Was your website built a few years back and you are not getting any leads or traffic from it? If yes, keep reading this blog to understand why it may be time to consider a Website Update!

Before diving into the reasons for keeping your website modern and up to date, let’s first understand why every business needs a website in the first place. One of the most important lessons from COVID-19 is the significance of having a digital existence for your business. A professional website can have an enormous impact on your business and its online presence. Here’s how!

• Credibility

Communicating quality information clearly to your customers along with a good UI and UX can help you stand out from your competitors and make your first impression as a legitimate business.

• Brand Management:

A website is the face of your business online and one of the key brand elements. It is often through websites that the audience has their first interactions with your brand.

• More Traffic & Leads:

An SEO-optimized and responsive website has a higher chance of ranking on Google SERP. This means, when your Buyer Persona is looking for products or services related to your business, your website could come up on the first page of Google increasing the leads to your business.

• Real-Time Customer Service:

• Announcements & Updates shared with many in seconds:
  

A website can be very easily updated using Content Management System like WordPress and updates can be shared in seconds with worldwide users. Several companies updated the changes in their businesses due to COVID-19 on their websites which provided clear information to the audience.

Growing your brand online is a continuous process and building a professional website is just the first step towards it.

To keep your position firm in the limited online search result space, your website needs to match the current trends in terms of both designs as well as functionality.

Contact Us Now
To Get Expert Advice
on Growing your Brand Online!

Here are Top 5 reasons why you must keep your website modern and up to date.

#1 Upgrade with Google algorithm:

Your website will be able to bring you traffic and leads only when it is optimized for Google. A constant process of updates is done by Google in their algorithm to make the search results more aligned with the user’s intent with the mission to show the sites first that are loved by users. In 2021, Google is going to push a new update that focuses on Page Experience. Google has announced this update in advance so that businesses can upgrade their websites accordingly and not lose any rankings. Referring to Google’s original article, “The page experience signal measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page. Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile. We believe this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction”. The Websites that rank highest on Google are not the ones with the best backlinks or complete On-Page Optimization but the ones that users love, that provide users with an uninterrupted experience. If your business wants to climb the ladder of rankings, then it is paramount to upgrade your website simultaneously with Google. At Lambourn Digital, we constantly upgrade all our client websites as per Google algorithm to help them stay ahead in the competition.

#2: Update fresh content:

Quoted by Bill Gates “Content is King” and if you want to stay relevant and gain organic rankings for your website, you have to commit to creating fresh and optimized content consistently. But let's first understand what content means in the words of Lee Odden, CEO Top Rank Marketing

• Content is Information (practical, functional, tactical)
• Content is Experience (Useful, Purposeful, Outcome Oriented)

It is through content that your Buyer Persona discovers, consumes, and acts upon your brand information, carving their brand experiences. You can consider your website like the living entity on Google and a website without anything new to offer would be dead with no life. The more frequently you update your website with fresh content, Google is going to stop by to check it and possibly index it. Plus, the more content you have on your website, the larger is your list of keywords that you can fit in the content! The different pieces of the website content can be repurposed into your content marketing strategy.

Read our blog on the Benefits of Content Marketing For Small and Medium Businesses.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. The “useful and relevant results” that Google is attempting to deliver are the pieces of content that are available throughout the web. So, make sure to keep fresh, optimized content flowing at regular intervals.

#3 Focus on seamless UI and UX experience, following current design trends:

A poorly designed website can be a major source of mistrust for your business. Websites with Busy or complex layouts, Pop-ups and other “noisy” interruptions, Poorly readable fonts, Slow loading speed will only lead to an increase in your Bounce rate. ‘Content or Design, which is more important for a Website?’, has been a hotly debatable topic. It is important to understand that although the content is highly significant, it can not bring any result without a combination of quality design and technology. 

UI and UX play a significant role in achieving the ultimate goal of any business – SALES & GROWTH! After all, 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual and the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text which stays in the long-term memory. A modern UI and UX helps to build confidence among consumers and is even more important for startups and small businesses for creating brand recognition with the first impressions.

With the vast array of information available, you must ensure that your website passes the Blink Test. The hours you spend on building your website come down to the 3-5 seconds that a user takes to decide if they want to stay on your website or move on to your competitor’s site. Among many other elements, having an attractive and modern visual design is key to pushing your users to click on the CTAs.

Read this insightful blog from HubSpot to know more about passing the Blink Test. Lambourn Digital is a proud Partner of HubSpot.

#4 Ensure Security:

Users are more and more concerned about their personal information being stored on the web servers. They want their data to be safe and secure above anything else. Outdated security measures will open your server gates to hackers. Sometimes, even a year-old technology could be outdated! Hacked servers can be used for spam and the confidential user data stored in your Web server could be stolen and compromised. It is mandatory to update the website with new means of data protection.

Having HTTPS is no more than enough for ensuring website security. Updating your content management system (CMS), passwords, choosing a secure web host, limiting user access, restricting file uploads, and backing up the website are additional steps to ensure website security.

#5 Provide multi-device flexibility:

Gone are the days when you could have your website built for showing up on desktops and laptops only. With the augmented rise in the use of Mobile phones, over 50% of total internet activity is done on mobile devices followed by desktops with a little over 45%, and tablets making up the rest.

So, what’s the solution?
The answer is RESPONSIVE DESIGN.

A Responsive design is not only a Mobile-Friendly Website. It is essentially one website designed in a manner that is adaptable across all screen sizes be it mobile, tablet, iPad, Mini Pad, or some tab that is yet in making in Apple’s Labs!

The high volume of web traffic drawn from mobile users makes Responsive Design not an option anymore but a mandatory feature. Instead of having a website version for each separate screen size, a responsive design is cost-effective, requires lower maintenance, and provides a seamless experience to users. Your search engine rankings will improve by upgrading to a Responsive design as Google not only recommends it for improving the user experience but penalizes websites that are not Responsive. Companies with Responsive websites generate more leads and have a competitive advantage. Responsive designs keep your visitors hooked to your page for longer and a web page that loads in five seconds or fewer guarantees 70% longer viewing sessions. 57% of consumers are also unlikely to recommend a website that is not Responsive.
To sum up, a website is no more a one-time job but requires a continuous update for it to be productive and bring leads to your business. Strike a balance between timely updated content and design instead of ignoring one for the other, ensure your users’ data is safe on your web server, make sure your website is Responsive and keep an eye on the Google algorithm updates to upgrade your website to keep your website relevant, bring your leads and let it live for a longer period in your target audience’s minds.

Would you like to run a FREE audit of your website? Contact Us Now and get valuable insights from Experts!