It can be very exciting once you have launched your new website. As a proud business owner you stand back and in awe and anticipation at this exciting new baby of yours.
Then you go back to running your business, safe in the knowledge that your new website is doing what you want it to and keeping your existing and potential clients, involved.
Why then, would you need to look at getting yourself a new website?
To start with, when did you last look at your website with an objective, honest eye? Try looking at your website as your customers see it? Perhaps it’s now time to do just that and see if your site is still doing what is it supposed to
Here are a few pointers to help you determine why you might just need to bite the bullet and give your website a new look.
- Your competitors are finding ways to make their websites better and you should be doing the same.
- If you’re not up to date with the latest website features, you could be missing out on a lot of potential new clients. It’s very important to have the latest website features.
- If the copyright in your footer is not current it is a sure sign you haven’t been giving your website enough attention. Visitors will also see the copyright date and assume your website has been neglected or that you are no longer trading.
- If your news or blog is dated it does not give visitors a good impression of your business. Case studies for projects done in the 1990s will need to be removed as well as information ex-employees and obsolete products? How fresh and up to date is your website?
- If your website is made entirely from flash then its game over, at least until you address this major issue and build with HTML5. Until then your visitors will face issues with Apple mobile devices to problems with search engine visibility. Flash is a thing of the past and will not do you any favours.
- If you can’t find your database then you need to ask yourself where is your contact information is actually going? If you cannot access or make use of it you’re missing a great marketing opportunity!
- Do you still have an ugly animated intro page? In the past, many sites featured a welcome page that took forever to load. It may look clever, but today’s customer wants information and products fast. They are not going to hang around and will simply leave your website. Apple mobile devices (iPad, iPhone) no longer recognise Flash meaning anyone accessing your site with these devices will have issues.
- If the content on your site is static you will not have an easy time updating your website with current product/service information, company news or press releases? Ideally, you want your customers/visitors to come back to you and therefore a content management system (CMS) and a company blog are what you will need. A CMS allows your business to quickly and easily add and update content on the fly, ensuring your content is always current.
- If you have a visible hit counter that shows the number of visits to your site I am begging you, Please, please, please, remove it immediately. This is something out of the dark ages and has to go
- Serious businesses integrate their social sites to their website. Have you? Facebook has grown to over 800 million active users and YouTube is arguably the second largest search engine on the Web. It is the third most visited site on the Web, according to Alexa and SimilarWeb. Recent information released by Google has shown that more and more users are using YouTube as a search engine. Twitter and Pinterest are also huge so you really have no excuse to not be actively engaged in these markets.
I can go on and on but these are just a few reasons why you need a new website. it’s not just about having a great looking website. It’s about having a site which your customers can easily access wherever and however they prefer. It should give them the information they want quickly. It should build brand loyalty and give you a competitive edge.