6 Signs Your Website Needs an Update
Old cars are cool - old websites - not so much…
Your website is a reflection of you and your business, and visitors to your site make a quick judgement - is this a business that is fresh and up to date — or not?
Generally your website should be easy to read, allow visitors to quickly understand what you do, and helps them find what they want, with a clean, uncluttered, modern design - a good amount of white space, high quality imagery, and clear, concise copy.
Not sure if your site needs an update? Here are 5 elements that indicate a refresh is needed:
Small images - Small images seem like a holdover from dial-up days, where images took a long time to download. If your current images look blurry when enlarged, hire a professional photographer, use stock images, or even taken your own new ones (most new cell phones take better quality photos than some older cameras.)
Confusing Navigation - If you have more than 5 main navigation items, that’s probably too much, and is confusing to to your visitors. Organize by main topics with drop downs for quick scanning.
Old content - Old blog posts dated more than a year, references to past promotions, maybe team members who’ve been gone for awhile. Old content is often the result of a site that is difficult or time-consuming to update.
Loads slowly - If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, 32% of people will leave it, and that number goes up the longer it takes. Older technology and non-compressed image files can slow down a site.
Not responsive, i.e., not mobile-friendly - More than 50% of website visits are on mobile devices, and that number continues to grow. If your site was built more than a few years ago, it might have problems with missing content, broken navigation or slow loading on mobile.
No links to your social sites - Having a social media presence - in other words, dedicated Face Book and/or Instagram pages - is a required marketing tool for most entrepreneurs and small businesses. Your web site visitors want to easily link to your social media so they can be reminded of you and your services - so make sure you have links available on your site.
If you think it’s time for an update to your website, contact me for a free consultation to learn more about how your website can get a fresh look.