Your company’s website often provides the introduction and first point of contact that a prospect has with your business. It is known for being the one of the most effective tools to market to and communicate with your prospects and stakeholders. Having a good company website is often the keystone to a successful online marketing strategy and can generate great exposure for your business through organic search results and other methods.

Prospective clients’ first impressions are commonly based on the content presented on your website as well as the overall design, user experience, and how current the website appears to be. These factors play a key role in how successful your website is at generating business leads or whatever the core objectives of your website may be. If you’re not sure whether or not you should be redeveloping your company website, the following signs are strong indicators.

 

 
1. Your Website Is Older

With the ever-changing trends and developments with web technologies, design, and usability it’s a good idea to look at a website redesign every few years or so. Keeping your website up to date allows you keep your company’s brand current, promote your latest offerings, and keep the experience fresh for visitors. For some companies, website redesigns are done more frequently than this and for others they get to it less often due to time or budget limitations. Whatever your company’s position is in this respect, we recommend not putting off your website for too long as it can fall behind to your competition’s websites pretty quickly.

2. Your Website’s Design Isn’t Responsive or Mobile Friendly

Responsive design allows your website to be flexible and adapt to the extensive variety of display resolutions for smartphones, tablets, and laptops / desktops. The majority of internet users are searching and browsing on their mobile phones and tablets more often than their desktops and laptops these days and the upward trend for mobile device usage is continuing. If your website does not have responsive design and is relying on a single layout, widescreen layout, or has a separate mobile version (with duplicate content) then you could be losing a large segment of your target audience to your competition. Users are now expecting websites to be responsive and for them to display as intended, regardless of the device they are accessing the web site from. The professional appearance of your web site reflects on your company’s image, so don’t get left behind with your website that was coded without mobile devices in mind.

3. Your Website Uses Outdated Web Technologies

There are a number of web trends that have gone the way of the dodo some time ago but still come up occasionally. Some of the more obvious ones include splash pages and intro animations, hit counters, 3D beveled buttons and other hideous graphics, auto-playing background audio, landing pages with “Enter here” links, and the list goes on. If your site has any of these old features you need to look at a redesign as soon as possible as these will turn prospects away from your website.

The use of Flash for websites has been outdated for quite a few years as mobile web browsers for iPhones and iPads don’t support it nor will any future browsers on Apple products. Search engines can’t read and index text in Flash very well, so it’s not effective for SEO and findability either. HTML5/CSS/JS can do most of the things that Flash was used and is compatible with all web browsers on the open web which makes it the de facto standard. That being said, Flash / AIR and Unity3D still have their place for heavier digital media and game applications that are not browser-based (including mobile apps for iOS).

If your website loads slowly it could be coded in an inefficient way, lacks sufficient server resources, is too graphically heavy, or a number of other reasons. Users have shown a tendency not to wait for slow websites and Google is factoring website speed into its search algorithm so it’s a good idea to ensure your web pages load quickly.

You need to ensure that your website is developed with cross-browser compatibility for the latest web browsers so that your website displays as intended to your users. A redevelopment will ensure that your website code is compliant to the latest standards so it will function and display properly for your users.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that was coded years ago will not be effective for today’s standards as search engine algorithm changes are continuously being implemented and some of the methods that were effective years ago will now actually lower your websites rankings in the search engines.

4. You Are Unable to Easily Update Your Website’s Content

The ability to update content quickly and easily is a desirable feature to have for many company websites that require content updates to their pages, posts, galleries, and other content types. A CMS (Content Management System) has been a popular standard feature the vast majority of new websites for some time. If your current website is lacking the functionality for someone on your team to update it (without coding knowledge) then you may want to look into redeveloping your website. A CMS also offers a good platform for integrating other components that give it added functionality.

5. Your Website Is Not Search Optimized and Difficult to Find

Having good content, design, and usability are essential but most companies want their website to come up in search engine results under specific search terms. Accessibility and findability are important for gaining exposure to new prospective clients and providing them with useful content regarding your product, service, or organization. There are a number of techniques that can be utilized to optimize and boost the ranking of your website for search engines including how the web pages are initially coded and mapped for indexing, how content is written for pages and blog posts, social media engagement, and other methods.

If your website is not optimized for search engines, your company is missing out on inbound leads and opportunities that may come to you via organic search results.

6. Your Website Doesn’t Generate Inbound Leads and Has Poor Usability

Your company website should be an effective online tool for marketing to potential clients that generates inbound leads. If you are not getting inbound leads it’s an indication that your website may need to be redesigned with better usability in mind. Improving usability provides a better user experience for your website so that it is simple and intuitive to navigate with well-structured content, design, and functionality. When a web site has these characteristics and provides the content that users are looking for then it generally equates to seeing an increased number of inbound leads. Placing appropriate Calls to Action (CTA) are effective for making it easier for users to take action when they want to move forward with getting more information, requesting a consultation, or purchasing a product. Lead capture forms and offers are also an effective means of moving site visitors through your sales funnel. There is much more that your company can do with online marketing tools, analytics, and methods, which can increase your inbound leads.

7. Your Website Has No Social Media Integration

Does your site link to your social media accounts? Having a social media presence is now crucial for many businesses and is an effective way to engage and build relationships with customers while promoting your company. Integrating your company’s social media accounts on your company website allows your content to be easily shared and will generate more exposure and engagement by opening new channels of communication for your user base.

These are just a few of the signs that your company or organization is in need of a new website but there are many more. We’ve also only scratched the surface of what we can do for your new web presence and would be happy to educate you further. If your website has any of the above deficiencies, it’s likely time to look at redeveloping it. Contact us as we would be happy to discuss developing an effective web presence that best suits your objectives.

Ambient Media Inc. specializes in interactive web and digital media solutions. We are based in Calgary, Alberta and provide exceptional solutions for organizations throughout Canada, the United States, and beyond.