Should I update my website? :10 Reasons why…

Boldly, you will bash your host for website errors. I mean, paying for a service means you get value for your money. Before you start name-calling, you need to have audited your website. Building a website is quite expensive, from the development stage to SEO & marketing, you could have spent a fortune. Now, we don’t want all that effort going down the drain, do we? You need to have your website updated. Here are the reasons why.

1. The appearance of the website.
   Your website is an online representation of your company. It’s the first interaction a client gets and ultimately forms a perception of your company, staff, products and services etc. It’s like your company’s resume. An updated website shows professionalism, seriousness, commitment and creates trust.
2. Website Images.
   A picture is worth a thousand words. Most of us have used stock photos. They are not bad really, but some of the images have been used one-too-many-times. It’s not bad for a startup, but do this images accurately depict what you want to communicate? Are they quality images? Do they evoke any feeling in your readers? If you answer these questions, then you know the direction you need to step towards.
3. For effective communication.
   Readers visit your site for useful information. You can’t afford to have the same information for a decade. Moreso, as your business grows, your target audience might expand, change or evolve. With the rate in which Kenya and Africa at large are growing in terms of accessing information online, it is only right to restrategize on communicating to your target market and using your website as a tool of influence to reach them. Updated information is a good start.
4. Easy Navigation
   Your customer’s experience with your site when they visit is also important. You want them to visit more often. When your website is fast, easy to use and mobile friendly, it encourages revisits from clients and drives sales.
5. Website Security
   Don’t get me wrong, any website can be hacked but an old website uses old technology, which makes your website vulnerable to hackers. Hacking can be a stressful and devastating experience. If you have never been hacked, then prevention is the best cure. Read more…
6. Slow website
   More often than not, we assume slow websites are as a result of low server resource allocation. Outdated websites can be the cause too as they may have unnecessary HTML codes that might slow down your website. Your loading time should be less than 20seconds for a stable website, all other factors such as server resources and internet connection considered. Among other reasons, you could also check if you have unoptimized images or a poorly performing theme.
7. Web Standards
   Technology evolves fast. Every year, techniques to build websites become more advanced. In the event that your website was built 5 years ago and you have not updated it, You are about 5 versions behind. A quick reference to something you are familiar with, on your android phone, the android versions keep changing. The phone with an old version will still function in terms of making calls and receiving SMS but there are some apps that will give you trouble.
   This applies to websites too. Outdated websites might be incompatible with browsers and inadaptive to smartphone devices.
8. SEO
   A lot of times clients have a website and have SEO done which is perfect. What they don’t know is that SEO thrives on fresh content. A website is not a onetime screensaver for your company, it should never be. Even when you lack new content to update, I am sure you have two-three recent company photos to show off. The older the content the more it appears irrelevant to SEO crawlers.
9. Bounce rate
   To start with, what are bounce rates? This is the percentage of visitors to your website who navigate away after viewing just one page. From market research, users leave a page if they can’t find what they are looking for, they don’t like the look or that which is hard to navigate. How favourable is your bounce rate?
10. Your competitor is beating you to it.
    In case all the above reasons don’t make sense to you, then this should. Check your competitor’s sites. Do they have up-to-date information? Is their website user-friendly? Does their website attract visitors? You need to keep up with your competition. You can do it too.

We can help!
We have a team of web developers you can get in touch with for free consultation. And of course, I am not trying to lure you into a redesign scam. All I am putting across is that you need to get real. In the sense that if your business means the world to you, a little investment that could help increase your sales, traffic or even save you from hacking is a worthy course.