How An Out Of Date Website Design Costs You Business

Your website is your business address on the Internet. Prospective customers will visit your website to learn more about your business. They want to know who you are, what your products and services are about, and how your business can address their pressing problems and concerns.

In the real world as well as in the virtual world, first impressions last. If your website is out-of-date in terms of design and function, prospective customers may prefer to click out rather than explore its contents further. According to a study made by the Stanford Web Credibility Research group, 75% of consumers say that they base their assumptions on credibility on website design. Furthermore, a study from Forrester Research showed that a redesign of a website’s user interface (UI) can increase conversion rates by 200%.

By having an out-of-date website, you will accomplish 2 things:

1. You will lose business opportunities.
2. You will drive more business to your competitors.

5 Reasons Why Your Website Needs A Redesign

The consequences of having an out-of-date website go beyond just prospective customers clicking out of your page:

• Your sales conversion rate will be lower.
• There will be less traffic on your website.
• Google will penalize your website in the search rankings.
• Your business reputation will be tarnished.
• You will lose followers.

These consequences are damaging to your business. Remember, people run search queries on the Internet to find what they need. If your out-of-date website is putting people off, you could be leaving hundreds, even thousands of dollars on the table.

So how do you know that your website needs a redesign?

Your Current Website Does Not Support SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process that uses various techniques and tactics to help your website rank higher in search results. Whether your industry is competitive or not, you need SEO for your website to be found on the Internet.

How old is your website? Does anyone know how to update its content or introduce upgrades to its features? If your website cannot relate to how current websites are being designed, it may have been built on a platform that will make it hard for SEO professionals to get it optimized.

In order for your website to be optimized, it should make it easy for a webmaster or an SEO expert to add content and introduce improvements to its features.

Website speed is also an important ranking factor. If your website is very slow, it will make it harder for search bots to index its pages. Likewise, users will get frustrated as a slow-loading page will contribute to a poor experience.

The Design Of Your Website Repels Customers

Would you patronize a restaurant that smells moldy, has flies buzzing around the place, and where the tables and chairs are littered with food debris and soiled dishes? Chances are you would walk out.

The same can be said about your out-of-date looking website. If a visitor finds your website “uninviting”, he/she will simply click out. After all, it only takes 1/10th of a second for a person to make a first impression. You want that first impression of your website to last. Although beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the look of your website should adhere to what is acceptable in the industry.

So why not visit the websites of your competitors? What do they look like? Are their websites more visually-appealing compared to yours? Do you find yourself thinking “Wow!” or “Oh, I get it”? After visiting your competitors’ websites, are you now embarrassed to give out your URL?

It’s Hard To Navigate Around Your Website

Form and function are equally important in website design. You may have a website that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye; however, if navigability is a problem and the visitor cannot find his/her way around it, the result will be the same: the visitor will click out.

Poor navigation is the result of your website having bad or broken links. The user cannot go to the desired page and get the information that he/she wants. In order for your website to have excellent navigability, it should have sticky menus that house all of the important links of the site on every page. Effective navigability will give your visitors an organized and well-structured roadmap of your website.

Poor Quality Content Is Putting Off Customers

People patronize websites that consistently publish great content. What makes content “great”? The information that you share should be relevant, useful, unique, compelling, and engaging. In short, it must have value.

If visitors click on your content and feel like they have been shortchanged or have wasted their time, they will never come back. Can you imagine clicking on a carpet cleaning website and finding out the company is still espousing vacuum cleaning while its competitors are already blogging about hot water extraction, steam cleaning, encapsulation technology, and dry carpet cleaning?

Your Website Is Vulnerable To Malicious Attacks

The number of hacks and other malicious acts of cyber-criminality is increasing every year. Customers have become wary of patronizing websites that are vulnerable to malicious attacks because their personal data can be stolen. This is the reason why in July 2018, Google made it mandatory for all websites to have SSL or Secure Sockets Layer certificates. SSL is a program that encrypts data as it moves from browser to server. A website that does not have SSL will be marked “Not Secure” by Google.

Hackers can also find their way into your website through outdated plug-ins and programs that have hardly been used. Thus, in addition to getting SSL certificates for your website, you should also update its features and “clean house” by removing obsolete and unused programs.

One of the worst pieces of advice that you can get is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In website design, you don’t need to wait for it to break before you should fix it. You want to make sure that people who visit your website are happy and satisfied with the experience. In the same way that you would hire an architect or an interior designer to evaluate the look and feel of your physical office, you should contract the services of a professional website designer to evaluate the look and feel of your website.