By Kristie Parker
I know I’m not the only one.
It happens to the best of us.
Even the most self-motivated go-getters do it. We truly do have every intention of updating our website but…we don’t have time. Other stuff takes priority. It’s overwhelming. And frankly, the old one works just fine. Doesn’t it?
Consider the Acura Integra you desperately desired in high school. The one with the rear spoiler and sunroof. Driving one said a lot about who you were back then.
You were cool, confident, and had some money (probably from your part-time job at Chili’s). But Acura doesn’t make Integras anymore. Over time they became outdated, demand dwindled, and they lost their luster.
When you started your business there were a thousand things you needed to learn and do. Creating a website was one of them and you probably sighed with relief when it was done and you could cross it off your endless to-do list.
But just like a new car, website designs change, technology advances, and something that used to be trendsetting can now look tacky.
So if you’re considering whether or not your site needs updates take a look at our list of 10 sure signs that your website is outdated and, consequently, costing you business.
How many apply to you?
Years ago web designers developed cutting-edge technology that allowed them to include text and graphics on the same page. And boy did they go to town.Websites were full of information. It came at us from all directions culminating in a confusing, cluttered mess.
Thankfully, we don’t have to settle for this style anymore. Customers today prefer clean, easy-to-navigate designs that make us feel comfortable, not anxious. Take a look at your layout. Is your contact information easy to find?
What is the most important thing you want your customers to know? It probably has something to do with how you can help them, right? Does your homepage convey that message? Let visitors know they’re in the right place by creating clarity immediately with short messages that speak directly to your customer.
A mobile device is any handheld computer: a smartphone, tablet or e-reader. Over 4.18 billion people access the internet from their mobile devices. We check email, social media, and do a whole lot of Google searches.
The trouble is, lots of websites only work well on desktop computers because they haven’t been optimized (updated) for mobile devices. Because the screen size is different, the content size needs to change too, so it’s easy to read and the links need to be clickable.
A small button (think: Click Here for a Free Estimate) might be easy to click with a mouse, but once you shrink its size to fit an iPhone screen it can become really hard for a person with large fingers to tap that same itty-bitty button with a big ‘ol meaty thumb.
And because we have limitless options online, this seemingly minor annoyance will quickly send a potential customer packing.
Simple updates to your car, like changing your brake pads, provide huge benefits. New pads provide safety and keep you from wearing down the entire brake system which would result in much more costly repairs. The same is true of your website.
Imagine you own a landscaping service. You hand out business cards to all of your customers. But then you change your phone number. And now you have to print new cards, not to mention other promotional materials like brochures. What a pain. Not to mention the extra expense.
In the meantime, one of your favorite customers needs to get in touch with you. She tries the number on your old business card, but no luck. Well that’s okay, she can Google you, right?
Except…you haven’t gotten around to changing the phone number listed on your site because even though it seems easy you’re not really sure how to do it and haven’t had time to figure it out. Meanwhile that favorite customer hires someone else because you’re just too difficult to get in touch with.
Visitors are 80% more likely to read content if it’s paired with an image and 64% more likely to remember what they read.
Our websites are a peek inside of our company. They tell our story and allow us to connect with people who share our values. The images we use can make our online guests feel warm and cheery or sad and neglected.
For example, would you rather buy a home from a realtor who posts this pic on her site:
Or this one:
Your website needs to show us who you are. Matching a face to a business builds trust. The internet is impersonal. There are online scams and con artists everywhere.
Let your customers see who they are working with so they feel protected and cared for. In addition, it allows us to remember you and your business.
People are great at remembering pictures. According to Brainrules.net, when we hear a piece of information, three days later we can only recall 10% of it. However, when it’s paired with a picture, we remember 65%.
Don’t want to spend $500 on a professional photo shoot? Read our tips on how to take your own high-quality photos for free.
Could we all benefit from some time to stop and smell the roses. Of course. But NOT when we’re hurriedly searching for information. No, we are at our most impatient when we’re online.
We need answers NOW.
How do we know this? Because over one-third of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load.
How long is too long? 47% of users expect a maximum of 2 seconds loading time for an average website.
We know the importance of including engaging website images, but if the files and pictures are too large they’ll take a long time to load and customers will get frustrated and click away. A modern website should have a plug-in (piece of software) to optimize the image size without slowing things down.
You see, in the early 2000s word-of-mouth referrals worked just fine. But today we are teeming with choices.
Having so many choices altered our behavior. We still talk to people, but we also started reading online reviews to decide where to go on vacation and where to eat dinner.
You know what else we started doing? Vetting our friends’ recommendations. Your brother’s glowing review of that new BBQ joint is great, but does he really know the finer points of smoked ribs? Perhaps. But you check Yelp too, just in case.
Statistics show that a referral from someone we know is still the most powerful motivator for us when deciding to make a purchase.
This means that your favorite customer referring you to all of her friends isn’t enough. Those friends are still going to check you out online. And if they don’t like what they see, just like the BBQ joint with the 1-star Yelp review, it can overpower even a trusted recommendation.
The internet has provided us with endless options. And this created a unique situation for businesses. Instead of appealing to as many people as possible we realized the power of targeting a niche. The customers we really want to work with. Because they get us. They value our special product or service.
After all, there are tons of bakeries. Don’t you want customers to know that you won the award for best glazed doughnut this year or that you are the only shop in town that makes gluten-free croissants?
It puts our clients at ease when they know what to expect from us. By browsing our website, they’ve already started getting to know us and that reduces the risk of doing business with us.
Websites are digital business cards. The colors, font, and images, if used properly, tell strangers a lot about our business. They instantly know if we are a fancy boutique or a no-frills, bare-bones supply store.
So visitors know what to expect before they’ve even walked in the door. And that makes people feel comfortable. What does your site say about you?
True story: I have a friend who’s been in real estate for over 30 years. Her husband created a website for her business in the early 2000s. Suffice it to say that by 2020 it checked all of this article’s red flags. But she dragged her feet on replacing it with a new site because all of her business came from referrals.
Until…word got back to her that not one, but two referred clients refused to hire her based on her archaic, virtual cobweb of a website.
They wondered all of the horrible things we never want our clients to think about us. That she:
Of course none of those things are true, but who can blame a stranger for thinking that? When they haven’t worked with us yet, they don’t have much to go on. And remember, they have loads of choices. So if they smell the tiniest scent of carelessness or apathy it’s enough to scare them right into the arms of our competition.
Now that you’ve read the 10 warning signs, take a look at your site with fresh eyes. You work too hard to lose business with a mediocre website. In fact, maybe you aren’t letting your website do some of the work for you.
Could you adjust it to make it a place that shows customers that you’re grateful that they’ve arrived here?
Can you show them how your business can help alleviate a problem?
Can you show them how simple it is to get in touch with you?
Your relationship starts here, on your website, and you hold the power to ensure that your first impression is warm and personal.
