Digital Marketing
Traditionally, your website is the first thing people see when they come across your brand. And believe us when we say they’re judging you, quickly. In fact it only takes 0.05 seconds for the average web user (including potential clients) to make a first impression based on how your site looks.
While the cogs of your digital marketing strategy machine, like organic and paid social media, help grow your brand, having a beautiful website that gives your customers useful, accessible information is just as important. It’s not enough to just have a website and hope for the best any more.
If you want to compete against hundreds (if not thousands) of competitors in your industry, you need to be thinking cleverly about your online presence. A fully-functioning website that ticks the right digital marketing boxes is key.
Easy wins like fast loading speeds through Technical SEO, to big builds that create the right user experience are all the hallmarks of a modern website, and give you the best chance of ranking high with Google.
Here are our 9 reasons why you should get a new website:
It looks (and feels) out of date
If you hate looking at your site because it’s old, there’s a high chance everyone coming onto it thinks the same as you. First impressions count. You want to keep customers on your site and stop high bounce rates.
Remember, what was stylish in 2018 site builds is almost certainly not the case any more. Your brand is modern, make sure your website reflects that.
You haven’t built a mobile-friendly site
No matter the industry, most people will be seeing your website for the first time on their mobile phone. Statista says that over half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices (excluding tablets), so listen to them and build a mobile-responsive website that isn't slow to load.
That means that, whichever landing page they first click on, it will look just as good in the palm of their hands as it does on a full desktop screen. We call this responsive web design in the industry, and it should be a big part of your strategy.
The user experience is rubbish
User experience (or UX) is digital lingo for how easy it is to navigate a site. Does your website have obstacles in place that make it difficult for customers to buy from you? Or will clients be confused because of some buried information?
It could even be as basic as having too many colours on your site, causing any of your website visitors to want to click off straight away because their eyes are hurting! Luckily, seventy7’s expert digital designers know how to create a smooth user experience that’ll help increase sales.
It’s not very interesting
Is your content keeping people engaged through good website design? Do they care about how it looks, or what information is available to them, or are they leaving it quickly?
Don’t forget that people don’t always come to your homepage first. So you should find where your content is going wrong on other pages through heatmaps and bounce rates. Then you know exactly where to fix up.
You didn’t build it on a CMS
A Content Management System (CMS) is the best way to simply (and quickly) write, update, or change content on your site without spending three hours learning basic code. Most sites these days are built using CMS, while some older websites are “static” - which means they can only be changed via coding.
If yours isn’t built on a CMS, you run into the potential danger of being left behind if you’re waiting for a web developer to change anything in the background. Don’t leave it to chance and make sure your website’s back-end works for your needs!
It’s not a reflection of your brand
What’s the point of spending time on your brand guidelines if your site doesn’t match them? Have you spent time evolving your overall output and services, or changing your photography style?
Making everything across your business consistent means you have a better chance of fostering a community within your consumer base, and creating repeat customers through that.
You can’t see it on Google
Google’s algorithm will search through your site’s pages for hundreds of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) elements like keywords, internal links and site speed. These all create a search engine ranking that depends on how useful your website is to the end-user.
If you want a high ranking site, you have to play the SEO game. Google will decide on where your content ranks in terms of usefulness, originality, and how in-depth it goes. It also ranks you on whether you present your content the way it wants (meta tags, meta descriptions and optimised imagery). If that sounds complicated, you could always talk to our SEO experts so we can help.
It’s not accessible
Your website needs to be accessed by everyone. If your content isn’t optimised for people with additional needs, then it reflects badly on your brand. Making sure all your images have descriptive alt text, and the flow of your site is screen-reader friendly is a good start.
When you’re building a new website or creating new content, some CMS will prompt you on the accessibility of your content as you go. While this is super helpful as a short-term fix, accessibility should be part of your longer online strategy.
You don’t have any calls to action
A call to action (CTA) is the best way to get your website visitors to act. Whether you want to convert them into customers or make potential clients decide to use your services.
If you want people to take action on your site, a good CTA is an obvious button or link that drives people to the right landing page. The ideal site should have at least one CTA on it in order to drive sales, or grow your business.
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If you think making those changes sound tough, why don’t we make them for you? Get in touch with seventy7 today. Our team of specialists can grow your business with our first-class digital and web services.
Read our latest blogs here, and learn about how to use SEO tools for your site here.
