Do you love your website?

You definitely need a website that can effectively promote your work and help you grow more with more clients. If not then what’s the point to keep the website that doesn’t help your business grow?

Social media nowadays is changing the way we communicate and the way we are perceived, both positively and negatively. Every time you share something or update something, you are contributing to your own digital footprint. It simply means the web is the best and most cost-effective way on which you can advertise your business.

That’s why It’s not enough to just have a website. It needs to look good, it needs to present information clearly. As the first impression is the last impression. Your website is the first place your customers will go and learn about your business or services. So keeping it up to date is one of the most important decisions you can take.

Here are some major reasons why you should think about updating your website. Also, keep in mind, it’s not about having a website, it’s about having the right website.

• You still have an outdated theme and technology

  As we mentioned earlier, the first impression is the last impression, this outdated theme and technology affect so badly on your customers’ experience on your website. “Old is gold” doesn’t apply here. Considering that the digital world is constantly evolving, your potential customers’ tastes shift even faster. If you want your business to succeed, you need to be agile with your visual presentation and website design. If you’ve built your site over 3-4 years ago, probably it’s far behind in terms of looks and functionality. Possibly it has outdated code that might not be compatible with some of the latest browsers.

• It doesn’t reflect your brand

  Your website promotes your business 24x7 in the online world. And 81% of customers conduct research online before making a major purchase, which typically begins on a search engine or even social media. This is why you need to ask yourself a question - Is your website an accurate reflection of your brand identity? If not, it really should be. Here when we talk about reflecting your brand, we’re not only talking about your brand’s logo and tagline, it actually means saying the right thing. It means your website should reflect your brand’s values, tone, style, photography, etc.

• You’re not attracting right clients

  If you’re not getting inquiries from the type of clients/customers you want then you’re not positioning yourself correctly on the market. For instance, check the services you provide is shown on your website, and remove the type of services you don’t provide. In fact, show your best/recent work and you can include them on the homepage of your website too! Make sure all your content is consistent, including colors, fonts, icons.

• It’s not Responsive and Mobile friendly

  Today, if you still don’t have a mobile-friendly website, then you really need to throw it away. According to one study, over half of all website traffic (52.2%) was mobile-generated globally. Even if you have a separate mobile app, your website still needs to adapt to mobile screens; otherwise, you are losing potential customers. Since old technology didn’t allow for mobile optimization, old sites may be displayed incorrectly on mobile devices.

  Day by day, the number of devices, platforms, and browsers that need to work with your site grows. Responsive web design represents a fundamental shift in how we’ll build websites for the decade to come.Jeffrey Veen

• Your site takes too much time to load

  Your website’s loading time is a major factor in people either staying or leaving the site and never returning. Aim for a loading time under 5 seconds. If you’re not sure how quickly your site loads, use tools like GTmetrix, Google’s PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom and find out how long your site takes to load. If your score is not up to par, then you need to rethink those elements of your website slowing it down. Images and the size of images can often be a factor.

• Is your bounce rate not favorable?

  The bounce rate is the percentage of people who arrive on your site and leave without visiting a second page. A high bounce rate is an obvious sign of an outdated or poorly performing site. Website users usually leave a site hurriedly without visiting other pages simply because they don’t find what they are looking for instantly or do not like the look of it! On average, a bounce rate between 40-60% is considered to be OK (depending on your industry). You can check your bounce rate via Google Analytics. You can follow certain steps to reduce the bounce rate. If it also doesn’t help, it’s time for a website redesign, and we do suggest seeking some expert advice for UI/UX.

• Your SEO is not so impressive

  When should you update your website’s SEO settings? Major changes to Google’s search engine algorithms happen approximately every half a year, so you can start with tracking those. But smaller changes to Google’s algorithms can happen at any time. Changes in search algorithms can affect your website’s ranking in search results, so it’s important to refresh your website regularly if you want to rank higher than your competitors. Every time you make an update to your site, Google and other search engines crawl and index your pages, thus your site ranking gets recalculated. If you keep your content updated and good quality, you increase your chances of getting noticed in search results.

Conclusion

To sum up, the benefits of updating your website’s design, code, and SEO are huge. Regularly updated quality content can bring you to the top of organic search rankings, and a modern look shows your customers you're keeping up with the times. So how often should you redesign your website? Experts say that 2 to 3 years is the maximum lifetime for a website design-wise.

If you’re ready to update your website, Complitech has experienced frontend and backend developers as well as UI/UX designers who can help. We’ll be happy to offer you assistance. Get in touch with our team.