9 Reasons Why It’s Time to Revamp Your Website

9 Reasons Why It’s Time to Revamp Your Website

Marketing Tips

Is your website giving you the results that you need? How well is your website really working overall, and how can you know it’s helping–or actually hindering–your business growth?

Your website is like a 24-hour storefront for your business. Today’s customers will look up your business online before deciding where to buy, so having a great, properly maintained website needs to be a top priority. Your website should be responsive, easy to navigate, and on-brand to make a lasting impression on your potential buyers.

We’ve made it easy for you to take an inventory of everything you need to make sure that your website is on point! Here are 9 red flags to look out for when deciding whether or not your website is due for a facelift.

9 Website Red Flags

1. Your Website Doesn’t Have the Right Message, or Have a Clear Message at All!

Your website is the doorway to your business. It needs to speak clearly to your target market and give them a clear picture of who you are. Your clients should know right away how your business is going to help them. How are you going to solve their problem?

Potential customers need to know that you’re going get them from Island A, where they’re currently stuck, to Island B, where they want to be. Your website should also establish trust and credibility with your clients, letting them know that you’re the right company for the job.

Also, this should be a no-brainer, but double and triple check that your website language is grammatically correct, that there aren’t any typos, and that the information you’re sharing is correct and up-to-date.

2. Your Website Has A Poor User Experience

Do you ever hear from your customers that they’ve had trouble finding information on your website? Or trouble finding you at all? (See point #7) Even if you haven’t heard that specific feedback, it’s important to regularly step into your customers’ shoes and to take a good hard look at your website for their perspective. How is your site to navigate? Is the important information clear and easy to find? Are all links and buttons working? Is there an easy way to contact you? What about your address?

Rather than continually adding new content, remove old content as soon as it’s no longer relevant. Make sure to check for bugs, and to have a plan to fix any bugs that get reported to you immediately. Businesses that make the user experience a priority are much more likely to succeed and grow.

3. Your Website Doesn’t Do What It Needs to Do

Beyond having a clear message, your website also needs to also have a purpose. In addition to providing your prospective clients with the information they need, it should have a clear flow that includes calls to action to lead prospective buyers to contact you. These calls to action should be designed to make it easy for your clients to start working with you.

You can also make special offers for new clients or for signing up for your mailing list. Just make sure that your website is serving a purpose–and leading to sales!

4. You Can’t Update Your Content Yourself

Most websites today are built on platforms like WordPress that the average non-techie person can update themselves. You might hire a web designer to do the heavy lifting and get it set up, but be careful not to trap yourself in a situation where you wait for weeks to have simple updates completed. Ideally, you want to be on a platform that will allow you to make regular updates yourself.

5. Your Site Looks Outdated

This should be obvious, but make sure that your website has a modern and consistent look that’s in step with current trends. It needs to look great! It should be visually appealing, have an easy flow, and keep your information updated and concise.

Make sure that your visuals and content have a consistent look and message that make it easy for customers to navigate and for you, the owner, to update. We recommend a clean, classic and sleek look that won’t go out of style. A website that looks old and lacks features that clients expect to see can be a real turn off.

6. Your Website Takes Forever to Load

It’s tempting to keep adding flashy features and rich media to your website, but this should never be at the expense of the user experience. While a good mix of images, videos, and interactivity is good, don’t go so far that you end up with long loading times. Regular SEO check ups will help to ensure that your media is sized correctly and that nothing is hindering loading times. Remember that you lose visitors for every second it takes for a page to load! Keep it engaging but simple.

7. No One Can Find Your Website

If you can’t find your website easily with a Google search, you have a problem. Most customers will do a Google search to find what they need and won’t remember domain names. A great goal to strive for is to get your brand name to come up within the top 5 search results. This isn’t always possible, but it’s definitely something to keep a constant eye on, and SEO experts can help. You want the highest search terms related to service to lead back to your company’s page. Make sure that finding you in a search is a non-issue!

8. Your Website Doesn’t Work on All Browsers

Make sure that whoever you hire to work on your website can ensure that it works on all browsers. You may have a display problem that you haven’t seen, which is why it’s gone unfixed.

9. Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly

The amount of time people are spending on their mobile devices is steadily increasing, and at faster rates than previously predicted! These days people use mobile devices to do everything from a quick search to get information to purchasing tickets to online banking. It’s essential that your website be mobile-friendly across devices. Using WordPress will help make this easy for you. Oh, and by the way, Google is now penalizing websites that aren’t mobile-friendly, so this point is essential.

 

If you haven’t updated your website in the last couple of years, it’s time to do so. Sometimes it’s best to create a completely new site, while other times your website might just need a facelift. If your website is only a couple of years old and was built in a platform like WordPress, a professional web developer can likely update and clean things up for you at minimal costs. If your website is older, the good news is that new websites are now much more accessible and affordable than they used to be.

If you’d like a professional opinion about your website, take us up on our no-strings-attached offer of a free consultation. We’d be happy to look at your website from the point of view of user experience, branding, messaging, and SEO, and to give you an objective and honest opinion of how to make improvements.

Todd Foster

As a dedicated Digital Marketing Strategist at Barker Social, I am passionate about helping businesses unlock their full potential online. With a focus on results-driven strategies, I aim to deliver measurable success for our clients.