Is a New Website on the Horizon?

Think of your website as the digital face that you show the world. In today’s business realm, you cannot exist without one. Your site is where people will go to learn about your company, discovers its products and services, and contact you for more information.

Here’s the rub, though — if you simply have a website and don’t care for it, make necessary changes, and keep it up to today’s technology standards, then your visitors will see you as behind the times. And in this day and age, that’s the very last thing you want.

So how do you know when you’re in the need for a new website? Let’s take a look at a few hints that might clue you in.

An Ugly Design

Let’s not beat around the bush — if you have an ugly looking website, you already know it. Worse yet, your potential customers know it. Your website should look presentable and streamlined. It shouldn’t look like every other website out there, but you want it to have a modern feel and appearance, unless you’re going for a very specific retro look that people will recognize.

Dead Links

If the links on your website are dead, your business might not be too far behind. When a customer clicks on a link and is sent to the dreaded “404 Error” page, there’s a good chance that’s the last page of yours he or she will attempt to view.

Prehistoric Technology

Technology changes very quickly and it’s important that you keep up. If your website is using outdated tech — Flash, for instance — then you need to make some changes — and quick!

Browser Incompatibility

It is imperative that your website has been optimized to work on all the popular browsers, especially the big four — Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome. If not, you’ll only succeed in frustrating would-be customers and pushing them away.

Mobile Unfriendliness

This is something that even rather sophisticated websites can get wrong, despite the fact that it’s extremely important in today’s market. More people are using their mobile devices — phones, tablets, laptops, watches, etc. — to browse the internet. If they land on your website and it hasn’t been properly tweaked for mobile devices, you can kiss your profits goodbye.

Slow Loading

Today’s internet users are a fickle lot, and one thing that will stick in their craw immediately is when a website is slow to load. The internet is a vast place and today’s attention span isn’t what it used to be. If parts of your website are slow, then it’s time for the design of a new website from the ground up.

Updates are Difficult

If your website has been around for a while or is simply badly designed, it might be difficult to update its content. This adds time to your workday and will often discourage many companies from making any changes at all. So, what you end up with is a site full of outdated information. That’s never good.

Search Engines Have No Idea Who You Are

No matter how great your website looks and how smoothly it operates, if you’re not being found by search engines, your business will be dead in the water. To accomplish this, your site must have the proper coding in order for it to be recognized and analyzed.