In a perfect world, your website would never need any website maintenance. In that scenario, you would never have to consider hiring someone for redesigning a website; you would simply launch and forget about your website while you watch the money pour in. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world — and websites need ongoing attention.
A lot of small business owners approach their website like a one-and-done deal. They hire a professional web designer, pay the bill, and think that’s all there is to it. But in order to effectively serve your needs, your website requires maintenance on a consistent basis.
Technology is constantly changing. Because of that, a website may become outdated relatively quickly — especially if its maintenance has been neglected. Here are five signs that you may want to consider working with a company that provides the website maintenance North Carolina business owners rely on:
- It is hard to update your website
- Your website experiences high bounce rates
- Mobile users struggle with using your website
- Your search engine ranking is low
- You can’t recall the last time you updated
Hard-to-update design can often indicate obsolete design. If you cannot update your website to the newest tools, patches, and more, it may be time to consider redesigning your website or at least get some professional website maintenance to clean things up. What’s more, if you don’t have editing access to your site (or no longer work with someone who does), you’ll have a more difficult time serving your customers’ needs.
If you are getting traffic to your site but no one is sticking around for long, it’s likely your bounce rate is high. This could indicate that vital information is hard to find or that your website doesn’t look attractive or credible enough. And if your bounce rate is high, you could actually be hurting your search rankings. Although poor web design isn’t the only reason for a high bounce rate, you’ll want to eliminate that possibility by working with a professional. Website maintenance, a few design tweaks, and generally updating your website can fix the problem. Driving traffic is one thing; getting users to engage is another. You want to do both with your website.
If your site isn’t mobile friendly, this could spell disaster. There are millions of people who use mobile devices to access the internet. If your site is not responsive, then you are missing out on a lot of traffic and potential sales. A whopping four out of every five consumers are using their phones to shop. Responsive web design is the standard today, but websites built just five years ago may not have been designed with these features in mind. If that sounds familiar or you’ve been unable to access your own website via your smartphone, it’s high time for an upgrade.
If your website is just not picking up steam when it comes to ranking with search engines, there could be a few reasons why. While search engine optimization can help to make your content more relevant and visible, it may not matter if your website is outdated and hard to navigate. You’ll want to make improvements to your website design before devoting resources to digital marketing efforts. If people do manage to find your website, you’ll be able to then show them why they should work with you.
And if you can’t remember the date of your last website upgrade… it’s definitely time to hire a professional. Websites are a great tool, but they aren’t autonomous. They do need ongoing attention in order to maximize your returns. It’s been way too long between updates if you can’t recall when the last one took place.
If these signs ring true to you, it’s time to make some moves. Contact us today to get all the website maintenance, design, redesign, and more that you need for your website.
