How Do I Know I Need A New Website?
Technology and website capabilities seem to change at an exceedingly rapid rate. Ultimately the question for businesses is whether or not their website presence is taking advantage of all the opportunities that are available to them. An even more important question that is what opportunities are being missed that the competition is taking advantage of. There are several key factors to look at when deciding if you need to update your website.
The first element on your website to look at is if you are communicating your brand and services effectively. Your website should be consistently branded with the colors, fonts and graphical elements of your logo and established identity. You have established your brand over the life of your company, and just like the rest of your marketing material your website visitors should leave your site with the company’s brand impression.
The design of your site is extremely important, and should be a huge focus on your website. With that being said, it is vital that your brand is effectively representing the goods and services that you offer. Your website should be organized in a way that provides your visitors with a well-organized progression of company information. This starts by establishing your most important information first, while funneling your visitors through the supporting content. Too much content in one area of your website will scare your visitors away.
Once you have your brand and content established effectively, you need to ensure your website includes the functional tools to make your website management, and visitor experience dynamic and effective. Functional elements can include, but are not limited to e-commerce, customizable contact and questionnaire forms, email marketing platform, a social media/search engine optimization platform, proposal builders, etc. These functions are all easily managed when a dynamic CMS (content management system) is built into the website.
Finally, it is essential to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Over 60% of website content is being viewed on mobile devices. Mobile content has become so dominant that Google and other search engines are penalizing non-mobile websites in search engine results. By ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, you are gaining a clear advantage over your behind-the-times competition.
These are some key reasons that businesses look to rebuild their company’s website. If you are not paying attention to these elements, you are potentially missing out on opportunities that may otherwise not be available to you. By understanding what your website should look like and how to manage it correctly, you can reach a level of communication with your target audience that was previously unheard of.