An outdated website can lead to a whole host of issues, whether it be security issues or issues with the design and content not keeping up with current trends, these can drive away potential customers and increase bounce rates. These are two things you do not want. Here’s a list of reasons we’ve compiled to help you decide whether it’s time to give that old website of yours, a service.

1. Visual Appeal

We can’t stress enough how important your website’s design is in helping a user decide whether they want to do business with you or not. More and more users are now searching for businesses websites to see if they look reputable and can be trusted. If your website is looking tired and outdated, it’s less likely to retain visitors. Some indicators to a poor website are content and structure, bear in mind you have approximately 8 seconds to convert a visitor to a ‘potential customer’.

Your website needs to be a representation of the brand image you’re looking to portray. If users are not getting this as soon as they land on your website, there’s something wrong. Users should be able to navigate through the site with ease and get to their final destination without any trouble, this might be making a phone call, filling out a form or even a purchase.

2. Responsiveness/Mobile Friendliness

A huge amount of the web’s traffic is now coming from mobiles and tablets. Users are now browsing the web through multiple platforms and expect websites to be responsive. This means minimal scrolling, tapping and content that’s easily visible. By having a mobile-friendly website, you’re offering your users quality of assurance knowing they’ll get the same user experience no matter what device they are using.

A website which does work on mobiles is almost not worth having. Users tend to leave a page which does not display correctly on their mobile devices, instantly. Considering your users are online and visiting your website, it’s right to say the hard part is already done, you’ve let them in, why not let them get comfortable?

3. Security

Keeping your website up to date is necessary to avoid security problems, whether this be through the websites code or through the CMS system. Ensure you are using the latest technologies to help counter hackers and potential attacks.

Websites get targeted every day, some attacks you can see straight away with intrusive pop-ups, changing of the content without your knowledge, increase in dangerous back links for your users or sometimes they can be through the back-end of your site and use your website as a spam server.

If you’ve got an old website using outdated technologies or insecure hosting, you’re more prone to these attacks as they’re more easily accessible by hackers. Keeping your website updated will ensure your users are safe when they’re browsing your site.

4. Content

A website’s content is just as important as the design, your content is you speaking directly to your user. So, this needs to be informative and up to date. Content needs to be regularly updated to keep visitors engaged. Visual content is a key piece of the puzzle overlooked by many businesses. Custom photography and videography is crucial to giving users the best possible experience when visiting your website. As the digital world evolves so do the users, stock photography and videography is now becoming more and more obvious and disliked. It doesn’t cost much to hire a freelance photographer for a day and create content that will not only last a long time but can be used on different platforms and doesn’t include licensing fees. 

This is another case of keeping up to date with trends and showing your consumers you’re on the ball with it. This will help encourage users to continue their online visit with you and press the share button.

5. SEO

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO for short, has changed dramatically in recent years. Several years ago, websites all around the world were just creating millions of backlinks to their site, thinking they’ll end up on the first page of Google in no time by doing this. The amount of websites who have not updated their SEO practices from this is shocking.

Google has recently been penalising outdated websites, as they are not ranking high in their quality score. This is due to poor user experience, outdated content and poor quality back-links. If you’ve not updated the way your company does SEO, you could be missing out on valuable footfall in your sectors organic search market. 

“Where’s the best place to hide a body?”

“On the second page of Google.”…

… We’ll show ourselves out.

Contact iirth today if you’re website is in need of an urgent refresh. You could be doing more harm to your business than you know. Click here.