Do you have an old, outdated website? How can you tell if your website is too old and your business is not competitive online? Let’s look at some of the basics of the good, bad and the ugly websites and what makes them quality and helps them to compete in the world of online business today.
Why should you care if your website is outdated?
There are 3 main reasons to care about keeping your website current.
- To generate and keep interest in your business.
- To connect with prospects and buyers.
- To make sales.
Just remember that anyone who is checking you out online should be impressed right away. That goes for Google as well as people.
Google can’t read photos so your content must be optimized for search and include optimized images for a quality user experience and to get more clicks.
What Google Wants for Visitors
When Google looks at ranking websites their first goal is to provide visitors searching subjects to find current information & have a pleasant user experience.
Here is a short list to help you remain current.
- A current year copyright date.
- Actively making updates to the website.
- Posting valuable content.
- Internal linking to other valuable articles.
- Sharing content out to social media.
- A Mobile friendly website.
- No activity for over a year could mean no visitors.
- Website is still using flash.
- Images should be optimized for subject.
Why you want your website to be ranked high on Google?
The design of your website is important!
The internet has made so many advances because of technology and the ability to create better, faster and more relevant resources. This also requires business people to stay current. Your web design gets noticed right away.
UI vs. UX web design
UX designers are concerned with the overall look & feel of the website, and user experience. While UI or user interface designers are particular about how the website is laid out. They are in charge of designing each screen or page with which a user interacts and ensuring that the UI visually communicates the path that a UX designer has laid out. (source)
Sounds complicated, I know, but consider the outcome of hiring one over the other. Which would you rather have a beautiful website or a website that gets you sales? Both are desired.
5 First Impressions of Websites
- Is the website modern and nice to look at?
- Is the website easy to navigate?
- Can I find what I’m searching for?
- Does the information help me?
- Would I want to follow them and return in the future?
A pretty website is important and certainly will make a better impression on your visitors. But does it function well?
For example, an antique car is pretty to look at, but it can’t keep up with traffic on the freeway.
What’s more important to people?
Finding what they are looking for or being entertained? Websites that do both, in a short amount of time, are true winners!
Is your old, outdated website helping or hurting your credibility?
Think of your website as your online storefront. If it’s in disrepair, looks old and ugly, no one will be motivated to shop there or to buy anything from you.
Your old, outdated website is hurting your credibility. For people to buy from you, they must know, like and trust you and a picture is how we start that process.
What do people think of outdated websites?
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You aren’t in business anymore.
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Maybe you don’t offer quality products or services.
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Your competition looks better than you do.
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Old websites can hinder employee pride.
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Your company is not very friendly.
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Frustrated because they can’t find you on their cell phone.
What updated WordPress Websites should have.
- All pages optimized for user search subjects.
- Be mobile friendly & pleasant to read.
- Contain up-to-date information, content & links.
- Blog posts that offer value.
- Have a CTA (call to action) button to ask visitors to subscribe to their list for more!
This is not everything that should be included in a new website design, but it does offer you some ideas to think about and compare to what you currently have. Stop losing your credibility and potential customers and get a new WordPress Website created for your business. The cost is a lot less than it was years ago.