If you’ve been thinking about whether or not it’s time to invest in a new website for your business then you probably already know the answer is yes. If you’re still not sure, though, here are ten easy ways to tell that you probably need a new website.
10 Things That Say a New Website is Needed
- You Don’t Have One – It doesn’t really matter if you’re active on every type of social media site there is, you need your own website. Unless it’s something you own, you could be blocked, banned, hijacked or deleted at the whim of someone else. Move into the 21st century and get yourself a shiny new website.
- Your website traffic is low and/or dropping – While traffic volume is relative, even local and small business sites should be able to easily generate 20-30 visits daily with a properly built and optimized website. If you’re seeing fewer visits than that you should consider an upgrade.
- You can’t update any parts of your website yourself – One of the biggest benefits to SEO is new content and frequent updates. We’ve found that many clients are more likely to perform updates if they can log in and do it themselves.
- Your website doesn’t feature a blog – A blog is good idea for the SEO benefits mentioned in point two as well as the fact that you can use a blog to let customers and prospects learn more about you and develop a comfortable relationship. In short, blog equals more traffic.
- Your website isn’t mobile friendly – With the explosive growth in smart phone and tablet ownership and usage, a responsive website that’s mobile friendly is a must. Not having one means you may be missing as much as 60-70% of your potential customer base.
- You can’t integrate your social media presence – Social media is huge and it’s here to stay. If you can’t properly integrate your social media presence with your website presence you’re missing out on a tremendous source of potential business opportunity.
- All your competitors have better websites – This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you look like you’re not as good as your competition then that’s probably what you’ll be.
- The information on your current site is outdated – If you’re still displaying old products, services, prices, contact information, etc., you definitely need to consider a new website. Not only can you update what you have now but you can build a site to make it easier to update in the future.
- Your pages take too long to load – With technology advancements over the past few years there’s no good reason every page on your website shouldn’t load in less than a couple seconds. People don’t want to wait for pages to load. If you make them, they’ll leave.
- You have a hard time finding your own website on Google – Search engines have become increasingly intelligent over the past few years and your website technology needs to keep pace. If you have trouble finding your site (and you’re looking for it), do you really think anyone else is likely to find it?
No Better Marketing Investment
Just because it’s a great investment doesn’t mean it has to be a really expensive project. You don’t need to pay $10,000 to get a really nice, professional, modern website that looks great and is easy to update. When weighing the cost versus the benefits, there’s probably no better investment for your marketing dollars than a new website.
