Do you need a new website?

Web design trends are forever moving on and changing, which makes our job difficult but also exciting! A bad website doesn’t just have a detrimental impact on a business’s brand, it also prevents a business from growing.

We often get people asking us whether they actually need a new website so we thought we’d create a checklist to help you answer this question:

Responsive web design

If your website was made more than 3-4 years ago, chances are, it will not be mobile-friendly. If this is the case, you will inevitably lose customers on your website before they make that important purchase. It is now more common for people to use a smart device over a desktop device to access websites.

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly and your competitor’s is, guess whose website they will go to?

Read our blog on responsive web design.

Social media integration

An extremely important contributor to your online presence is social media. Google is placing more importance on social signals than ever before. Using social media well can have a huge positive impact on a business’s brand awareness, website rankings, business development and much more. Does your website make it easy for your customers/fans to follow and share your content?

Shareable content

Does your website have a blog or a news feed? Link building plays an important role in how well your website ranks in Google. The best way to get people linking to your website is to produce engaging content on a regular basis which is published on a blog or news page. This content should always be shareable so it can gain as much exposure as possible.

For some great tips on how to produce engaging, shareable content; have a read of this blog by Jeff Bullas.

Content management system

So once you’re producing content on a regular basis, you need to be able to update your website easily and efficiently. If you are not able to do this on your current site, you need a better content management system. Simply put, a CMS, is a system which you can log into to edit the digital content on your website.

Even if you are not going to be posting daily blogs on your site, there will be times when information needs updating quickly and this is the best way to do it.

Call to action

Call to action prompts are buttons that encourage an immediate action from a website visitor. If you want a visitor to contact you, for example, there should be an eye-catching button to take that user to your contact page. These buttons should be surrounded by great content, giving them a reason to take action!

Website speed

Old websites tend to use old technology which usually causes problems when trying website visitors are trying to load website pages. Research has found that visitors will abandon your website if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load!

Google also takes site speed into consideration when ranking your website so it’s important that your website loads in a reasonable time.

It looks dated

The most obvious factor that people will consider when deciding whether they want a new website is the general look of it. If it’s clear to see that your website looks dated compared to competitors then it is probably time to update! Your website needs to look appealing and reflect your brand; it is your digital shop window after all. Your website is often the first place a potential client will go for information on your business; make sure that first impression is great!

Those are our top seven points to look out for when deciding if you need a new website. If your website is not adhering to most of those points, then you need a professional’s help.

Get in touch today to see what we can do for your business!