10 Reasons Why You Need to Update Your Website, Pronto!

It’s no secret you need a website if you want your company to succeed. But, having a custom domain name and putting up the basic information about who you are and what you do isn’t enough.

Web design is like any other business tool – it’s constantly evolving and adapting to the needs of consumers. If you aren’t doing the same, you’re falling behind and losing more business than you think.

This should be enough to convince you it’s time to update your website. If it’s not, here are ten reasons why you need to make this a priority right now.

1. To Match the Visual Trends of the Times

The website you created ten years ago shouldn’t look the same today as when it first launched. Web design has transformed since then, and even from just two or three years ago.

Users in this day and age want to see interesting interfaces that are easy to understand. They like when a homepage has videos and custom graphics, and when companies aren’t afraid to use bold color contrasts.

These are just a few visual design trends taking over the internet space. Take your time to research which ones work best for your company then start using them right away.

2. To Reach More Customers

It’s one thing to capture a user’s attention when they first visit your website, and another to get them there in the first place. Updated web design helps you reach more customers.

It ensures you’re using the best search practices possible – and with all the algorithm updates happening these days, this needs to be a constant effort. Watch your site performance carefully and do the fine-tuning that you need to if you want your rankings to be the absolute best they can be.

3. To Improve Your SEO Efforts

What if you already have a few SEO plug-ins and a pretty good ranking? Do you still need to invest in website update services? Yes, because in the world of SEO, you can have good rankings one day and fall off the top ten the next.

Think about it: there is so much that goes into getting into the top ten.

Between link building and load times, visual content and social media managing, not to mention guest posts and keyword research, there’s a lot to handle. Thankfully, taking the time to update your website on a regular basis helps you cover all your bases.

4. To Boost Conversion Rates

As beneficial as it is to incorporate advanced SEO tools and try new things, you can’t forget about the basics. It does you no good to keep updating your website if you aren’t doing so with conversions in mind.

Remember, traffic does not automatically equal sales. You have to tweak your opt-ins and do some A/B testing from time to time to raise conversions on your website. This goes for lead generation as well as completing a sale.

Whatever you want your customers to do, make sure it feels natural to them.

5. To Lower Bounce Rates

When something feels natural, it hooks users. When things go wrong, it turns them off and leads to higher bounce rates. An example of this is a slow load time, a broken link, or a website that looks like it hasn’t been touched since 2001.

Such experiences basically send users right out the door. They make people leave your website entirely and start their search over again for whatever they’re looking for.

6. To Get on Board With Mobile

Here’s a user turn-off some business owners still haven’t considered: visiting a site that isn’t mobile-friendly. More online searches are happening from smartphones and tablets than from desktop computers. This makes the argument for a mobile-friendly website non-negotiable – you need to have it if you want to stay in the game.

Otherwise, you risk losing customers because your website won’t impress them. When a site isn’t mobile-friendly, it takes more time to load and is hard to navigate. Put simply, it just doesn’t look right; it won’t impress customers and it will lower your site’s overall success.

The good news is, it’s easy to learn more about what mobile-friendly design entails.

7. To Make Navigation More User-Friendly

Easy navigation needs to be a priority for your site’s mobile set up and desktop design alike. Wherever a user is visiting you from, you have to make the customer journey simple for them.

This means creating menu bars that are attractive and efficient. It means displaying your products and services in the best way possible and making the check-out process as simple as it can be.

Such small efforts add up. They are the customer service of online shopping and product research of what a traditional in-store experience would feel like.

8. To Build Authority in Your Industry

Another reason to redesign a website is the value of updating website content regularly. If you don’t yet have a blog, you need to put that at the top of your list of things to do.

Blogging does wonders for your site performance and your business as a whole. It builds online authority for you, making your site a go-to destination for user needs within your industry.

More than that, blogging allows you to create stronger connections with your users. Every blog post you write builds trust and expresses the depth of knowledge you have about a certain subject. These make you stand out as the top choice when users are comparing different services.

9. To Out-Perform the Competition

Authority helps you beat out the competition. But, you can’t build or maintain your online authority without an updated website design.

This is because blogging and SEO go hand in hand. It’s not enough to write about the industry experience you have if you aren’t optimizing your content. Not to mention, on-site optimization and SEO practices as a whole don’t stop there.

You also need to think about social media, email marketing, and link building when updating your website. With this big picture approach, you create a much stronger presence in your market to hold up against the competition.

10. To Increase Site Security

The final reason to update your website is to update your site security. As new search practices and online tools are entering the digital realm, so are innovative hacking mechanisms. You need to protect yourself and your users from potential attacks.

If a hacker were to access your site, it could ruin the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. Nothing breaks a user’s trust more than having their personal information stolen. This compromises their finances and their identity, and it’s a one-way ticket for you to lose a significant amount of business.

Update Your Website with the Top SEO Strategies of Today

So, what exactly do you need to include in your new website? Start with a blog and a mobile-friendly design if you haven’t taken care of these things already.

From there, research SEO plug-ins and aesthetic tools you can use to update your website. To discover the most popular and effective things site owners are doing right now, click here.