How old is your website? When is the last time you went in and made some updates? Websites age quickly. And in the business world, when things are moving and evolving almost daily, your website can grow out of date before you realize it.
Keep your online hub relevant and consistent with a regularly scheduled Website Audit. There are both yearly tasks and tasks to be done every few years. The beginning of the year is a good time to do these, but if you haven’t dug into your website for a while, don’t wait for a new year to start freshening up.
Every Two to Three Years
Most websites are going to be out of date, if you haven’t touched them in two to three years. After that long, the technology is becoming ancient. Not only may certain features no long be supported on your website, but new applications may have been developed that can better suit your needs.
One of the most common areas we are seeing that aging is in desktop to mobile conversion. Many business owners designed their websites years ago with a desktop view in mind. But these days people are searching on mobile more than on computers. You need a website that looks good on a mobile device and gives people the information they need about your business upfront so they can seamlessly purchase, contact, or otherwise engage with your brand.
This is where you might start to see some of your conversion or analytics goals plateauing. If your website is no longer intuitive to navigate or doesn’t draw users through the funnel to your goal, you might not be getting the results you want to see.
Every Year or More
As businesses change and grow, website content can be overlooked and neglected. This can lead to frustration on behalf of the user, who can’t find the information they need or worse, find in accurate information. This staleness can also lead to lower SEO rankings. And ultimately all of this could result in loss of sales.
A quick sweep of your website may uncover some missing pieces that can be easily updated. Items such as your location or your phone number, should be checked if you’ve added moved. You can also make sure your staff information, and their contact information, is up to date. Don’t forget to check your services or offerings pages to make sure nothing is missing or irrelevant. As you dig deeper, you can check case studies, testimonials, and more to make sure they are highlighting the offerings you currently sell. And of course, read through all the content to make sure it’s focused on your current marketing strategy.
Who are you going to call
A lot of these things can be done easily, especially the content updates. If you have access and knowledge to go into the back end of your website and update it, that should be a simple process. If you have a marketing department or IT department, this is something to meet with them about and schedule regular updates of those items to keep your website fresh.
If you’re looking to make major design updates or any of these strategic tasks are beyond the time and knowledge limits of your team, we would be happy to talk with you. We work with a range of clients every day, who need updates large and small to get their websites back on track.