Today the web is almost ubiquitous. Consumers expect to be able to deal with their favourite brands online as well as offline, and every business, large or small, needs a website in order to remain competitive. If you do not have a website, you will be losing out on a lot of prospective customers, and even if you do have a website, if you haven’t updated it in a while you may not be putting forward as good an impression as you think. There are many reasons why it’s important to update your website on a regular basis. Here are a few ways that a new website design could help your business.
Your chance to go mobile-friendly
Over the last few years the number of people using mobile devices to access the web has increased massively. Mobile search traffic is expected to exceed desktop search traffic by 2015. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, you will alienate Smartphone users. Updating your web design is a good opportunity to embrace responsive design principles and impress mobile users.
Web 2.0 increases engagement
Is your website a static, plain design? Do you offer any interactive features for your visitors? If not, now is a good time to update your site. The more you engage your visitors, the longer they will spend on your website and the more likely they will be to come back.
Your new design will be search-engine friendly
SEO has changed a lot over the last few years. If your site is not mobile-friendly, lacks content, doesn’t have a site map or simply wasn’t designed with SEO in mind, then you could benefit a lot from a modern search-engine-friendly design. What’s more, good SEO encourages good website development in other respects, such as performance and accessibility.
A fresh look for the modern era
Fashions change, and what looked state of the art a few years ago looks cluttered and unprofessional today. Modern websites are clean and simple and make as much use of white space as they do graphics and text. Older websites that are full of information-dense tables or feature design faux pas such as looping animated gifs or auto-playing audio files are particularly likely to benefit from a redesign.
Blogs and multimedia content add value
There was a time when blogs were thought of as personal diaries and not something that businesses should waste their time with. Things have changed in the last few years and now businesses are using blogs, video logs and social media to engage with their customers. Blogs are popular because they add a human face to the company, and social media gives consumers the ability to engage in conversations with their favourite brands.
If your site has a very corporate tone to it, then adding a blog is a good first step towards a more modern design. Show your customers that you are approachable and that there is a real human being behind your logo. You’ll be amazed at the response.
