June 23, 2020

Does Your Website Need an Update? 10 Important Questions to Evaluate Your Website

1. Does my website work well and look good on all platforms (i.e. mobile, tablet, and desktop)?

Is your website responsive to the device the user is viewing your website on? Websites need to look and sometimes work differently if the user is on their mobile phone versus their desktop computer with a gigantic monitor. A responsive design will adjust according to the width of the user's device.

According to HostingFacts.com, There are 7.77 billion people in the world, 4.54 billion of them are active Internet users, and of those 4.54 billion internet users, 4.18 billion of them are mobile Internet users! If your website looks terrible and doesn't work on mobile devices then you are missing out on the majority of Internet users.

2. Do I get complaints from customers not being able to find what they need on my website?

Navigation is the single most important element of a website's design. Without navigation, the user would not be able to move around (aka NAVIGATE) your website. While it's obvious that a website needs navigation, but your website needs good navigation. What makes website navigation good? Easy to use, consistent, and accessible.

3. Does my website look outdated? Or has my branding changed?

The most common reason for a website redesign is if it’s visually dated or not presenting your brand or company accurately.  Users see your website as a representation of your company, and it should reflect that. Most people judge a book by their cover and if your website looks outdated, isn’t maintained, or doesn’t match your brand elsewhere, it’s going to erode the trust your users should be building with your business.

4. Do I want to add functionality to my website?

If you are considering adding functionality to your website, like a blog or an events calendar, it may be mandatory for you to redesign your website. If you currently maintain your own website that is not run by a content management system (CMS), like WordPress or Squarespace, you may need to switch to accommodate the functionality that you require.

5. Is my website slow to load?

Long load times have a negative impact on your overall user experience and can lead to people leaving your site before it even loads. Google takes all of this into consideration when ranking websites. There are a variety of reasons why your page is slow, from extremely large image files to simply not having an optimized host server.

6. Is my website meeting my business goals?

Think about the goals you want your website to accomplish for you. Is the goal to get leads? Is the goal to showcase your work? Is the goal to sell x amount of your product? If your website isn’t aligned with your goals then it's just a waste of your time and money.

7. How does my website compare to those of my competitors?

See what's working on your competition's website (and what's not working for them too!) and incorporate it into your redesign and while you're at it, make your site even better than the competition!

8. Are there parts of my website that are broken or out of date?

Broken links? Your last blog post was over 2 years ago? Did you move offices and your new location's address still isn't on the website? Without fresh content, your website will struggle to attract and retain visitors.  New content increases your website's exposure in the search results, improves the overall quality of your site, and it compels visitors to return. And things that are broken are just plain frustrating and will turn users away quickly.

9. Do I know how to update my current website or know someone that can?

Is your website built upon a CMS, like WordPress or Squarespace, that you can manage yourself? With a CMS adding fresh content (see #8) is easy!

10. Is my website showing up in search engine searches?

Your website might not be showing up in searches for a number of reasons: your website could have old, stale content, your web designer/developer used some "tricks" to help your SEO and they're actually hurting your position, your content is not optimized for what the search engines are looking for. Search engines rely on more than just content, so a redesign can often address these issues.

Did you answer yes to one or more of these questions? I can help redesign your website! Please shoot me an email.

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