A dated website can harm your business almost as much as having no website at all. So how do you know when your web design is ‘old hat’ and needs refreshing?
Main drawbacks of a dated website for your business
If your website is more than three years old, chances are one or more of these elements are out of date and sending the wrong message to your customers – and the search engines:
The style is older than the clothes you give to charity
Just like fashion, web design trends change over the years. If the age of your website is obvious by its appearance, and visitors are mistaking it for a retro design exhibit, it’s time to dust off the cobwebs and make it look new and interesting again.
The design elements don’t match your business branding
If the logo, colour scheme and other design elements used for your web design have changed since the site was built and not been updated, then your website is no longer in line with your business branding.
Sections of content are no longer relevant or accurate
The style and wording used on your website may no longer align with your current business message. Even if you are someone who remembers to add fresh content regularly, there will be old information on your website, including staff details, obsolete products or service packages, or photos that are dated and no longer represent the subject accurately.
New customers cannot find you because your SEO is out of date
One of the key functions of your website is to attract new customers by generating good rankings with the search engines when they look for your services or products online. What was ranking highly for average monthly searches last time you checked may no longer be the case, as how people search for what they want evolves. The onset of voice searches from mobile devices has had a dramatic change in what ranks now compared to even a year ago, because what people say will differ greatly from what they type into a search field.
Your site is not mobile friendly
Another key issue with older sites is that they are not always mobile friendly. If your website is slow to load or requires scrolling and zooming to view the content on a smart phone then visitors will get fed up and try another website. Since ‘Mobilegeddon’ in 2015, Google is also ranking mobile friendly sites more favourably, so your chances of placing well on the Search Engine Results Pages are reduced. See our blog on Google and mobile friendly websites
Advantages to getting your website updated with Web Tonic
As well as the above issues with an old, out of date website design, there are some real advantages of getting your site updated.
Short Codes replaced by Page Builder CMS function
Earlier content management systems (CMS) used a lot of short codes for editing the site. These can make it hard to make changes to content yourself.
Web Tonic’s website design platform has evolved to keep up with design trends. Our new site designs have a much simpler Page Builder behind the scenes, making it easier for our customers to manage their own content and make changes without having to remember a whole lot of short codes to get it to display how they want it.
Free SSL Certification for all new websites and design updates
Part of our commitment to giving our customers the edge over their competitors’ sites is staying up to date with industry trends. With Google this year making bold moves towards making secure websites a requirement see our blog article on SSL, we now build all new websites as HTTPS sites at no extra cost, and will renew the annual SSL certification free of charge for as long as you host your new site with us.
To find out more about Web Tonic’s latest web design options visit our Website Design page