In a recent survey Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab found that almost half (46.1 %) of people say a website’s design is the number one criterion for discerning credibility. So if your business’ website is out of date, customers are turning away from you because to them, your website says:
- You don’t care about how your business looks
- You are fine with being mediocre
- You do the bare minimum and nothing more
- You don’t spend money to improve your business
- You don’t care about your visitors
And this is usually translated into, “because this business doesn’t care, I can’t trust them to deliver quality products or service.” Since this isn’t the message you want to send, you might want to take some time to look over your website to see if it has any of the following qualities. If it does, it’s time to redesign your website.
1. It’s not mobile friendly
63 percent of adult Americans use their smartphone to go online, which means if your website is not built to be viewed by people on smartphones or tablets as well as their computer, you are missing out on a large group of potential customers. Make no mistake though, you can’t get away with a mobile device simply displaying your website. Your website needs to be user friendly to your mobile audience so if people have to pinch and zoom to navigate through your pages then you need to consider something more mobile friendly.
2. Your site needs a fresh look
In a humorous top ten list dedicated to the topic of how to tell if your site needs to be redesigned, Vieo Designs included, “The only thing more dated than the clip art on your site is the scrolling message that says, ‘Voted Best New Site on GeoCities 1999!’” While most businesses are that out of date, there are quite a few business websites that make you feel like you are travelling back in time when you visit them. If “retro” is how you would describe your website, it is time to embrace some of the more recent design trends.
3. Your technology is out of date
Does your site still have a Flash intro? Is content still delivered via PDF rather than a separate page? Is the HTML relying on tables instead of <div> elements? An answer of yes to any of these questions should clue you in to the fact that not only is your website outdated, but the technology that it runs on is also in need of a refresh. Updating these elements does more than just modernize your look; it also helps make your website more accessible and user-friendly which helps in the search engine results as well.
4. Posting new content is difficult
Google and the other search engines love fresh content,which is why blogs are so important to business websites. They provide an easy way for you to consistently post new content to your site and help bring in traffic and leads. However, if you have to download your blog page, add content and then re-upload the page then you’re doing it wrong. It’s definitely time for you to work a true blogging platform or other content management system into your website.
5. Your analytics tell you so
Your analytics can tell you much more than just where your traffic is coming from. If you look at the data and see that:
- Your traffic is down
- Your bounce rates are up
- You’re not effectively converting’
Then you should start looking at your website’s overall design to see what you need to change. Maybe its as simple as giving your website a makeover, but it also might be that you need to restructure the navigation and layout of the site.
If you do feel that you have neglected your website for far too long and its time to make some changes, do your homework first. Look into what some of the newer trends are and which ones are on their way out. Find out which technologies will help you achieve your goals and which ones may be too much for what you aim to accomplish. However, don’t feel as if you have to go it alone. If you don’t have the right people in your organization, call-in professionals to help get your site on par with the competition.