In the digital age, a website is often your first introduction (and sometimes last) to new and potential clients. It is important to project the best image of your business, and your company’s website is no exception to this rule. Check out our list below to see if it’s time to refresh your web presence.
Your Website is 3-5 Years old
When it comes to your website, you should expect to redesign your site every 3-5 years. As with any technology, the web is constantly changing and evolving. From design styles, to technologies and user experiences, what worked a few years ago may be stale and outdated by today’s standards.
Your Website Uses a Splash Page or Flash Intro
You may or may not know what a splash page is, but if you have been on the web in the past few years you have definitely seen one. Splash pages load before your website and act as a front gate or doorway into your main site itself. Often times they employ autoplay music, flash technology, or video loops. If your website does not specifically need a splash page for reasons such as a disclaimer, or age restriction – chances are you don’t need it. After all, the average user spends 400 milliseconds deciding whether to stay or go on a website, do you really want to waste their time with a splash page?
Your Website Takes Too Long to Load
We wrote a great blog post on some of the contributing factors to a slow loading WordPress website, it is definitely worth a read if you would like to learn more. There is no better way to frustrate your users, and increase your website bounce rate than with a slow loading website. If making your users mad isn’t enough motivation, Google takes a website’s load time into consideration in their search ranking algorithm.
Your Website Is Not Mobile Responsive
We are still surprised by the number of websites that we come across that are not mobile responsive. In 2016 there is absolutely no reason to not have a mobile responsive website. The number of users using mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) to access the web has exploded in recent years – and shows no sign of slowing down. More importantly than that, Google has asked website owners and webmasters to adopt responsive web now.
Your Website Is Not Optimized for Search Engines
If you used a cheap DIY web site builder like GoDaddy, or you have a Wix website, you will be lucky if your website shows up in search results for your own name. Many cheap DIY solutions such as the ones mentioned work as little more than a digital business card. You will be hard pressed to rank for any keywords and build organic traffic to your site. True search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process that takes time, commitment, and a budget. That being said, there are still steps you can take when building a website to create a baseline SEO setup. To learn more about SEO check out our SEO 101 blog post.
Schedule a Free Website Consultation
Are you still undecided on whether it’s time to start working on a new website? Schedule a free website consultation, and whether you do it yourself or work with us, we will get you pointed in the right direction.
