Does Your Website Need Attention?

Whether you’ve been recommended or they’ve received marketing communication directly from you, in today’s world most people will then visit your website to find out more about you.

If you haven’t touched your website in a while, if it’s not working as it should or visitors can’t easily find what they’re looking for then it could be time to consider a new website as you are likely to be losing valuable business opportunities and wasting your other marketing activities and budget.

To help you decide we’ve compiled a handy checklist of the 5 most common signs your website could do with some attention.

1. It looks out-dated

First impressions count and the internet is primarily a visual medium so if your site looks and feels like it was made in the 90s then it’s definitely time for a review.

There are some real giveaway clues as to the age of a website such as font styles, content layout and images. If your website is guilty of any of these then it’s telling website visitors that your business is out of touch and even more importantly it suggests you don’t care.

Take a look at your competitors’ site. If yours feels out of date in comparison, it’s a good sign that it’s time for a complete redesign. You owe it to your visitors and customers to catch up, stay current and rebuild your site so that it’s up-to-date, relevant and visually appealing.

2. It’s not mobile-friendly/responsive

A sure-fire way to make visitors think you’re behind the times and out of touch is to have a website that looks the same on a mobile or a tablet as it does on a PC desktop machine.

Today the majority of people are searching for products, services and businesses using their phones or other mobile devices so if your site doesn’t work on mobile, they’ll just go to a competitor site.

And that’s if they can even find your website in the first place as Google now penalises websites that aren’t mobile-friendly.

If you’re not sure if your site is mobile-friendly the best way to find out is to visit to your website using your phone. If you have to use zoom to be able to read the text or tap on call-to-action buttons, then you don’t have a mobile-friendly site.

Whilst it’s not impossible to make an existing website responsive it can only ever be a temporary fix as it’s not just about actual technicalities of coding, it’s very much about the design as well. In all honesty trying to make an existing website mobile friendly would just be a waste of your valuable marketing budget, you’ll get a much better return on your investment on biting the bullet and going for a fully responsive website.

3. It doesn’t offer a great user experience

The human brain has an average attention span of approximately 8 seconds. This means that once a visitor lands on your site you have up to eight seconds to capture their attention. If your website is difficult to navigate and users can’t quickly find whatever it is they are looking for, they’ll leave.

If they’re not able to quickly find the information they need, they’ll return to the search engine results page and go to a competitor site instead. Not only does this mean a loss of potential business but it can also produce a high bounce rate which then has a negative impact on your search engine ranking.

So if you want a successful website, you need to ensure your visitors have a good experience when they visit your site so they need to be able to find what they need easily, and even better if they actually enjoy spending time on your site then they are more likely to spend more time on it which increases the chances of an enquiry or sale.

Not only that as your business grows, so does your website which can often mean you add more pages as well as change, move, and delete others. If you’re not careful and don’t do proper URL redirections then eventually your site will have more broken pages than actual working pages and broken links are a real negative for user experience. You risk losing prospects, they damage your reputation and impact your revenue, and they can also harm your rankings in the search results.

You can of course make changes to your existing site but if there are too many it’s often much better to consider a redesign with user experience as a priority.

4.  Your site doesn’t appear in the search results

It’s a given that the vast majority of people will use Google to search for your business. If you don’t appear on the first or second page of the search results then you’re unlikely to get any enquiries, which is a real problem.

The way search engines now rank websites has changed dramatically. You can no longer just rely on great content and relevant keywords because there’s a lot more goes into how search engines find your website and where you rank in the search results.

If your site isn’t appearing in the first few pages, it could be because it doesn’t adhere to web standards or it’s not mobile-friendly, or that it's slow or it just isn’t built in a way that enables search engines to read the content and rank your website.

So if you’re doing everything possible to boost your search engine ranking and it’s just not working it could be time to consider a new website built to specifically optimise your position in search engine results.

5. It takes too long to load

Research shows that nearly half of all website visitors expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less and over 2/3 will give up on a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. So whether you’re launching a new product or service, showcasing a special offer or offering a useful guide for download, those few seconds are crucial.

If your website doesn’t load quickly enough you run a high risk of losing visitors. Worse still, Google penalises websites that take too long to load so a slow website can also make it harder for people to find your business in the search engine results pages.

You’re unlikely to be able to make any real improvement on the page load speed of an older website so if you notice a decline in your website traffic and an increase in your bounce rate then it could be time to consider a new website for your business.

So if you think your website suffers from any of the issues we’ve highlighted here why not get in touch with us on 01635 278388 or email joanne@designeclectic.com. We’ve been designing and building websites for nearly 20 years and have a well-established team of designers and programmers who really know their stuff. Not only that we’re confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly and cost-effectively we can design and build a bespoke, new website to get you back on track.