Let’s start off this article with an important reminder – just ‘having’ a website isn’t enough, you have to LOVE it!
A website is an extremely powerful marketing tool that requires you to invest a lot of time and effort so it can help in growing and flourishing your business. If your goals aren’t being met through your website, take charge and work on it!
A great website presents information in a clear and accessible manner and gives a strong first impression – your prospects need to feel they’ve arrived at the right spot.
With hundreds and thousands of businesses out there sharing the same audience, catching the attention of potential customers is definitely a challenge.
However with the help of the following 11 questions of website maintenance, you can make a good judgment call of why and how to revamp your website so you’re ‘number one’ for your audience.
Is your website memorable?
Maybe 2-3 years ago your website was trendy and nicely designed but it’s 2021 now and time for some revamping!
Have a look at the websites around you – you’ll see more or less the same website designs being followed so yours doesn’t stand out.
Bring ‘yourself’ into your website – make it feel and look personalized. Make it memorable and in line with the latest designs and features.
Does it reflect your brand?
It’s simple – your business is promoted by your website all year round so your website should reflect your brand identity, especially the changes you make.
So if you’ve changed your style or rebranded, if you’ve added new products and services your website should be in sync.
If you don’t update your website according to the changes you make to your business, you’re losing out on attracting the right type of audience for your brand.
Are the right types of clients contacting you?
You need to analyze if you’ve positioned yourself correctly on the market. Are you getting inquiries about your business from the type of clients you wish to work with? If the answer is no, you can try the following:
- Check the content on your website and remove the work/services you’re no longer offering
- Go through the gallery and only keep images that show your current work
- Put out your best and updated content
- Make sure you are consistent in using colors, fonts and icons across the website
- Your homepage should show your current updates
Are your plugins, tools, and theme outdated?
When it comes to functionality, technology and tools, you cannot have a website which not up to the standard of the evolving digital world.
Otherwise your visitor’s experience will be ruined.
You should be well aware of the shifting tastes and preferences of your customers and upgrade your website design and technology accordingly.
Get rid of outdated code that makes the pages extremely slow in loading and probably isn’t compatible with formats of new devices.
The bottom line is you need to shift to a modern template if your website is a few years old.
Is your website mobile friendly?
It’s safe to say that majority of your customers and clients are accessing your website through their cell phones.
If your website isn’t following the latest trends and new themes i.e. if it lacks a responsive and adaptive design – it’s time to take action!
With the help of modern CSS code, your website can adapt to any device and can block pages as per your wish so that the experience is smoother and faster for a mobile user.
A poorly performing website on a mobile phone can cost you a lot of business, so don’t ignore this important business aspect any longer.
Does your website load slowly?
Under 4 seconds – that should be the ideal loading time for your website. Use tools to check the loading time and find out which pages are responsible for a slow response.
A slow loading website usually means underpowered hosting, an old theme or un-optimized images – whatever the case might be, switch to a better option.
Is your bounce rate high?
A bounce rate of 40-60% is usually considered acceptable. If you have a high bounce rate something is definitely wrong – it could be the content, the navigation of your website or the overall look and feel.
No matter how much time and money you’re spending in bringing traffic to your website via SEO, marketing and blogging, if customers are bouncing right off your website the second they land on the website – you’re losing leads and potential customers.
Check your bounce rate via Google Analytics and get to action if it is more than 70%, maybe even consider a website redesign.
How secure is your website?
Honestly, any website can be hacked. The experience can be traumatizing because you lose all your information and have to then rebuild everything from scratch.
But chances of older websites getting hacked or a security breach are higher since they rely on older technology.
Make sure your theme is updated and security measures are in place.
Are you working on SEO?
Blogs are powerful marketing tools to get more traffic to your website through internal links, backlinks and keywords. So if you don’t have one yet, start blogging!
Search engines like Google thrive on nice and fresh content. Your site’s ranking gets recalculated every time you update your website (search engines index your pages).
A combination of good quality and updated content means getting noticed on search pages. Of course a well maintained website goes hand in hand with getting some leads!
Is my ‘Call to Action’ effective?
Call to actions need to be strategically placed so that your users keep engaging with your website and browsing more content.
Guide your visitors through your content to your best work and eventually make them land on to the sales or contact page.
Make sure your website is not limited in Call to Actions (CTAs) and allows customization.
Your visitors should know what they’re supposed to do next on your website via loud and clear CTAs otherwise it’s a lost business opportunity.
Does your website support cool new apps and integrations?
A poor old website will not be able to keep up with new plugins, integrations and apps that keep on popping up. So if you want to integrate useful tools that simplify your workflow in your website, your website should be updated regularly (at least once in a year or two).
Don’t forget to use up-to-date modern templates!
Don’t delay upgrading your website – do it today, do it now!
OR you can simply contact us at 4M Designers and get all the website maintenance and support you need under one roof!
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