales conversions
- Ineffective brand messaging
- Poor lead generation
- Inadequate traffic
- Slow website speed
- Poor search engine ranking
- Unresponsive website
- Vulnerability to security threats
- Change in focus or content strategy
Key areas to focus on
Design
A website that delivers a great visual experience can literally keep your visitors’ eyes glued to your website. The aesthetic value keeps them locked in from the very moment they land on your website till they’re able to find what they’re looking for.
Great visuals usually come with a lower bounce rate, and a massive increase in lead or sales conversion.
A website that looks like it hasn’t been updated since the Internet was invented won’t do your business any favours. A mediocre, uninspiring website that doesn’t paint a picture of your brand can push people away as much as an outdated website. People like to spend time in beautiful and functional spaces- digitally as well as physically.
If your website design is outdated, try some of these:
- Install a more responsive theme
- Refresh your colour scheme
- Switch to modern typography, and
- Update your website’s images.
Or best of all, grab a professional to help you with a redesign of your website!
Usability/UX
User Experience (or UX) is a measure of your website’s overall usability. It defines the totality of your visitors’ experience on your site. Obviously, this goes beyond your website’s outward looks. It includes how easy or hard your website is to use, how fast it is, and how accessible relevant information is.
Great user experience brings about more engagement, improved customer retention, and increased brand loyalty. It’s also an important SEO ranking factor with the May 2021 Google Algorithm update.
Quick fixes:
- Does your website have broken links? Replace them with the correct ones or check for any typos in the link URLs.
- Are there well-defined call-to-action buttons on all your pages? Make sure the instructions are clear so your visitors don’t end up getting confused.
- Is your site slow? Install plugins that compress your images, take care of page caching and minify your HTML.
Brand Messaging
Having the right brand messaging is super important in marketing. It helps you connect with your prospects on a much deeper level and makes them feel like they’re in the right place. When that happens, the likelihood of doing business with you increases.
It always helps when your messaging reflects your mission and vision statement. When crafting your brand messaging, make sure it mirrors your company’s value proposition and workplace culture.
If you start to notice a drop in your conversions, you may want to check if the language you’re using is consistent with your brand image. If not, it’s definitely time to craft some new copy that aligns with your current brand position. Copywriting is much harder than it looks, so consider hiring a professional copywriter for this one!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is one aspect that a lot of businesses often overlook while trying to refresh their websites. If you’ve put work into refreshing your website though, you should check on the SEO to make sure people can find it!
An SEO component of your website refresh might involve repurposing your old web content and focusing on new keywords.
If your website has fallen off from the first page to the second page, for example, you don’t need a crystal ball to tell you that your SEO needs some work.
When you’re working on your SEO, don’t forget to think broader than on-page SEO. Check out our blog on the latest Google Algorithm update and see what updates you might need to undertake.
Want a team of professionals to get your underperforming website into top shape? Get in touch today.