When you’re running a business, it’s not good just creating a website and leaving it. Your website is almost like your store front in the digital age; it is your most important marketing channel, it is a modern-day company brochure, a brand guardian and an appreciating asset which means that the more you invest, the more you get back.
It is up to Google’s algorithm where your website is shown in relation to your competitors on the Search Engine Results Page, and as Google attracts nearly 70% of all internet searches, then it’s important to find out what it is that will make your website a success and what you need to avoid. If your website is old and you haven’t updated it for a while, then perhaps you should have a look at this list to see if it’s time you invested in a new website.
You can’t find your website
If you search on google for your business and your website doesn’t come up, then it’s not a good sign. Ideally, you want to appear several times on the first results page of Google when you type in your company’s name, so if your site isn’t appearing, then it’s time for a new website.
It takes ages to load
If your website takes a long time to load, then users will become very frustrated, and probably go elsewhere. You might not actually know about this problem either because your computer helpfully caches sites you visit regularly meaning that it will load up quickly for you. Google penalises sites with poor page speed and the slower the site, the harsher the penalty, so make sure you check yours from other computers, and if it’s slow, then it’s time for a new site.
Your visitors can’t find what they want
Websites that don’t get to the point and show what they offer straight away can be very confusing. The best websites are the ones with a distinct purpose and the ones where the visitors just know exactly what to do and where to go to get the information they want. Users want to have the fewest clicks possible to get to the essential content. Try using UX research platform, Userzoom to find out exactly what the user experience on your website is like and what you can do to improve it.
You can’t update it yourself
If you can’t update your website yourself and have to contact a website developer every time you want to add a blog or update a page, then it’s definitely time to get a new site. Google rewards websites that are updated regularly, so you need to be able to do this yourself to make it the best possible site with up to date information, but also to make your site visible to potential customers and visitors.
It’s not optimized for mobile
People are using their smartphones and tablets just as much, if not more, than they do their laptops and PCs so your site needs to be optimized for mobile which means it has to function just as well on a mobile phone as it does on a PC. If your website doesn’t work on mobile, you will be penalized by the search engines and given lower visibility compared to other websites that are compatible.
Is it time for a new website? There are plenty of free templates and user-friendly options available to create a chic, sleek or modern website to meet your business needs.
