Think about the actions you take when you’re surfing the web. When you land on an outdated website, one that looks old, neglected, and ugly, what do you do?
Chances are, you click away. You may wonder whether or not this company is even in business, or if they are, whether or not they’re making money. After all, research shows it takes less than 1/20th of a second for a website visitor to form a first impression about you.
If your company website is outdated, your customers will be making negative assumptions about you and your brand. Not only that, you’re going to be missing out on sales to potential customers who actually might be the perfect fit for the products and services you offer.
A dated website only harms your business opportunities and pushes your potential customers to form incorrect opinions about you as a business. Understanding how and why is important, so let’s take a look at the top 4 reasons why a dated website hurts your business.
Reason 1: Visitors Think a Horrible Website Means Horrible Service
It might seem unrealistic, but it’s true: our potential customers are using your website as a way to judge whether or not your business is right for them, and looks go a long way. Your visitors will silently and quickly judge you based on what it is you show them.
If you show them an outdated website that hardly works on their smartphone or uses page elements that no longer function, your visitors are going to assume your goods and services are just as questionable as your website.
If your target audience doesn’t get signals that your brand is trustworthy, established, and worth the time to learn about, based on your website, they likely won’t ever become customers or clients.
Reason 2: Visitors Won’t Trust You
Your business’ credibility relies on whether or not your customers trust you, and potential ones will never trust you if they feel your business isn’t on the up-and-up from the start..
Think about what kinds of information your website should convey. Business hours, pricing, and updated information are all to be expected. However, if you haven’t updated your basic profile information on your website, no potential customer will consider your business to be a legitimate one.
In addition, you’ll always look like you’re two steps behind the competition. Take a look at your competitor’s websites. Are they just as lackluster and outdated as yours?
If the answer is yes, you have a unique opportunity: Updating your website means you can stand out and learn from your competitors, succeeding where they may be lacking..
If the answer is no, the strategy is much the same, but you have a unique opportunity to learn from your competitors’ best practices and to build on your presence with a solid blueprint for what works and what doesn’t.
Reason 3: You Could Hurt Your Loyal Employees
If your website is outdated, chances are it doesn’t include information about the new talent you’re bringing on to your team. Likewise, if your employees consistently see information regarding former employees and their hard work isn’t featured, they’re less likely to feel passion for your business’s success.
Your website is a great place to help your employees feel like they matter. Make your website helpful for the customer – include useful information like phone numbers, addresses, etc. This takes a load of unnecessary information sharing off your employees’ shoulders and instead lets the website do what it was designed to do.
Then, featuring the people who make your business great will help instill a sense of value and trust in your team. They’ll feel valued if they are shown to all of your customers, even just through an “about us” page that’s kept up-to-date.
Reason 4: Google Won’t Be Your Friend
While Google might show you everything on the web, it does its best to filter out poor websites. Their goal is for the first few pages of its results to give only the best of the best to the person searching.
Did you know, though, that Google will penalize websites without a mobile version with lower rankings?
And, did you know a website with freshly updated content will show up higher in results?
These two facts can help propel you even further up on Google’s search results, and with the help of a good web design team and optimized SEO content you can be in front of the broadest pool of potential leads.
Are You Ready to Update Your Website? Let the Professionals at KangoMedia Help!
Getting your website from drab to fab isn’t an easy project. Your website is, in essence, how your customer sees you. You want to be involved in the process, but you may have no clue where to start or what to do to get your business’s message across.
That’s where KangoMedia steps in. We offer web design and SEO services to help your website stand out. Is your website desktop-only? We can fix that and help you get a fully functional mobile layout. Is your website not appearing near the top of Google searches? We can help you optimize your site with industry leading SEO as well.
Reach out to us here today to get a quote, and let our team help your website thrive.