Nowadays, having the best branding and the top staff isn’t enough. Businesses who don’t have a strong online presence face a very real risk of falling behind the competition.
Not only does your site need to properly represent your business and what you do, but it needs to be simple and easy to use for your customers.
If your current site isn’t up to scratch, customers will close that tab as soon as they open it.
While there are some steps you can take to touch up your existing sites such as new images and colours, at some point every business is going to have to take the plunge and have a complete redesign.
So here are your five signs that your website is in need of an overhaul!
It can’t be viewed on mobiles
It had been coming for some time, and last year the smartphone officially overtook the desktop PC to become the most popular device to access the internet according to this article from The Guardian, with tablets not far behind.
This means that if you haven’t already, you NEED a mobile friendly website. If you only have a standard desktop site, your customers will have to constantly scroll across the page to find the information they need, and worse yet the site might crash completely.
This doesn’t mean you need two entirely different sites, though; you just need to get set up with a responsive site.
A responsive site is one which will automatically resize and reconfigure the content so that it appears proportionally on whatever device it’s being viewed on.
For more information on responsive web design and how to use it properly, check out this post from West Yorkshire based experts, Identify Web Design.
Google also has a ‘mobile-friendly test’, which you can try out here just by entering your site’s URL.
Low sales/conversion
When it comes down to it, your website has the same aim as the other aspect of your business, driving sales.
If your site isn’t bringing in a good amount of extra business, what’s the point in having one?
While it may seem a bit trivial, the overall aesthetic feel of your site is massively important as it’s the first thing your customer will see.
If you make an unprofessional first impression with your site, customers will instantly make a judgement (rightly or wrongly) and may choose to go to one of your competitors!
Even if your site isn’t directly selling to your customers, you need to keep an eye on your conversion rate!
Take a look at how your business is doing compared to when you started your site. Have you noticed any significant changes in sales?
If things have stagnated or even declined, it may be time to bite the bullet and think about a redesign.
Doesn’t represent you or your business
Just like any other form of branding, your site should represent your business and what your core values are.
On a more basic level, the site needs to show the full range of your products and services.
Even getting the basics right like making sure you have your entire product range online, and making sure you remove any outdated products or services.
If people see an outdated website, they may instantly jump to conclusions that you’re no longer in business, or that you just don’t really care about your online presence that much.
Most simple WordPress sites are easy enough to manage yourself, so there’re no excuses!
You can’t update it yourself
This in itself is a major issue! If you’ve spend loads of money on having a top website made, only to find you can’t do anything with it without expert help, it is not much use to you.
Fresh content is key to your online presence, and if you can’t get to your site to update it, you’re in trouble.
Having a company blog discussing your latest news, product and services, as well as more general industry stuff is great for your SEO, as well as establishing your business as an authority figure among your customers.
As we said, content management software such as WordPress is extremely easy to use and gives you so much more control over your site.
It’s too hard to use
Customers are used to being able to get to whatever they want to know or buy in the fewest clicks possible.
Try and get into the mindset of your customers, and think what their browsing experience will be like.
Will the site explain everything they need to know? Try and think of any common questions that your customers come to you with, and make that information easily accessible on your site.
As technology advances at a rapid pace, it’s becoming more and more difficult to keep up on all fronts, but your website should really be one of your main priorities, otherwise you may risk falling behind your competition.