OK, I understand, it’s been on your “To Do” list for a while now, you’ve even started looking for someone to do it for you but you’re super busy, there aren’t enough hours in the day just to keep your business running.
You’re Head of Sales, Head of IT, Head of HR and you’re the founder, chief cook and bottle washer – when on earth are you supposed to find time to get a new or updated website?
Well here’s something that might just push that new website a bit further up your “To Do” list – 6 ways that your old website is damaging your business every single day.
Let’s look at it from the point of view of your potential customers ands see what they see. A potential customer comes to you to solve a problem they have, they believe your business can help them and the one thing they want you to give them is CONFIDENCE. Confidence that you are the right business for them.
When their Google search finds you and they click on your site what is the first impression they get and assumptions they make?
“Business must be slow for these guys - it doesn’t look like they’ve touched their site in years.”
“Why, why, WHY do I have to pinch my phone to zoom in on this website?”
“I wonder if this company is even still in business.”
Research indicates that it takes just 1/20th of a second for site visitors to form a first impression about your business – it’s up to you make sure it’s a good one.
6 Ways Your Outdated Website is Damaging Your Business
1. It Looks Like You Just Don’t Care
When your website looks ignored, outdated or is just plain old, it sends a clear message to your visitors – you don’t really care what their first impression of your business is, simple as that.
Chances are you get more on line visitors than physical visitors to your business so your outdated website is your shop window – does it really show case your business in the way you want it to? If the answer is “well maybe not” then it’s time for an update at the very least.
2. The Assumption Is that the Quality of Your Product/Service is Questionable
Potential customers don’t have much to go on at first when they are looking for a supplier. Cold prospects don’t have much to go on before deciding whether or not to take the next step. Your outdated website immediately makes them question what you are offering. If you don’t invest in your website how do they know you invest in the parts of the business they are interested in? Your products, your people or the processes and systems required to deliver for them.
They use your website to judge you, your company and your products before deciding whether or not they want to take a chance on you and if potential customers don’t have the CONFIDENCE in your company’s quality, they are not going to trust you with their business.
3. It No Longer Reflects Your Business
Think about what words you want to spring into your visitor’s minds when they visit your site for the first time:
Professional?
Capable?
Cutting edge?
Qualified?
Well trained?
Personable?
Friendly?
You can write your own list but once you have this list take a good look at your website that hasn’t been touched in years and ask yourself what it makes you think? Better still get an impartial friend to look at it and write down what they think – chances are it won’t match what you want I’m afraid.
4. Your Site Makes Your Competitors Look Great
A Google search is the most common way for your potential customers to start their research process and you hope that yours is one of the first sites they click on – but you can guarantee yours won’t be the only one.
When they land on your sadly neglected site they form a pretty instant impression of you and your business before clicking on the next one that catches their eye. I’m afraid a smart looking well designed highly functional website trumps yours every time regardless of the reality of how good your business is. You’ve just made your competitor look great without even trying and they are instantly above you on that person’s list of potential suppliers.
5. Google Doesn’t Like Outdated Websites
Google is the most commonly used search engine and they are constantly working to improve the quality of its search results for users – their goal is simple, to deliver a list of the best websites to each and every searcher every time.
Here are just a couple the things that will affect the ranking of your outdated website:
NUMBER ONE – non mobile-friendly websites are penalized with lower rankings
NUMBER TWO – freshly updated website content boosts Google rankings
These are just a couple of the obvious ones but there are literally hundreds more that Google use to rank websites and broadly speaking websites that remain current are rewarded with higher rankings
So, if you’re wondering why you are never on page one of a Google search, now you know.
6. It Looks Like You Are Out of Business
It may seem harsh but a website that quite obviously hasn’t been touched for years makes it look like you are no longer in business.
“Your outdated website is like putting a ‘Closed for Business’ sign in your window.” It makes potential customers question whether you are still in business and quite frankly they don’t have the time or inclination to find out if that s true or not, they simply skip on to the next site their search throws up.
So, there you have it, just some of the ways an old and outdated website can seriously damage your business. BUT, it’s not all doom and gloom, get someone to cast a fresh eye over your site and give you an honest verdict.
Then you need to act – push the problem to the top of your “To Do” list and get some help – you can go back to the people who originally designed it for you (but honestly if they haven’t bothered to pitch an upgrade to you in the past few years then you might be better looking else where).