3 Reasons Why You Need to Update Your Website in 2024
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In today’s digital age, your website plays a crucial role in driving the success of your business, however they are often overlooked and underfunded. Technology is always evolving and consumer expectations changing, making it essential to regularly update your website to maximise its effectiveness at engaging and converting your target audience. For this reason, it is important to understand the cost of an outdated website.
Let’s explore 3 reasons why you might need to update your website in 2024. Do any of these apply to your website?
1. A Fading Relevance For Brand Identity
When you first launched your website, it likely reflected your brand well, however how many years ago was that? And how much has your business changed since?
As a brand evolves, so too should your website, however due to time and cost constraints a business’s website often falls a few steps behind. It is a common misconception to think not updating your website is a ‘cost saving’, when more often than not, your bad website is losing you sales.
Your website is often the first point of contact for your potential customers and it should reflect your brand’s values, messaging and products/services. Outdated information and designs can create a negative impression and undermine your credibility. Ultimately, experiences like these will lead to a lack of engagement, reduced time on your site and a high bounce rate.
If your website's bounce rate is over 60%, it’s time for a refresh!
2. A Web Flow That Doesn't Flow
A website that offers a seamless and well thought out user experience is more likely to attract and retain visitors. If your website’s design and flow doesn’t navigate users towards clear call-to-actions (CTA) or fails to prolong the time spent on pages through quality content, then it needs to be updated.
Evaluating your website’s user interface and navigation can help you to understand if they are user friendly and intuitive. If users experience page errors, navigation issues and poorly laid out content, they will likely exit your website immediately. Examining user behaviour on your site and identifying hot spots where user bounce rates are high, can be an effective way at highlighting and addressing problem areas.
Some hosting platforms can be challenging to use and may deter you from updating content and working on your website. If this is the case, it’s time for a change. We promote platforms such as Webflow, that are user friendly and allow teams with little web experience to effectively manage their site with ease.
The content on your website should be purpose driven, meaning there is reason behind its positioning on your website, it has an end goal and it encourages the user to take action. A poorly designed website will fail to lead your users to designated CTA areas such as lead generation forms or email sign ups, resulting in users tailing off your website - even those with high-intent. It is crucial to work with web designers who understand how an effective web flow structure can get users into the sales funnel and start converting.
3. The Missing Piece of the Puzzle... Technical SEO
Driving traffic to your website is an ongoing challenge, and without regular Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) updates you could be fighting a losing battle. A primary reason to update your website in 2024 is to maximise its Technical SEO elements. Search engines constantly update their algorithms to deliver the most relevant and user-friendly results, and you want your website to be included.
SEO involves a variety of improvement techniques to organically increase traffic to your website. Technical SEO encompasses various aspects, including HTML, meta data, and responsiveness. Ensure that your website's HTML code is clean, well-structured, and optimised for search engines to crawl and index easily. Additionally, pay attention to metadata, such as title tags and meta descriptions, as they play a crucial role in improving your website's visibility in search results.
With the increasing use of mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly and responsive website is no longer an option but a necessity. Update your website's design and layout to ensure it adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes, providing an optimal user experience across all devices.
Paying attention to your website’s loading speed will help minimise bounce rates. Users expect fast-loading pages, and a slow website can significantly impact a positive UX. Using deferred or lazy loading can be one way to help speed your website up, whilst continuing to provide high quality content in the form of images and videos.
Conclusion
Your website is a team member worth investing in! We work with a variety of businesses to support the ongoing maintenance and development of their websites. This continuous improvement means your website never becomes static and falls behind user needs. Ultimately, keeping it driving traffic, engaging users and converting customers.
Reach out to us so we can assess your current website and identify key areas to improve, driving success in alignment to your business objectives.
Want to find out how your website can be improved? Send us a message below.