In today’s digital age, a website is a powerful marketing tool for a business. It not only acts as the face of the company but also provides critical information for potential clients. As technology and customer behaviour change, websites can quickly become dated and ineffective. This is why businesses need to refresh their website. In this blog, we will explore the reasons why clients should update their websites every 3-4 years.
We as Giraffe digital agency provide web development, PPC and SEO services in Milton keynes and the surrounding region. If your website is looking dated, give us a call to discuss a refresh. We can help to transform your site into a top-ranking, user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing website.
Why should you refresh your website?
Responsive & Mobile Friendly
Update your website to fit in with the modern world by ensuring it’s mobile-friendly. By formatting changes to make your website easy to read on mobile and tablets, it will not only mean that readers will be pleased that they can access it from their multiple devices, but Google will also actively rank your website higher than other websites that are not mobile-friendly!
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test allows you to see whether your current website is mobile friendly or not. It will provide a screenshot of your webpage on a mobile so that you can visually see whether your website is mobile-friendly or not, and it provides you with information on how you can update it to become more mobile friendly.
57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with poorly designed websites for mobile use.
Your Website Appearance
The visual appearance of your website can truly make or break it! The design of your website portrays your company, so if your website depicts a more modern and slick design, more people are likely to trust your website and will therefore stay on it and return to it frequently. Your website should feature a fair mix of copy and images so that no pages are too content-heavy as this can put some visitors off.
Technique & Coding
Is your website browser compatible? Is your source code valid (HTML and CSS)? Does your website meet the basic web standards? Is the technique and/or (version) programming language outdated?
An important factor you should consider is the increase in usability in web design . Every year web standards change radically and techniques to build websites become more advanced to comply with the latest standards. If your site was developed several years ago, it probably has a lot of unnecessary HTML code and may be slowing down your website loads speeds – which may, in turn, impact your ranking in the Google search results.
Including modern techniques such as CSS coding will allow your web pages to adapt to all smartphone devices.
Keeping Content Up-To-Date
Making sure that your website features no outdated content is vital. Has any of your content, such as blog posts, events, etc included dates on it? As websites constantly mature and grow, it often becomes apparent that certain parts just aren’t working well anymore and are becoming outdated. By keeping your website up-to-date, customers will perceive your information as more reliable and trustworthy.
Website Speed
The speed of your website should never be sluggish. Your website’s loading time is a major factor in people either staying or leaving the site and never returning. Having a slow-loading website means that your readers are likely to think that your site is either broken or needs updating. Google Page Speed Insights is a great platform to use to find out how long exactly your site takes to load. If your score is not up to par, then you need to rethink those elements of your website slowing it down. Images and videos can often be the key factor when it comes to slowing down your website.
47% of users expect a maximum of 2 seconds loading time for an average website.
User Experience
User experience is revolved around how simple your site is to use and how easy it is to find the information that the readers need. Readers will appreciate it when they’re directed to a website where they can easily navigate themselves around and find the exact information they wish to find with ease. Make sure your menu is not cluttered, as this can instantly put a reader off from exploring your website.
SEO
Just like a website, your digital Search engine optimisation company could need a refresh. If you don’t update your website, it’s sure to fall in the search engine rankings. Search engines regard websites with the most recent content as the most relevant to web users. Your content might be gold but if it’s the same content as it was 5 years ago then search engine crawlers might not think it is as relevant anymore.
The redesign also gives you a chance to rethink your keyword targeting and the overall conversion rate of your website. The way people search and how they search has changed dramatically over the last few years, even truer with the explosion of smartphone devices and voice command technology.
Website Integration
For many businesses, integrated websites are essential for delivering the requisite service levels. We’ve outlined our benefits for website integration here. Your customers will expect access to a blog, contact form, support form and if applicable, shopping functionality, all on one easy-to-use website. They will require a single login and rapid access to accurate and timely information at all times. Integrating your site with your back-office order fulfilment, tracking, billing and CRM systems such as Sage, MS Dynamics, or Salesforce reduce the likelihood of mistakes and confusion. Many small businesses start out using a collection of open-source tools for different activities, only to be forced to use a complex, error-prone, and time-consuming strategy involving manually copying information from one system to another.
Effective Calls to Action
A call to action can be a button or link on your website which leads the reader to complete an action on your website page. It results in them providing their details so that your business can get in contact with them. Many dated websites lack effective calls to actions which can affect their overall business interest and contact with website leads. Your call to action should be clearly visible on every landing page on your website and they should create the idea of desire for the reader to complete the call to action.
As you can see, refreshing your website is an essential investment for your business. It ensures that your website is up-to-date with the latest trends, technology and customer expectations. By doing so, you can attract new visitors, engage your existing audience and build a strong online presence that will set you apart from your competition.
With the help of an experienced web design team, you can improve user experience and generate more leads and revenue. If you’re looking for a web design agency in Milton Keynes or the surrounding region, Giraffe digital Marketing agency can help. We specialise in web design, PPC and SEO services in Milton Keynes and beyond. Contact us to discuss how we can create a modern website for you.
