4 Signs It’s Time to Update Your Website

by Kate Neri | Apr 26, 2017

These days, it feels like everyone and everything in your business is demanding time and resources. Let’s face it, your company’s website is the last thing on your list. However, in this growing digital age, your brand’s web presence can make or break you. Websites are playing a huge role in people’s decision-making, and with friends like Google, building awareness and improving searchability depend on how your website performs.

Here are a few signs that it may be time to update your website:

1. It’s not responsive. This isn’t just a trend, but a necessity. Eight in every ten internet users will use a smartphone to access the web regularly in 2017, and the number of mobile-only users is on the rise (40.7 million this year, up from 36.6 million in 2016). To further emphasize the importance of having a responsive site, Google has prioritized responsive website in its search engine results pages since April 2015 and is now moving towards indexing and ranking pages solely based on the mobile version of a website. Hey, you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out the Google analytics for your current site and see how much traffic is coming from tablet and mobile devices.

8 in every 10 internet users will use a smartphone to access the web regularly in 2017.

2. It’s slow. People are busy, our attention spans are short, and we have thousands of messages bombarding us every day. We don’t have the time or the patience to wait for a website to load, period. Pages that load in 2.4 seconds experience a 12.8% bounce rate, while those that load in 3.3 seconds have a bounce rate of 20%. Milliseconds are determining whether someone engages with your brand online or not.

Pages that load in 2.4 seconds experience a 12.8% bounce rate.

3. Bad design. 95% of communication is nonverbal, so visual elements like colors, fonts, and photo treatments say a lot about who you are as a company. Users will draw more conclusions from what they see rather than what they read. Great website design leverages these visuals to communicate how you want your audience to perceive your company. Good design also organizes content in a way that is engaging and easy to navigate. It helps users find what they are looking for and can even encourage them to do something you want them to do. About 94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website. Check out some great web design examples.

95% of communication is nonverbal.

4. It’s difficult to update (or you have to pay someone to update it). Relevant, up-to-date and effective content on your website is essential for communicating your business to your users and enhancing SEO for searchability and awareness. Building your site on a Web Content Management System where you can easily edit, update and publish content will help you continue to engage with your audience and maintain relevancy in your industry without having to invest in a developer to update regularly.

If you’re seeing one of these signs on your own website, it’s time to update. Not sure if you need a new site? Let’s talk!