Is your website still the same as when you first launched it? Has your traffic unexepectedly dwindled? Things move pretty fast on the Internet and if you aren’t current with today’s trends in both design and marketing, you just might be left behind.
With the amount of business that you stand to make from your website, why would you waste this opportunity to have the best possible marketing tool you can in your website. Here are six reasons that you might want to consider a fresh coat of paint on that old barn.
Your Site Doesn’t Match Your Brand
If you have relatively new marketing collateral — business cards, flyers, letterhead, etc. — your website better well match them. If you commissioned a new look for your physical marketing materials and your website is completely different, you are hurting your brand and your chances of converting visitors to sales. The simple way to do things is that when you are ready to change one thing, change them all. Keep things uniform to avoid confusion.
You’re Out of Date
There are going to be times that you don’t even change your overall look or your logo but your website just gets stale. That’s because trends change faster in web design than they do in print design. Your logo and colors can stay the same but your site will look dated if it isn’t up to par with what designers are putting out now. Pay attention to the big brands — Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc. and look at what they are doing in desing. Your site doesn’t have to match it, but it also shouldn’t look like you are stuck in 1998. Stay current and informed and you’ll know when it is looking old.
No Blog Means No Fresh Content
It’s tough to rank well in the search engines without updating your site’s content regularly. If your site is just a handful of HTML pages uploaded to your server that never get updated, you are limiting yourself. With the abilities of Content Management Systems (CMS) these days to instantly add or change your content, you are missing out by not having one. If you have a full-time web guy to work on your HTML pages, you are probably fine. But if you do it all yourself and nothing has been updated in a few years, you might want to add a blog. Blogging has many, many benefits beyond search rankings. Putting a blog on your site is admittedly not for every business, but it is for way more than it isn’t.
It’s Just Old
This is kind of an “all of the above” point. If your site just hasn’t been updated lately, content or design, it is probably time to do that. Update your “About” page with recent news or developments. Update your “contact” page to make sure all of your information is accurate. Update the design to the current styles and trends. Update the backend to make sure you are up to current web standards. Do you know if your site renders well on mobile? Or IE7? Things change technically on the web often and not updating your site will be very apparent to your customers if you make it obvious. Budget for a new coat of paint and some optimization every year or so and you’ll thank yourself later.
Generate Leads
Does your site have a way to get new clients? Do you collect email addresses or have obvious calls to action to allow your visitors to opt in for more information? If not, get to updating! Customers more often than you think will opt in to products or brands that they like and you are left with a built in marketing tool to collect information. This gives you the opportunity later to tell a built in audience of people that already like you that there is a new product or a new special available. You have a website for a reason. It is a marketing tool. Don’t be afraid to embrace that.
Social Media Integration
If you have a website (and you are on my website) you should be active on some social media networks. And if you are, you sure as heck better be cross-promoting things and sharing across mediums. On your website, that means at the very least making your social media links obvious and apparent. If a visitor would prefer to stay in touch via Twitter or Facebook, make it easy for them. Not everyone does things the same way. Provide the options for them to stay informed and leave it at that. If you are posting good content, give your visitors the option to share it. Let them pin it, tweet it, post it, +1 it, etc. Everyone does things differently. All you can do as a business owner is provide them the ability to do it their way.
<h2Well?
If you’ve made it this far and you don’t need an update, congratulations! You are doing a good job on your website! If you see one or two things here that you are in need of doing, start making plans to update soon. If you see three or more that need attention, we should be in touch… Honestly, there are loads of great designers out there and even some awesome WordPress themes that can do all of this. Treat your website like the rest of your marketing needs. Do it right and stay on it or you will be hurt by it struggling more than you know.