If you run a business, you probably have a website — or you should anyway!
Since 80% of customers will look up a business online before working with them, it's vital to maintain a clear and updated website that showcases your brand.
Your business makes its first impression the moment someone visits your website, and you want it to be good. People will know you by your brand, but if your brand is stale, your site will be forgettable.
Keeping your website updated means refreshing your brand and the visual impact of each page. Keep the layout clean and the text succinct.
You want the right clients to find you, and they'll do so by identifying with your brand. Make sure that the visuals and mission reflect what you currently stand for.
Learn more about Branding for your Business:
Having a website that lists outdated content is a big red flag for potential customers. So, make sure that you set aside time each week (or month) to provide updates to the content.
Do you have a new product to feature? Are you running a special? Show it off on your homepage with a banner and links to other existing products.
And you can always add a blog to your website to hold yourself accountable for building fresh content. Just be sure to update your blog so it reflects the latest news.
Another reason to update your site?
You can keep your search engine optimization, or SEO, in good shape. Having strong SEO means that you'll attract the right customers — and more of them.
Since search engines use algorithms to determine search results, you can't rest on the SEO of two months ago — you have to stay current. Make sure that you partner with the right web professionals to make sure you're getting the most from SEO.
The more you refresh you content, they more Google will send its web crawler to crawl you website. The more often you update your site (or add new content such as a blog), the more Google will crawl your site and consider your website more relevant and push it higher in the search results.
Related Post: How to Tell If Your Homepage Sucks
You want to have a secure website, so update your website to ensure that security software is functioning properly. A hacked website leads to delays and disruption, and it looks unprofessional.
Make sure all extra features you've downloaded to your site come from reputable sources and change your passwords every few months to keep the hackers away.
No one wants to sit around and wait for a website to load. Slow load time is one of the biggest deterrents from visiting a site. Plan to keep load time under 5 seconds.
If it's taking longer than that for a page to materialize, determine what the culprits are. You may have images that are way too big, or it could be that your web theme is not updated. I suggest looking through your images on your website and make sure they are as small as possible. You can use tools such as this: Shrink Me to compress the images on your site. When your pages are smaller, your page loads quicker (people are impatient).
Having a clean and current web presence for your business is mandatory in today's world. If you keep your website updated, you'll drive traffic to it and ultimately build a better business.
When you're ready to create and manage a winning website, contact us and we can help you with all aspects of the process!
