A website is your virtual lobby. It represents your taste, your competence and the level of attention you have towards your customers. Unlike a physical lobby, your website may need frequent updating. This article takes a look at seven signs that your website needs a tune-up. Your site may need to address several of these issues. 

1. Web Design Flaws

This is an all-encompassing category that contains items to check on your website. If your site lacks any of these, you should plan for an upgrade. 

• Outdated Design – Your content may be timely but the fact that it is on an older looking site means it needs a refresh. Being current includes demonstrating a commitment to what your business is doing today by updating your website. 
• Functional on Mobile Phones – Just over half of all Internet traffic is routed through mobile phones and 85% of Americans receive news on their phone. Your customers expect your website to function on their phone. If they cannot view your site, they will look at your competitors. 
• Image Quality – One of the reasons more people view content on phones is that the speed of the Internet has improved a great deal over the past decade. Ten years ago, web developers optimized images so that they did not slow down page loading. With bandwidth not a major issue now, having high-quality images on a website is expected. 

2. A Lack of Connection to Social Media 

In the early days of social media, many businesses questioned whether they should even be on those platforms. Today, there is a recognition that even if your business does not have a social media presence, you need to accommodate those that do. 

Websites that allow visitors to share content improve the customers overall experience. They feel good about their experience and appreciate your positive customer service. It also exposes your products and services to those who would have otherwise not found you. 

Possibly the most important benefit is in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engine sites use algorithms to look at many factors related to site performance and content. One is how many times your pages are shared. The more pages that are shared, the more search engines will view your site as an authoritative source.

3. SEO and the Right Content

When the World Wide Web first became a thing in the 90’s, many companies struggled with how web design and content would be received by their customers. As web development companies grew and worked with business owners and customers, a much better view of the Internet emerged. 

Today, the Internet is all about getting noticed and putting only the right content in front of customers. It is unnecessary to put stale, redundant or too much content onto a page. There is nothing wrong with having archival material on your site but if you have long pages with every article or press release your company has done, it will slow downloading and will appear to be very stale. 

Getting noticed is the process of designing pages that will be visually appealing and also maximize SEO. Since SEO is arguably as important as marketing, it is important that you partner with someone who stays up to date on SEO trends. 

4. Page Loading Speed Measurements

Earlier we mentioned that Internet speeds have improved over the years. This does not mean that your site will load faster than when you created it. Web browsers function better when using current technology. The scripts and programming code your web developer used even five years ago may not be handled as well by browsers. 

That can slow down page loading. Because people are used to faster speed, they have little tolerance for slow sites. Check the speed on your site from different locations. If it appears to be running slower, it probably needs a tune-up.

5. Too Many People Worked on Your Site

Programmers are like authors. Each one adds nuances that make their work unique. On websites, this can cause problems. If you have a site that had many people work on it, there is a chance that the code is inconsistent. 

Often, some feature of a website will stop working and a developer will be called in to figure out what went wrong. It can be a timely and costly process to fix sites that have had too many people working on it. If you work with a company, that has a consistent methodology, like Peak Image Designs in Las Vegas, this should never become an issue. 

6. Content Management Systems Save You Money

Over the past decade, there has been a surge in the use of Content Management Systems (CMS). The way a CMS site works is that a business will typically contract with a professional web developer to create the site. This includes the pages, the menus, all the high-end graphics, and the SEO. 

Once that is accomplished, the customer is shown how to run the day-to-day administration of the site and post content. This can be a major saving for a busy site and easily cover the cost of the site upgrade.

7. Tracking Visitors and the Bounce Rate

One of the most important questions business owners have after their website goes live is, “How many people are coming to my website?” A better question may be, “How many people are coming to my website and viewing pages versus how many people come to my homepage and then just leave?” 

The bounce rate is a measurement of the number of visitors who land on a website and leave it before digging into any pages. It is an important measurement and for those who have older sites, a sign that your website may need a tune-up because something is causing people to leave.

Your website is an important part of your business. Business owners in Las Vegas turn to us at Peak Image Designs for new projects and website tune-ups. We can help with design, layout, social media integration and SEO. We hope these tips help you assess your current situation. We are available to partner with you on your upgrade project.