If we’re being completely honest with ourselves, your website is more of a calling card than, well, your actual business ‘calling card.’ It’s a living, breathing business card that can update in real time, at any time, for whatever reason you choose from just about anywhere.
It’s practically magic, you guys.
Think about it: You can share news, announcements, new products or services, establish yourself as an industry thought leader with insightful blog posts and more – from anywhere with anyone literally anywhere in the world.
But do you? Do you fully take advantage of everything your website could be doing to benefit you and your business? Be honest.
Because while you may not make time to regularly update your website, it’s likely that at least one of your direct competitors does.
We realize that the end of 2018 is a mere 7 weeks away and your calendar – if it’s anything like ours – is starting to fill up at an uncomfortably alarming rate – so we know better than to add one more thing to your plate.
So in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions and diets always starting ‘tomorrow,’ we present you this list to consider today – and start ‘tomorrow.’
Seven Reasons to Update Your Website in 2019
- Branding. They say you are the company you keep. And if you own a business, you are the website you keep. Are you sloppy and hastily thrown together? Or are you organized, professional and an authority in your respective industry? If you are adaptive, responsive and thoughtful, your website should be, too. So decide who you and your business are – and then design and update your website accordingly.
- UX. User experience or UX (aside: add that little acronym to your vocabulary to impress at your next dinner party) refers to a visitor’s experience with your site, including how easy it is to use, how fast it is, how easy it is to navigate and how little friction there is when visitors try to complete whatever action it is they’re trying to complete. Your website navigation should focus on nudging the right visitor in the right direction.
- CTA. Call-to-action. (Another impressive acronym – you’ll be talking like a pro in no time.) A CTA is a button or link on your website that serves to convert prospective customers into clients by calling them to complete an action. Make sure that your CTAs are prominent, prevalent and compelling enough to elicit the desired ‘push-button-get-banana’ response from visitors.
- SEO. Add this to your now mind-blowingly impressive list of tech-savvy acronyms. You’re practically a coder now. SEO, or search engine optimization, is how Google will index your site based on a combination of factors, such as the number of inbound links, keyword frequency, relevancy and quality, and how often it is updated. So no updates means no love from Google – or other search engines if that's how you get down.
- Content. So, you’ve managed to get users to your site. Now what? Content, that’s what. If the look and layout are your first impression, your site’s content is the first date. Do you offer content that is useful, insightful, helpful and thoughtful? Further, is it compelling and ‘fresh?’ Because you may have written the next great American novel but if you posted it five years ago, Google won’t consider it relevant anymore. No second date for you.
- Security. While security issues can arise on any website, updated or not, the likelihood of security breaches is much greater for an outdated website as it relies on older, less secure coding and technology. So one of the most important things you can do is to make sure your website’s software stays up-to-date and make sure it’s hosted with a reputable company that cares about security.
- Ease of Future Updates. Your future self will be sure to thank your New-Year’s-resolution-completing self because once updated, your website will become infinitely easy to manage, allowing you update layout designs, blogs, imagery, promotions and advertisements, while constantly optimizing your website.
Ready to start that diet, err, website update today, tomorrow or (early) next year? Let BELAY’s Website Specialists handle the heavy lifting for you – our veritable website ‘glam squad,’ if you will – so you and your business can shine.