Did you know the average lifetime for a website before it needs to be fully revamped is 2-3 years?! Yes, that is even if you are doing daily minor site maintenance, such as security updates, or even weekly, to update products.
To make sure you are current when it comes to your website, we’ve compiled a checklist that will tell you if it is time to update your website. Check it out!
It’s all about the customer experience. Can your client get to the information they need in 1-2 clicks? If information is buried or hard to access, the user will give up and go to the next site. Perform a quick self check: open your website and ask yourself, what is this site telling me to do? Is there a clear call to action? If you can’t answer this question, then it might be time to update your site.
What is your mobile experience like? Did you know that 85% of Americans own a smartphone? Did you know that 15% of those users do not have a broadband connection and solely access the internet on their phone? Did you know that mobile phone access to the internet accounts for 60% of all web traffic? These numbers climb each year. In order to stay relevant, websites must be mobile-friendly. Companies must double check that updates in their platforms did not affect layout, and that the layout is sized correctly for ease of navigation.
What is your search engine ranking for a target keyword? SEO is one of those big buzz words. Everyone needs to work on it, but only one site makes it to the top of the search queue. Not only do a variety of factors affect ranking, but when SEO is not regularly worked on, your ranking drops. SEO can be worked on in the back end of a website, as well as on the free Google My Business listing.
Content is always king. Users decide to stay or go in 2-4 seconds. Does your site provide immediate relevant content? Using “read more” links can capture attention with a few words and guide the user to a page that contains more content.
Is your design outdated? Including current trends within a site is a great way to keep users engaged. Technology is changing regularly, and sites that keep up will have higher conversion rates and user interaction. Check out your competitor’s site or sites of leaders in your industry; often larger agencies with internal website designers update more often. Keeping tabs on what is fresh and new across industry leaders is a good gauge for smaller businesses to decide when to refresh. Another way to know that your design is outdated is if your internal branding has recently been updated. Your website is often the first thing people see, but often the last place that gets a branding update. Leave the best impression with an up-to-date site.
Can you make your own updates? It’s one thing to hire out because you have no desire to update your site, it’s another not to have access to it. At MJ Small Business Squad, we design with the small business in mind. We encourage our clients to make changes to their site as they need, and to call us if the job is too big or not in their comfort zone.
Site speed: is your site’s back office bogged down with old data? Wordpress sites especially have a tendency to build a large backlog of old data. Clean out unused pages, images, and videos that are just taking up space. Use cloud storage for an archive, not the media archive of your website.
And as always, if you want a fresh set of eyes on your website or a consultation on how to improve your website schedule your consultation call or discovery session with us today! Sources: pewresearch.org