The world of the web is changing every day with the way we view and use websites. Have you redesigned your website in the last 2-3 years? Maybe it’s time.
Here are 5 signs that it is time to rethink your company’s website in 2019.
1) Is your site promoting your social media? Do you use social media? While it seems obvious that people have and update social media, it isn’t so obvious that businesses do. Your website is where you want to send people, and social media is the best place to do that. While time consuming, social media is what people primarily use their phones for. When you post or do anything on social media, it should include a link back to your website.
Social media profiles can contain a great deal of information about your business, but overall it should be used to guide people to your site – where the information that you really want them to see lives.
This works both ways though. When people reach your website first, you want to make a connection with them that will bring them back in the future. Social media is a great way to do this. If they can easy click on a Facebook icon, they can “like” or “follow” your page in an instant. Once this connection has been built, you have access to their timelines to promote events and news related to your business in the future.
2) Is your site mobile-friendly? I mean, viewable without scrolling right, pinching and zooming. If you look at your site on an iPad or on a mobile phone, is it as readable as it is on your desktop? While readability is key and shows you want to be inviting to mobile users, it also helps you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google cares that sites are mobile friendly, and so should you.
Read More About Mobile Design »
3) Is your design fresh? Aside from not being mobile friendly, does it look like a modern website? Is it visually pleasing, with large fonts and simple navigation? Todays designs are horizontal, not vertical, and when someone visits your page they will know if you’ve redesigned your site in the past few years, or if it hasn’t been touched since the last decade.
4) Is your site secure? Hackers are everywhere and if you are collecting any information, you should have an SSL certificate on your site. Even if you aren’t collecting information, it gives your visitors piece-of-mind knowing that they are surfing on your official site on a secured connection.
How do you know your site isn’t secure? If your site shows well with the ‘https://’ protocol, you are secure. Try it now. Most browsers give an indication right next to the URL. Being secure shows your customers, again, you care.
Oh, and it helps SEO as well!
5) Is your site gathering statistics? While a pretty site is nice, are you reviewing your statistics and finding out what people are looking at on your site. After collecting this information you can tweak it in the early months after going live to set users up for success when looking for information they need.
It is as simple as adding a bit of code from Google Analytics. After a few days of Google collecting information, you can see what people are looking for, whow they’ve reached your site, what pages they’ve read and how long they were on those pages — even heat maps of where they are clicking!
So… do you need a new website? 2019 is very promising for website design and development innovations. Starting out, we want you to be caught up so new ideas can be implemented quickly and easily to keep your customers coming back to a site that they see is well managed, just like your business!