When it comes to website management, it is imperative to keep abreast of the latest trends and technological advancements. As the saying goes, if you snooze, you lose! It is simply not enough to just have a website for the sake of it because “it’s the 21st century” or “because everyone has one”.
In fact, a website that is poorly designed and maintained will do your business harm. Your website is a digital version of your organisation and if prospective customers have had a bad experience on there, such as difficulty in navigating or finding a contact address, they will perceive your entire organisation in the same mould.
Now, we’re not saying keep up to date with Google’s SEO algorithm changes or understand HTML, there are professionals who do that *cough*. However, here are 5 simple things to look out for that are sure signs that your website is out of date.
Mobile unfriendly site
“The UK is now a smartphone society…” –Ofcom, August 2015.
Last year, smart phones expectantly overtook laptops as the number one device used by UK internet users, spending at least 2 hours a day on smartphones to either shop, bank, stream videos and communicate.
We are now at record smartphone ownership levels, owned by 66% of UK adults and 90% of 16-24 year olds. Having access to 4G internet speeds is the main reason for the exponential growth in smartphone usage.
Moving over to tablet devices, ownership levels surpassed 1 BILLION worldwide last year with half the UK population owning or using a tablet. Presumably, the reason behind this is the range of tablets available; we have the high end Apple and Samsung devices, budget Android devices and child-friendly alternatives.
As you can appreciate, if your site is not able to render great on smartphone and tablet devices, you’re missing out on a HUGE opportunity to increase your sales. The way to check if your site works on a mobile device is to simply visit the website via the device and see how it looks. Most website design packages such as WordPress are automatically mobile friendly, but if this is not the case, then it needs changing ASAP.
Social media presence, a lack of
Having a social media presence is pivotal. Period. Here are some statistics:
- Number of people of active on social media: 2.2 billion.
- 9 billion of the 2.2 billion access social media from their mobiles.
- From 2014 to 2015 the number of social media users increased by 176 million.
- On Facebook, somebody creates a profile every 6 seconds.
- Every second, 12 people join any given social media platform.
- Twitter has 270 million active users.
- Instagram overtook this figure last year.
- The average Twitter user follows at least 5 or more businesses
A lack of social media presence means 2.2 billion people, which is 30% of the entire planets population, are not exposed to your business. That’s a sizeable opportunity missed, to say the least. Make sure you create a social media presence, update it with postings regularly and have links to your social media pages on your website and vice versa. Don’t know how or can’t find the time? Book your free marketing consultation and let us guide you.
Poor content
Here is some good advice on how to write a good blog. In summary, don’t keyword stuff, Google will catch you out and demote your content. Furthermore, don’t post duplicate content or you shall feel the wrath of Google’s Panda updates.
It’s important to update website content regularly, especially blog postings. If a customer sees that you’re last blog post was in May 2012, they’ll understandably assume that your organisation is not active and it’ll be off putting. Remember, your blog is your chance to position your company as the experts and go to place in the market, make sure you add one blog a month at minimum.
Slooow Website
We are an impatient society, ironically thanks to advancements in technology and the web. We can order online at a click of a few buttons and have tons of information available to us immediately. Essentially, we want things yesterday and we simply just aren’t willing to wait. If your website takes a while to upload, you’re potentially missing out on sales opportunities, customers will simply click the back button and go to the next listing in Google’s search result, it doesn’t matter if you’re first in rankings if your site takes an age to load.
There are a few ways to optimise your webpage, which will require some technological expertise. A free marketing consultation may be of help!
Poor page ranking
Having symptoms of all the above mentioned points, specifically, poor/outdated content and a slow website subsequently impacts your PageRank negatively. A PageRank is Google’s assessment of how important your content is and determines where it ends up on a search result. The lower your rank, the less chance customers will see your web page.
Addressing all above mentioned issues will see your page rank increase. It is very important to keep your website up to date, owing to the intense competitive online environment and the changes in consumer lifestyle and habits. If you’re going to invest your time, money and effort in anything, make sure your prioritise this first!
