Never underestimate the power of a good website.
An informative, easy on the eye and simple to use website has never been more vital than now for any business, in any industry, to grow, or even achieve sales at all. Many businesses will have websites, but, just having a website is not enough anymore.
Here are 4 signs that your website is outdated:
1) Bounce Rate
“Bounce rate” is the percentage of visitors to your website that view just one page and then click off the site altogether. The average negative bounce rate is above 60%. A high percentage is an indication that your current website content and landing pages are not meeting the needs and wants of visitors. However, the percentage does depend on the type of website and industry:
- Retail sites 20-40%
- Portals 10-30%
- Service sites 10-30%
- Content sites 40-60%
- Lead generation 30-50%
By improving your bounce rate, you are improving the website overall, and there are plenty of straightforward ways to go about this:
- Shower your website with relevant content
- Build a clear navigation path/menu
- Link to a glossary page that defines industry terms
- Speed up page load
- Get rid of pop up ads
- Reduce external links or have them open in a new window
2) Accessibility
Now, in 2017, all websites must be accessible to anyone and everyone, whatever their hardware, software, language, culture, location, or physical, or mental ability. If your site does not comply with the web accessibility standards, then it is very much outdated and definitely needs resolving.
Alt Text
By including alt text within your site, you are making it accessible to all, especially for people who cannot see. These people may use a screen reader in which the alt text will be read aloud for a visual image.
Podcasts
Podcasts are very much the modern-day marketing tool and many businesses embed them within their websites making them very informative and up to date. However, any audio material should also come with a transcript alongside it to ensure web accessibility for those with hearing difficulties.
Visual Graphics
Does your website have bright blinding colours and flashing banners? This could be an indication of an outdated website and be breaching the standards of web accessibility, as this kind of visual material could induce seizures.
3) Mobile Responsive
According to the Mobile Operators Association, 93% of the British public have mobile phones, and 67% of those are smart phones. This is a huge percentage of people that are accessing the web via smartphone daily. So, if you know your website is not mobile responsive, then this is a sign that it is significantly outdated.
4) Content
It doesn't take a genius to work out that if your website hasn't been updated for a very long time, then it most definitely is outdated. You may have new products no one knows about, it may say you're selling something that you no longer stock or informing prospects of a service you no longer provide.
In terms of marketing, website content is primarily about creating interesting and useful materials to drive traffic to your website through targeting keywords.
Neglected content not only damages the brand, but damages your company's overall profit.
Hopefully this has made you think about whether your current website is outdated or not, and has introduced a few new ideas for you to implement to modify your business' website. If you have any queries, please comment below or call us on 01332 343 281 for an informal chat.
