“My site’s not THAT old”, you say to yourself…trying to feel better about the fact that you just saw a competitor’s really cool site, and your site doesn’t look cool and shiny like theirs does.
Well, maybe your site is too old and maybe it isn’t. Maybe something else is wrong. Here’s the test. Check your website against these 5 key signs and find out for sure.
1. How does your site look on your mobile phone?
Does the layout automatically change to accommodate the smaller mobile screen so you can still read everything just fine? If not, your site was either built before “Responsive” web design was an important issue, or it was built by someone who doesn’t understand how important it actually is that people can view your site and navigate through it on mobile devices. Either way, you’ll need a website that is easily viewed on all different-sized devices.
2. Do you find yourself making excuses for your website’s look when showing it to people?
This is a tricky point. If you find yourself doing this, it’s because you’re not proud of it, for one reason or another. You may not even be able to put your finger on exactly what it is that you don’t like. More often than not, the reason is an old “look” based on older design trends that date your site. Your website is supposed to be a reflection of you and your business. It’s where people go to find out about your company. It has to be something you want to show off to the world. How successful is your company going to be if you are compelled to hide your biggest potential marketing source?
A good Web Designer will be able to tell you what’s wrong with your website, and will be able to correct it.
3. Is it hard to find things on your website?
When you try to find a page on your own website, do you have trouble? Or worse, do your viewers have trouble? This is a sure sign you need to make some changes, and fast! Poorly-designed websites are confusing to the user. Sometimes the naming of pages or links is confusing. Sometimes the layout doesn’t help visitors flow to where you want them to go.
There are many things that can be wrong with a site, but the purpose of even HAVING a website is to promote your products or services, and sell something (even if it’s just your “brand”). Every difficulty in navigating around your site is lost income. Get yourself a web designer who understands the User Experience and designs with this in mind.
4. Do you get any actual traffic to your website?
Your website is your virtual storefront. You should get TONS of traffic to it. If you don’t and you didn’t just recently launch the site, something is wrong. Most of this comes under the heading of Marketing and Advertising, which you, of course, have to do to succeed in any business. But the site itself should get some organic traffic, if it’s built and designed correctly. Does your website have social icons on it? Can your blog posts be shared to social sites?
A good Web Designer should have a solid understanding of both design and marketing to create a site that does more than just sit there looking pretty. Generally, you will pay extra for these additional services, but anything that assists what you do as a business owner should be considered valuable and desired.
5. Does it take forever for your pages to load?
You try to show someone your website and you both sit there staring at the screen…waiting. This is very bad for business. Most users wait only a few seconds before giving up entirely and going to a different website to find what they’re looking for. You’ll never know how much business you’ve lost from having a slow website. But if your site is slow, you’ve lost business from it.
There could be several reasons for the slow load time, the most common of which is images not optimized for web. There are other points as well, all of which are known by Web Designers who know their business.
If you suffer from any of the above website maladies, It’s time do something about it.
And we can help. Call us today at 818.974.7900 and we’ll give you a free website analysis!
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