These days, it’s critical that your website be up-to-date. Whether you’re making sales, taking advantage of low-cost advertising or simply increasing your visibility, your website is just as important as a bricks-and-mortar presence in most industries.
It’s true that updating your site comes with upfront expense. But the future revenue you can generate— whether from direct selling, ad sales, sponsored content or other means— makes keeping your site current a savvy investment in your business. If your site hasn’t been updated in a while, it likely needs attention in three major areas.
3 Non-Negotiable Website Upgrades You Need Now
Usability Best Practices
To keep visitors on your site, it must be easy to navigate. If your site is confusing, your users may not stick around long enough to learn about your company, and they may click over to a competitor instead. To determine if your site incorporates usability best practices, consider these questions:
- Can users easily accomplish basic tasks on their first visit to your site?
- How easily can users remember how to find things when they return to your site?
- How quickly can users perform tasks once they learn your site’s design?
- How many mistakes do your users make in navigating your site?
- Is your site pleasant to use?
Adaptive, Mobile Design
If your site doesn’t look good and work well on mobile devices, you’re potentially missing out on revenue. Studies indicate that more people are now browsing the web from mobile devices than from desktops.
If your site isn’t set up for mobile, you have two basic options:
- Create a mobile site, which is a separate site that’s designed specifically for mobile phones and mobile browsers. Your mobile site may share the overall look of your main site, but it will be designed differently, with click-to-call phone numbers and other mobile-ready features.
- Redesign your site using responsive design. This method allows you to have a single site that automatically adjusts to the screen size of the device used for viewing. This is recommended.
Search Engine Optimization
It won’t matter how great your site looks or how usable it is if no one can find it. For effective search engine placement, your site needs an SEO strategy tailored to your specific target audience. From the ground up, your site should be designed in a way that provides a platform for compelling content and that encourages social sharing. An effective SEO strategy will help maximize incoming links to your site, along with associated revenue.
While updating your site begins as an expense, it can lay the groundwork for future revenue generation. Ready to get started? Give Marketing Essentials a call today at 419.629.0080 for a personal consultation with one of our Digital Strategists.
