Find out why your business needs a new website design no matter where you are located.
You may have a website that you think is good for you. You tell yourself something like, “This is a great site. It does the job and tells people where I am. I really don’t need a new website.”
If that’s all you really think a website can do for you, then please, continue reading.
We’ve put together a list of the top 10 reasons why you need a new website. It’s not a complete list, but the discussion about web design has begun. Fasten your seat belts.
1. Your site looks like it stepped back in time, right into the 1990’s. Yikes!
When’s the last time you updated your web content? Months? Years?? Is your website so antiquated that it just takes up space like a paperweight on your desk? This is no way to showcase your business. Your website is your digital gateway to your business, be it online or brick-and-mortar. If you want to sell your house but leave the front lawn full of weeds and debris, no one is going to come in and see what’s inside, so why let your website look like it was created in Word95? Maybe it’s time for an update?
Let EMS show you how…
2. Please tell me your site is not playing music or using flashy info-graphs and scrolling text.
The time has come for styles to become obsolete. Can you say mullet? Yes, it was a sign of the times, but its time has passed. The same applies to website fashion.
If you’re still running intro music and flashy info-graphs and logos, Google (and other search engines) has trouble finding your site with all the flash graphics and code from a bygone era. Your website should have a clear call to action and positive images to help your brand connect with your target audience. So, give your customers a memorable experience. Just don’t let that memory be a bad one.
3. Me, we, us … your website has nothing to do with your customers.
Today’s websites should be completely customer oriented. Information about your business should be secondary. If you want to talk about yourself, start a blog. People want to know how you can help them and what you can do for them, not a listing of all your accomplishments. Visit your website and count the number of times you have said, “me”, “we” or “us.” You may be surprised at how often you focus on your business rather than the customer.
4. You have no idea who is visiting your site, do you?
Understanding who your customer base is and what problem(s) you can solve for them, is key to running a successful business. If you don’t even know who is visiting your website, you’ll have a tough time turning potential customers into paying customers.
That’s where analytical software comes into play (check out this video about Google Analytics to learn more). Without it, you won’t know where your buyers are on their journey because you won’t know what content your visitors are looking for.
Understanding your customer base is like understanding your opponents on a basketball court… if you don’t pay attention to their movements, you’re never gonna get the ball in the net.
Once you understand your customer and the challenges they face, you can help guide them through their buyer’s journey. So, get your site connected to an analytics software (e.g., Google Analytics), and get one step closer to turning website visitors into paying customers.
5. Don’t tell me your website is not mobile friendly
You may feel that you really don’t need a mobile friendly website, but did you know that more than 54% of all website traffic is generated from mobile phones? And this percentage steadily grows every year. Ignoring this aspect of your web design cuts you off from over half of your potential audience. Not to mention you can get penalized by search engines, like Google, for not having a mobile optimized website. Remember, you may have a foldable cell phone, but many others don’t. They look at your website on their phone. If your website is not suitable for mobile devices, it’s time to upgrade.
6. You don’t know how to update your website.
If you haven’t updated your website for months (or years) and don’t know how to do it, you’re hurting the rankings of all the pages on your site. WordPress content management software makes it easy for users and website owners to update their website. You can also create custom websites on the WordPress platform. Google loves WordPress, and statistics show that more than half of the internet is based on WordPress. Updating a website is as easy as writing an email or updating a Word document. If it’s built correctly, you can’t break it, so don’t be afraid.
7. I’m still waiting for your website to load
Ok, I haven’t actually fallen asleep due to the overwhelming amount of time it takes for your website to load, but seriously! Shall I go make myself a cup of coffee and come back? Your visitors will give you a couple of seconds, that’s it. If your site takes too long to load, visitors will just go somewhere else. It’s a crime, because looking at the previous 6 reasons you need a new site, it is a shame they didn’t get to see that intro animation. :\ Your image files were never resized for the web, nor was the programming language you used supported by modern web browsers. It’s a hot mess in here, let’s get this thing cleaned up quick!
8. Showing up on page 4 when searching for your business name doesn’t count.
If you’ve searched for your business name and you aren’t on the first page of Google, “Mission control: we’ve got a problem”. If that’s the case, forget trying to find you when searching for terms related to your industry. This is a problem many websites have, and yours may not be unique. Many website designers are great at making a pretty, new website and showcasing your products but have no idea how to optimize it for search. If you’re not showing on the first page (or arguably the second) of Google, you don’t exist. Plain and simple. It’s not just your name that matters, but what people are searching for. Synycsoft can solve this problem for you. You’ll find us consistently on the first page for this term.
9. So, you spent a lot of money on the last site, huh?
Unfortunately, you can spend boatloads of money in the right spot, but with the wrong company. Like many other things in life, a website is not a one and done kind of proposition. It is ongoing, forever changing and needing more and more maintenance. The web is growing increasingly faster. To keep up, your site shouldn’t be updated every 3 or 4 years, it should be constantly evolving. “But that can get expensive!” you say? If you aren’t properly planning and constantly evolving, it can cost you more by having fewer customers, lower returns and more competition that is taking over your space.
10. You can’t find a reputable or dependable company to show you the way.
Actually, you can! Synycsoft is constantly “picking up the pieces” and fixing things other “web guys” have done. We understand the frustration and confusion around this topic. Should I or shouldn’t I? What are you going to gain? How can you understand your customer base and meet them where they are? You want to see some return on this investment. We help small and medium sized businesses. We know that online marketing can be overwhelming. Synycsoft has been in business for more than 20 years and provides free consultations for those interested in our services.
