An outdated website is a shot at the knee of every entrepreneur. Your spending on advertising and SEO will be of no avail if your website scares you away, looks long, has unfriendly navigation and often hangs. These signs may indicate that you will need to rebuild your website.
Wherever the reality of Internet and business meets, changes take place very dynamically. What was sufficient yesterday may be obsolete tomorrow. The consequence is the outflow of customers from the online store and worse visibility of the site on Google. Perhaps it is largely responsible for this weak position – a poorly optimized website.
Today I have prepared a guide on the factors determining whether the website is outdated, and therefore ineffective and harmful to your interests. It is worth analyzing your website in this respect considering the following factors:
1. THE PARTY HAS A HIGH REJUVING RATIO
This is the first indication that the site may need remodeling. A high bounce rate means that people enter the site, but they exit it quickly. For some reason, she is unattractive to them. The increase of the bounce rate is also affected by the lack of the assumed interaction, i.e. the user does not go to the necessary subpage. There may be many reasons, such as slowly loading subpages and uninteresting and badly placed texts full of errors. Incorrectly matched keywords and bad navigation are also not compatible with UX rules. The reason may also be an unprofessional appearance, improper design, and even cliche – incorrect placement of the tracking code in Google Analytics.
2. THE PAGE IS NOT ADAPTED TO MOBILE DEVICES
For several years, Google has been strongly promoting websites adapted for convenient use on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. It does not end on promoting. The search engine favors such websites and places them higher in the ranking. This, in turn, translates into the position of a given page in the search results. Currently, more people are browsing the internet on a smartphone than on a laptop / desktop computer, so you need to consider this.
The best method is to invest in a responsive website. Reconstruction of the website in the rwd technology will automatically adjust all elements to the screen resolution on which it will be browsed. Most importantly, there is only one version, you do not need to create two separate – for computers and mobile devices. Responsive websites are much better rated by Google and constitute an important ranking factor.
3. THE APPEARANCE OF THE WEBSITE IS OBSERVED AND NON-EXTRATER
In the proverb “how they see you write so much” there is a lot of truth. The website’s appearance can either effectively attract customers’ attention or discourage them. Users prefer to buy products in aesthetically made online stores. The products are presented here in a transparent and attractive way, and the whole website looks modern and professional. This policy also applies to corporate websites. Most of us looking for information direct their steps to Google right away. Thinking is simple: a professional website = a professional company. Your site was designed 5-6 years ago and nothing has changed in its appearance? It probably requires a facelift or a completely new graphic design. One that is compatible with current website design principles (web design) and UX.
4. THE PAGE DOES NOT HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND WILL HURT THIS CLICK
In order for the website to be modern and, importantly, effective, it should have useful functions that allow users to quickly and efficiently reach the information they need. These can be modules that enable easy and quick contact with the company, such as the contact form or livechat. Also important is the hierarchy of elements on the page, appropriately composed menu or placement of CTA buttons. The user should immediately after entering the website be able to identify the company name and profile of its activity. Internet users also acquire new habits in browsing the offers of various companies and expect that the company’s website will include a gallery of exemplary realizations or a list of clients with which the company has cooperated / cooperated. It is also worth remembering about such elements.
5. THE PAGE IS FREE TO LOAD
The loading time of a website is of enormous importance in SEO. PageSpeed has a big impact on the bounce rate, which in turn – affects the position of our site on Google. The page should load as soon as possible. You need to analyze its structure in terms of elements that slow down the loading. You can use the free Google PageSpeed Insights tool. Then you need to remove the moderators, which is done through many different activities. It can be a reduction in graphic size or a change of server provider. Above all, however, it is important to build the website itself and apply specific programming solutions. The factors independent of us, such as the speed of the users’ internet connection, are also important.
6. SELF-ADDING THE CONTENT IS DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE
The site is managed via content management systems (CMS). These activities include, for example, publishing new entries on the company blog, adding information about promotions, discounts, sales campaigns. It also adds new photos and texts as well as minor cosmetic changes. It’s good that you can do it yourself, right? This is the most feasible, also for people who do not know how to program. For this reason, it is better to build a site on well-known and widely used CMSs, such as WordPress. Investing in the proprietary system, whose service will be possible only by people directly involved in the project, may create problems in the future (it is enough if a person who knows how to get away from work).
Systems such as WordPress enable self and quick addition of content by the website owner itself or a delegate. Their handling is easy and transparent, and it is also possible to quickly add new functions on the website or to quickly change the arrangement of fields, etc. It is worth adding that some complex systems require turning off the whole page in a situation where we want to change something on it. This, of course, causes downtime, problems for users, the consequence of which is the increased bounce rate.
YOU CAN NOT EVALUATE THE SCALE OF NEEDED CHANGES? GET AUDIT SEO
To make a diagnosis, a test is necessary. Not every website or shop owner knows how to create websites, so it will be difficult for them to assess and specify all aspects that need to be corrected or changed. For this purpose, you can, for example, ask a professional company to conduct an SEO audit. During such a service, the SEO specialist will check with the help of advanced analytical tools, eg Sitemeans, that the site is correctly constructed and complies with the Google guidelines.
Under these terms, there are many small things that need to be checked (eg the structure of URLs for all subpages, redirections needed, 404 errors, broken links, etc.), and in case of errors – recommend correcting them. It is therefore a reasonable first step and a solid basis to assess the necessity and the degree of improvement needed on the website.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE WEBSITE – SUMMARY
Continuous development and adaptation to the requirements of the search engine on the one hand, and the requirements of website users on the other are the conditions that necessitate ongoing updating of the website. Perhaps the reason for the worse results of your company or online store are not ineffective campaigns or SEO activities, but just an outdated, poorly optimized and slow-loading website that scares off. In today’s guide, I have presented the most important factors that prove the need to rebuild the website.
Picture Credit: coffeebeanworks