7 Reasons to Upgrade Your Website

If your website looks like it was made in the 1990s (a lack of structure or use of more than 3 colours could be a tell-tale sign of this), then perhaps you could benefit from revising the design. If things look like they haven’t been updated in a while, what message will that send to your users? After all, a website is your shop window to the world.

Tip: Take a look at competitors’ websites. What are they doing well? Are there any websites outside of your industry that you like the look of? Could they offer some guidance with regards to style?

Load times are so important when it comes to keeping audiences engaged – this is an element of web design that cannot be ignored. If pages on your site take longer than a few seconds to load over broadband, it could mean that the coding on your site is outdated. A few minor tweaks can usually fix this with minimum fuss. Nevertheless, with Google boosting the search rankings for faster-loading websites, it pays to focus your attention on how long your site takes to appear before the eyes of users.

With over 50% of global website usage now coming from mobile users, you really can’t afford not to have clickable contact links. If you can incorporate a way for mobile users to call or email straight from a handheld device, you’re making the audience’s journey from window shopper to customer dramatically easier.

If you have social media and a website, don’t treat them as separate entities – there should be an overlap between the two. The easiest ways to achieve this include:
Having live social media feeds available on your website

• Incorporating a social media comments system
• Adding social media share buttons
• Linking to reviews made on social media

Google processes 3.5 billion searches every day. If you aren’t maximising how and where your website ranks with search engines, how much search traffic could you be inadvertently directing towards your competitors?

Tip: Do your research into finding a well-respected SEO Professional. Results can take time to take effect – nothing is instant with SEO.

Over time, the way you want your company to be perceived can change. As a result, the tone of voice used on social media can end up very different to that of the website, for example. It is much more reassuring for the client if the tone of voice is consistent – this means employing the same messaging across the website as on social media, as well as any other medium the user may encounter in relation to your company.

The rise and acceptance of the hamburger icon as modern-day site menu has made navigating around a website a smooth and easy journey, an example of modern web design which begs the question: is your navigation system archaic? Do links no longer go where they should? Is it not plain and obvious what the user will find when they click a link? Users will often leave a site that they can’t navigate smoothly.