In years past, websites were built to serve as a sort of digital brochure for your company. The unwritten rulebook of the day stated that sites needed to be informative but concise, incorporate a logo, but not too many photos, and you got extra points for cool sound effects, background music and animations. Like it or not (some of us are more thankful than others), those days are long gone.
Oh, how the times have changed.
No more animated logos that flash onto the computer screen with gold glitter and lightning bolts.
No more (awkward when you open in a public place) background music or sweet “swoosh” menu hover effects. Today, photos are encouraged, rather than discouraged. White space is a good thing. Fonts like Papyrus and Comic Sans are BIG no-no’s. and responsive websites have become a must for online presence. Considering these, and a few more things, it might be time to update your company website. Here’s a quick list of 6 signs you need a website redesign:
Does your website scale effectively on mobile devices?
If you visit your website on a mobile phone and all you see is a zoomed-in portion of your site, you’re going to lose (valuable) traffic. In 2014, 57% of website visitors wouldn’t recommend sites with bad mobile capability, and in 2015, 30% of online purchases were made on mobile devices.
When a potential customer visits your site for the first time, are they able to find the information they’re looking for within under 3 clicks? At all?
It’s simple: if your website isn’t easy to use, your potential customers aren’t going to visit it.
Does your home page look like it just stepped out of a time machine from 1999?
Another easy one— if your website looks dated, people will assume your business/products are dated. Don’t have a website at all? “Does your company even exist anymore?”
When you search for your industry key words on Google, where does your website stand in the results?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has impacted websites more than most people realize. Say you’re looking for a product or local service online, but you don’t know of any local businesses that offer that particular service. You go to Google, Yahoo, Bing, (insert plethora of other search engines) and search for what you’re looking for. How many times have you clicked on the “next page” at the bottom? Not too often, eh? The No. 1 position in Google search results gets 33% of the search traffic, and by the number six position, you’re in single-digit percentages. Still okay with that third page ranking?
Do you have a cool website, but haven’t updated the content since 2013?
I can’t tell you how many times a day I visit websites that have calendar events (concerts, sales, menu specials, etc), personnel information (staff), product/service offerings, or even hours of operation that are no longer accurate. How frustrating is it to go on vacation, spend a nice day at the beach, work up an appetite playing in the waves with the kiddos, get back to the condo, Google that trendy restaurant you saw on the drive into town, visit their website, spend an hour getting dressed up, get the screaming kids in the car, finally show up at the restaurant for dinner only to find that not only is the menu (which you based your decision on in the first place) is different from what you saw online, but that the restaurant is CLOSED on Sundays! “I swear their website said they were open…” Yep. happened to me two weeks ago. DEFINITELY not going to that restaurant again. EVER.
As I’ve mentioned, changes in monitor size, capability of mobile phones, Internet speed, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) have changed the website game forever. The creative possibilities are nearly endless and the ability to reach customers on the web is greater than ever. If you’re ready to step up your website game, give us a shout. We’d love to help your company grow!
