Do you already have your website up and running? Have you engaged in web design and development services in the past? Is your site loading fast, attractive and efficient, but still doesn’t drive the expected traffic? Is your website not effective enough to grow your business or are you losing business? If so, those are the signs its time to update your website. You probably need to add a few features or updated your website.
Don’t rush though, maybe your website is good, but your marketing is not. So, before you go ahead with your update plans to redesign your website, have a read this blog post to understand the signs that suggest whether or not your website needs an update.
The following words from the once tech giant Nokia’s CEO are one of the greatest sources of learning for all businesses irrespective of the size or the type of the business.
“It’s not necessary that you fail only if you do something wrong. Not changing the way you do things can also be the reason.”
Experts believe that Nokia could not keep up with the changing trends and that was the reason for their failure. You too need to constantly keep updating your website according to the changing market trends.
In web design and development services, you are noticing the following, 8 useful ways for update website.
CHANGES IN THE BEHAVIOR OF WEBSITE VISITORS
Visitor behavior examination includes utilizing numerous devices that assist you to track your website’s execution, get it to site visitors’ on-site behavior, distinguish encounter breakages, interface with personal guests for feedback and proposals, and after that utilize all the bits of knowledge to optimize the site-wide encounter.
The online behavior of people has changed drastically over the last couple of years. What people expected from a website 10 years ago is not what they expect today. Some of the main behavioral changes of people visiting your site are:
01. Increased use of mobile devices
According to Statistica, more than 90% of the global internet users use mobile devices to go online and it is estimated to grow even more in the future. More than 55% of the global web traffic is recorded through mobile devices.
Today, mobile phones have become a part of the lifestyle for many people and they prefer using mobile devices to search for general information, conduct research before purchasing a product or a service, make online purchases etc. over desktop. Therefore, if your website isn’t mobile friendly (optimized for mobile) you are missing out on a significant amount of potential customers.
02. Busy lifestyles of people
The lives of people around the world have become busier and much more complicated when compared to 10 years ago. They are always looking for shortcuts to save time and effort. Because of this, when browsing through a website, people expect more visual components that allow them to scan through and get the idea rather than reading through chunks of content.
Also, they expect smooth navigation across different web pages and segments, so that they can find the information they are looking for without spending much time and effort.
03. Increased demand for online purchases
With the busy lifestyle and advanced technology, the demand for e-commerce has increased drastically over the past few years. With the shutdown of physical stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce has become a basic requirement for businesses to survive. Even people who didn’t prefer e-commerce shifted towards online shopping because of this.
If your website is not an e-commerce website, you are missing out a lot of potential customers and might be very difficult to survive the competition.
EMERGING NEW DESIGN TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Technology is growing at a faster rate than ever before and new trends are emerging every day. And it is important that your website is updated using the latest technologies and is aligned with the new design trends. Some of the latest website design trends are;
- Parallax scroll animations
- Horizontal scrolling
- Multimedia experiences
- Augmented reality (AR) experiences
- Increased focus on muted colors
- Abstract art compositions
COMPETITORS OUTRANK YOU IN GOOGLE
First and foremost, your website has to rank amongst the top, for it to drive traffic and business for your brand. There is no point in having the best of the websites if your customers or potential customers are not able to find it on the web. Web crawlers or spiders need to crawl to your website easily for your website to appear amongst the top. If you are not able to find your website on the first page by entering a few keywords, your customers won’t find it either. This is a clear sign that you need to work on your website.
Updating a website doesn’t necessarily mean updating the content, but it also includes the domain and search engine optimisation. There are a variety of strategies and tools you can employ to rank better on Google. The technology web crawlers use to look for a website is based on certain algorithms. If your website is static, that is content is not refreshed over time, updated algorithms will not take the website into notice.
MOBILE RESPONSIVE SITES
Google is now ranking websites based on its mobile version rather than the desktop version. You can imagine how crucial the mobile version of your website is. According to research by Statistica, more than 62% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. If you currently don’t have a mobile responsive website, but only a desktop website, you are missing out on an opportunity to grow your business seamlessly.
If your website works well in different screen sizes but still don’t have enough traffic you need to update the website. And finally, if you don’t have any, you are lagging a bit in the race, but don’t worry it’s never too late. You start building a mobile-based website first and then get a desktop version of the same. It is a trending strategy amongst new businesses and start-ups.
TRAFFIC, LEADS AND CONVERSIONS
If your website is experiencing a drop in the web traffic, or your visitors are not being converted to your customers, then you probably need a website update. However, the first step would be to invest time to research on the reasons for the drop in the website performance. If there is a marginal drop in web traffic then rather than investing in a website update, we would recommend investing in digital marketing and lead generation. But if you have a significant decline in web traffic then updating the website would be the best option.
If your traffic is increasing with the same website that you had for some time now, that is because of good marketing and customers’ trust that has been built around your brand. However, it is important to constantly monitor the website and update when it is necessary.
USER EXPERIENCE
Ranking amongst the top, digital marketing and having both desktop and mobile responsive sites are the first steps in driving traffic to your website. Once your potential customer is on your website, it takes reasonable efforts to keep them engaged to the site for long. You need to have products or services that your target audience is searching for, an effortless user experience and engaging posts. Otherwise, your potential customers will have to face a poor user experience.
For instance, you want to buy a refrigerator with certain specifications, you are directed to a business website that offers all the electronic devices. But you notice that the site took too long to load. Every new page takes time to load. You don’t have the option to provide refrigerator specifications and sort accordingly. If at all you find the product, it is not clear on how to check out. You or any other customer will be annoyed naturally. This is the user experience you will like your customers to avoid. On the other hand, imagine a website that provides you an option to sort, instant loading, and easy checkout. What will you choose?
Try to design and develop your website from a customer perspective and assess what you experience, ask for reviews. If you find that there are things you can improve or features you can add, go ahead and update your website.
TOO DIFFICULT TO UPDATE
You should be able to present your personality through the website. A visitor to your website should be able to recognise whether you are a friendly, joyful, fun, serious, formal or informal business. Successful business owners generally do it by posting pictures or videos of new products, opening offers on websites, offering rewards etc. For you to add any of this information on your website, you need the website to be flexible. If it is taking too long to add pictures or videos or any other information, you need to immediately update your website.
Business owners may also sometimes experience that the server has shut down when a small update is made or that the site is not reachable after the update. Or for every small issue or update, they have to go back to the website development team. If you are experiencing this, you must get your website updated.
CONCLUSION
A website redesign can give your brand or the company a whole new face and add a great deal of value. It will help you revamp your digital marketing efforts and to achieve optimum results.
If you are looking for a website design and development agency to help you redesign your website and attract more quality customers, DigiFix is here to help. Contact us today or give us a call at +61 3 8669 1773
Refer to the below articles for more information on website development:
Do you want more traffic?
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Hi, we are an Australian digital agency doing groundbreaking work to help a business like yours reach its full potential. My only question is will you qualify for our services?
Do you want more traffic?
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Hi, we are an Australian digital agency doing groundbreaking work to help a business like yours reach its full potential. My only question is will you qualify for our services?