Among the countless responsibilities that come with keeping a business going, website maintenance may not always be one of your top priorities. But now that web design is a significant factor in how many consumers judge a company’s credibility, just simply having a website is no longer good enough.
When you first launched your website, it may have fit your business perfectly, but time catches up with everyone. Don’t worry, we’re not judging—it’s never too late to make the necessary adjustments! When you’re trying to gauge how much work would need to be done (or if you need to bring in the skills of a web design and development professional), check for these problematic features:
It’s visually unappealing.
Before visitors really get around to navigating your site, their immediate impression will be based on aesthetics. Things like color or font choices, the quality of images, and overall content organization can determine how seriously you’re taken as a company. It may be worth taking a look at your competitors to draw inspiration about industry trends and what you can offer in your own way.
There are major development flaws.
If a visitor to your site can’t easily access the information they’re looking for, you run the very real risk of losing them as customer. Your website should load fully and quickly, and have clear navigation. Also, all forms, buttons, hyperlinked text, etc. should be sending visitors the correct (active!) specified page. If your website seems glitchy, outdated coding, old/bad plugins, or spam/bugs could all be possible.
Search engines hate it.
Over the years, search engine algorithms have changed a lot. This means that your website's ranking may have changed a lot too. Keywords that once drove your website ranking could be hidden in old formatting or it just may be time to update the content of your website. You may need to do research on keywords that you could start develop content around to generate more qualified leads.
Mobile devices don’t get it.
87% of people browse the web from a mobile device, so you should make sure your website is updated to be responsive. At the very least, you should have a mobile site set up with a condensed version of your flagship website that shows off the main points of your business. Not only does Google favor sites that are mobile-friendly, this is a great move because you may see a general surge in organic traffic from people browsing on their smart phones and tablets.
It’s “anti-social.”
Social media and blogging are two of the most important elements to any online marketing strategy, so definitely get set up and active if you’re haven’t done so already. If you already have accounts set up on social media, prompt people to like/follow you by adding streams or linked icons, and include sharing buttons for blog posts and other content offerings. Connecting your page to these sites will help spread the word a little further about your business and the products or services you offer.
These points can be a great place to start point if you’re considering or planning to bring a custom web design professional in to handle your website redesign project. Going in knowing what’s not working will make it easier for you to give the designer an idea of what you’d like your website to look like and how you would like it to perform.
Hiring a professional web designer to update your website can greatly increase the chances that your website will stay fresh and attractive for longer. To learn more about what we can do to help your website, check out our Project Recovery service, as well as our other Custom Web Design and Custom Web Development services.
