If you’re spending money on marketing but sales are dropping, it may be time to update your website. Websites often suffer from “set it and forget it” syndrome. But websites can’t be left alone and unattended for too long. To attract users and search engines, they need to be dynamic places with fresh content. If you aren’t already regularly upgrading your site, be ready to recognize and react to the following 4 signs it’s time to update your business website. If you think you need website development services, consider the following before reaching out to a web developer.
Your Competitors’ Websites Are Better Than Yours
In the business world it’s good to highlight what makes you stand out from your competition. But when things aren’t going well for your website, explore what’s working for others. Look at the quality of their sites and compare it with your own. Review your website’s analytics and compare those as well. If the results show them taking the lead in organic search results and gaining consumers’ trust, it might be time to update your website.
It Won’t Integrate with Newer Business Systems
Every business runs on multiple systems, and those systems need to work and play well together. Sometimes, when a company installs or updates a system—enterprise resource planning, inventory control, client relationship management, or something similar—it can fail to sync with the company’s site, leading to bad or faulty results. Testing before a system goes live is essential, naturally, but sometimes issues crop up during use, or different departments might not realize their new systems won’t sync. If the site and system aren’t syncing, it might be time to revamp the platform underneath the design, or to rebuild the site entirely to ensure it works with the more current system.
Fails to Support (or Harms) Other Marketing Efforts
Don’t skimp on quality. If you plan to invest in paid search, search engine optimization (SEO), and the like, don’t send people to a site that fails to match the quality of your marketing campaign. Low conversion rates, high bounce rates, and low engagement signal a site falling behind in its duties or blocking your marketing efforts. At the same time, a cool-looking site is impressive, but don’t forget the nuts and bolts that make it work for ecommerce or lead generation. Navigable pages. Clear contact information. Calls to action outlining a customer’s next steps and easy shopping. A pretty site is a plus, but it needs to be up, running, and consistent before Google puts its weight behind it.
Age
Does your current site look old? Does it convey trust and function properly? Once a site is five years old it’s more likely to have older, unsupported software, making it more vulnerable to system issues and incompatibility with the latest mobile and other devices. Bringing customers to your site won’t help if they can’t complete transactions. Stopgap solutions are another thing to be aware of. These are adjustments made to a site’s code to address problems that crop up along the way. The cliche of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t work here. What’s not broken in one place may be an obstacle in another. Pay attention to vulnerability warnings and other indications your site may not be up to snuff and update accordingly.
Conclusions
Those are 4 signs it’s time to update your business website. Naturally, a site update isn’t something to take lightly, since it can cost time and money. Regardless, after funneling customers its way, an efficient site is necessary to close the deal and make those conversions, lead gens, and sales. If you think your site needs a tune-up, Logical Position’s consultations on custom web design, WordPress development services, and other digital marketing efforts are completely free. Reach out to someone on our marketing or web team. We’re ready to share our knowledge with you!
